The Woman Next Door

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites by Barbara Delinsky
Review: THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR by Barbara Delinsky
August 21, 2004

Barbara Delinsky has become one of my favorite authors. In THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, she writes about a group of women living on a culdesac who find themselves threatened when the neighborhood widow is found to be pregnant.

The novel opens with the wedding of Amanda and Graham O'Leary. It is a happy beginning to a promising future. Graham is a member of an 8-sibling family, and they are all anxious for Amanda and Graham to start a family of their own. As the years go by, however, Amanda has yet to conceive, and their fertility problems begin to put a strain on the marriage. It is now 5 years into their marriage, and they are still childless. Karen and Lee are another couple living on this culdesac. They have their own marital problems, mainly that of Lee's infidelity. Russ is a househusband, working as a writer from home as he watches and takes care of the kids. Wife Georgia is a career woman and is rarely home, as she travels to promote her company's products. She is the CEO of this company and she's proud of her achievements.

When word gets around that Gretchen, the lonely widow that had been married to a much older man, is pregnant, the three women begin to worry. She had been widowed long enough for them all to know that her husband was not the father. And she never seemed to have company. She was always alone, or else one of their own husbands were over at her place fixing the plumbing or doing some other odd job around the house to help her out. Each of the women at one point or another suspect that their own husband is the father of that unborn child.

Delinsky does a good job creating well-developed characters that appear real and true to life. As each couple's relationship is detailed and taken apart, the reader will try to guess who is truly the father of this woman's child. When Amanda goes out of her way to befriend the lonely widow, more is learned about Gretchen, the young woman who is treated as an outsider, because she made the mistake of marrying a widower who also was much older than she. Amanda learns that there is more to Gretchen that meets the eye, and sees that maybe possibly she and the other women are wrong about Gretchen.

As I have with most books Delinsky, I very much enjoyed THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR. As always, Delinsky writes a novel that is fast paced and is hard to put down. She blends elements of contemporary fiction with a hint of romance, that between Amanda and Graham, who are the main characters, but the other couples play a large role in the story as well. I also found the ending very satisfactory (but I won't give that away), making this book for me a 4.5/5 rating.

Rating:
Summary: Let your imagination run away with this one
Review: Talk about letting your imagination run away with you! Those fears are artfully weaved into this story. Take this book with you on vacation and enjoy the many layers Barbara Delinsky unfolds to reveal our basic tendency to be suspicious, and the characteristic ways we react in avoiding what we really should be concerned with. This is my third Delinsky book and I've loved them all because she writes so well. I find I cannot put them down -- what better compliment can be said!