Loving Touches [Paperback]

David Hellerstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2000

A comic first novel by an author known for his powerful and moving accounts of medical training, Loving Touches is set in contemporary New York. The story explores the love Dr. Jay feels for two very different women: his wife Sarah, a Wall Street lawyer, and Celine Walters, a former girlfriend who has been admitted to the hospital where he works.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pete Roth is the star psychiatric resident at Curtiss Psychiatric Institute on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He and his wife Sarah, an associate at an important midtown law firm, met and married when both were students at Harvard. Yuppies and then some, they're attractive, hardworking and clearly on the fast track. Then Celine comes onto Pete's floor at Curtisslovely, fragile-seeming, suicidal Celine, with whom Pete had a brief, significant affair during the summer his and Sarah's careers had kept them apart. When Celine is assigned to the resident with the shakiest reputation, Pete finds he can't maintain his professional distance. He becomes obsessed with her progress, gets involved in her treatment, grows apart from Sarah and even questions his commitment to his profession. In the course of these events, which include a frantic effort to save Celine after another suicide attempt, Pete faces his own selfish needs, observing his use of power over others and questioning the range of his control (shaking his yuppie values to their foundation). Conveyed with humor and sympathy, especially for Peter, this first novel by a psychiatrist-writer, whose previous book was the nonfiction Battles of Life and Death, is a nicely rounded story (even with its inconclusive ending) about people struggling with love and control. Its details of the back-room goings on at the fictional institute lend a refreshingly down-to-earth air to the often rarefied atmosphere on the far side of the couch.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

First-year resident at a prestigious New York psychiatric hospital, Harvard Medical school product Pete Roth is both confused and troubled by his relationship with would-be suicide Celine Walter. Two summers before, while his wife was out of town, Pete had a short affair with Celine, then a graduate student. He has never been able to forget her. Beautiful, brilliant, mad Celine proves bad luck for those who love her. She nearly destroys Pete's career by intimating to the other psychiatric patients that they are still having an affair. At times Pete's naive, obsessive fascination with her seems forced or out-of-character. By the author of the nonfiction Battles of Life and Death, this first novel features healthy doses of hospital politics and psychiatric jargon but is interesting and readable overall. Recommended for larger collections. James B. Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Colo.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (October 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059513193X
• ISBN-13: 978-0595131938
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,077,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fusion of a brilliant doctor and a masterful novelist., October 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Loving Touches (Hardcover)

After reading "A Fmaily of Doctors" chronicling the medical achievements of the author's forbears, another book became my desideratum. Fortunately, I found "Loving Touches", a gripping novel peppered with love, sex and infidelity. As the title indicates, "Loving Touches" refers to the tender moments of love,warmth and affection shared by two young married professionals. It also immerses us in the passions and the surprising complexity of modern relationships in our multifaceted society. Hence, one is forced to bring into focus love imperiled by lust found in the darker side of of the human psyche. It will dare us to search deeper into our own lives thereby learning more about ourselves. A Must read!