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The Office of Desire
by
Martha Moody
From the author of the runaway bestselling novel Best Friends, a smart, touching novel about the intimate yet fragile relationships among five very different people, thrown together in a small medical office, and how each life affects the others.
Alicia, Brice, and Caroline are the ABCs-three close friends who have been brought together while working at the cozy medical p...more
Alicia, Brice, and Caroline are the ABCs-three close friends who have been brought together while working at the cozy medical p...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
August 2nd 2007
by Riverhead Hardcover
(first published 2007)
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I had read "Best Friends" by this author and really liked it, so I wanted to read this, her next book. I really liked it, but then again, I think I could relate to the disfunctional office in the novel having worked in one myself! I really think that gave me a different perspective (I read some of the other reviews on this site and I think it got a 2.79 rating). It's about 5 people who work in a doctor's office: the two doctors who are very different but went to med school together, the office m...more
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Karen, I got this book from the library based on your review, and I found it intriguing. I didn't particularly like the way Moody simply gives a character's name and then tells a part of the story from that person's point of view (sometimes I'd have to page back, asking myself, now who is telling this part?) , but I loved the complexity of their lives and especially the yearning for religion to fill the emptiness in lives. Moody pulls in so many aspects of current society that the book struck me...more
I couldn't imagine why I had put this mediocre novel on my list until one of the characters got religion a third of the way through, but even then I didn't like the way the author handled it. The book is set almost entirely within the office of a pair of internal medicine doctors over the course of a year when the relationships among the people who work there fall apart. One of the doctors, a Jew, handles some of the first-person narration, but a larger portion is taken by the receptionist, who'...more
This book has been sitting on my "to read" shelf for a long time and perhaps I should have left it there.
It is the story of 5 people who work together in the internal medicine office in a midwest town. The story is told from the viewpoint of the main charactes and this does get confusing at times.
With all that happen to these people, it is no wonder it is confusing.
I have worked in doctor's offices and certainly didn't get involved with my fellow staffers as much as these people. (of course...more
It is the story of 5 people who work together in the internal medicine office in a midwest town. The story is told from the viewpoint of the main charactes and this does get confusing at times.
With all that happen to these people, it is no wonder it is confusing.
I have worked in doctor's offices and certainly didn't get involved with my fellow staffers as much as these people. (of course...more
This book by Moody was a very unusual read in its own way. It covered the doctors office in which there are two doctors and three supporting personnel along with spouses of the doctors, former and past. It covers their relationships with each other and what happens in the office as the relationships between the participants change. Though it does not go too far in completing the story it speaks through the voices of the various participants which was interesting. I enjoyed it.
J. Robert Ewbank au...more
J. Robert Ewbank au...more
Martha Moody's keen observations on the human condition make The Office of Desire an entertaining read as she takes us through a year in the life of the doctors and staff of a small Midwest medical clinic... the trials and tribulations of marriage and family... the pitfalls of office romances and the re-examination of one's own life life amidst the rise and fall of others. She writes inter-personal relationships quite well and the unraveling of office unity when those relationships falter.
The Of...more
The Of...more
I was not overly impressed with this book, at all. With such high acclaim for her first novel, Best Friends - which I haven't actually read, I expected Martha Moody's 2nd novel to be a good read as well. I was sadly dissappointed. If you have a disfunctional work place and you like slow, predictable stories then this might be for you. I found the whole tale to be somber and I read to get away from the world, not to be miserable. The end finally picks up with some action, but the rest was almost...more
3.5
It's hard to figure out exactly what to say about this book because I don't really know how to put my impression of it into words. It struck me as a book that was often sad, the way I find Hemingway or Fitzgerald sad, though you could probably make the argument that sadness wasn't the point. There is an underlying message of hope in this novel about five average people working at a small doctor's office in Ohio, but that wasn't what I focused on. Part of what I liked so much was that they wer...more
It's hard to figure out exactly what to say about this book because I don't really know how to put my impression of it into words. It struck me as a book that was often sad, the way I find Hemingway or Fitzgerald sad, though you could probably make the argument that sadness wasn't the point. There is an underlying message of hope in this novel about five average people working at a small doctor's office in Ohio, but that wasn't what I focused on. Part of what I liked so much was that they wer...more
The Office Of Desire by Martha Moody - Penguin Books / 978-1-59448-949-5 / 107
pps. / $24.95
It begins where it ends. The unraveling of a tight-knit group of employees in a medical office is given in near play-by-play detail, smothered in emotional turbulence. The cast; Caroline, the free-spirited, one-legged (cancerous loss),
receptionist core and co-narrator; Brice, the closet-gay mama's-boy financial manager; Alicia, the nurse-cum-Doctor's wife and mother of "brilliant" Jesse, who, as a sidel...more
pps. / $24.95
It begins where it ends. The unraveling of a tight-knit group of employees in a medical office is given in near play-by-play detail, smothered in emotional turbulence. The cast; Caroline, the free-spirited, one-legged (cancerous loss),
receptionist core and co-narrator; Brice, the closet-gay mama's-boy financial manager; Alicia, the nurse-cum-Doctor's wife and mother of "brilliant" Jesse, who, as a sidel...more
I read Martha Moody's Best Friends and loved it, so I think I was expecting more from this book. Because of this, I had to finish the book but I kept wondering if there would be more to it. Moody brings us 5 people that work together in a medical office, narrated by 2 of the characters through their perspectives. Caroline and Hap talk about their lives and the lives of those in the office; Alicia (the nurse), Will Strub (the other doctor) and Brice (the office account). Alicia, Brice and Carolin...more
What was that all about?! Slutty office nurse, docs, the slutty, compassionate cripple, the closet homosexual, the competent and incompetent doctors, the born again and dead again, the uber-Christian's homosexual son.
Perhaps much was lost listening to this on a CD. I kept waiting for some sort of revelation, but even at the end, it was nothing more than the banality of the characters' lives.
Perhaps much was lost listening to this on a CD. I kept waiting for some sort of revelation, but even at the end, it was nothing more than the banality of the characters' lives.
At first, the story goes very slow, but it get the speed when one of the main character
gets married.
This book taught me about Americans point of view toward church, gay people,
weith loss products, and being in love in their 40s and 50s.
I heard this story by CD. The voice and the way of telling story is really attractive and it's
fun to listen to the narrator.
gets married.
This book taught me about Americans point of view toward church, gay people,
weith loss products, and being in love in their 40s and 50s.
I heard this story by CD. The voice and the way of telling story is really attractive and it's
fun to listen to the narrator.
This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't my style. The story seemed to jump around too much for me to stay completely interested. There were some truly sad and touching moments and some good messages in it that I liked, I just would have liked if the story flowed a bit better. I did really like the ending and the possibility of something happening between two of the characters in the future.
This book has it all! Religious fanaticism, odd sexual pairings, death, betrayal, amputation... Somehow Martha Moody manages to make all of these elements seem pretty reasonable despite them all happening to a mere 6 people in the course of about a year. Told from the perspectives of two of the characters. Fun read.
Apr 07, 2011
Marilou
added it
This is a story about an office romance gone bad...It all starts innocently enough but you will soon see how a "little affair" affects not only the lovebirds but all those around them. I found it very interesting from several different points of view. Moral...don't have an office romance.
In a doctors’ office with 2 doctors and 3 employees, everyone gets along fine until one of the doctors and an assistant fall in love. Marriage, illness, romance, death, financial scandal, suicide and religious epiphanies follow. A fairly good read, though not fantastic.
Fascinating - relationships in a small office - the shifting balance of power - people who know too much about one another's lives, a love affair , death and religion. Dark humor -couldn't stop reading it..
I can count on one hand how many books I have not finished reading. Even if it's not a good read, I will read it until the end. I could not do that with this book. I started it a couple of weeks ago on a flight up north, bought a book in NorCal for the ride home because this one wasn't holding my interest. Fast forward two weeks -- I've probably read 3-4 books in that time -- and decided I would try to get into this book on a flight home last night. It was painful! I almost left it on the plane!...more
I found this whole book to be just blah--the characters, the storyline, the setting. I don't even know what to write in this review to describe the blahness.
I would MUCH rather have just re-read "Best Friends." Neither of the other two books of hers have come anywhere close to that one.
A good writer though liked her first book better. She has a knack for creating odd and unusual characters that are perfectly believable.
Just pass this one on by... move along, nothing worthy of much time between the front and back cover of this one.
Sep 16, 2009
Juli
added it
My final book that I skipped to the end-possibly the worst book I ever read and I loved Best Friends by Martha Moody.
Written by a friend of mine who lives in Centerville. This and her previous book, Best Friends are very well written.
I really disliked the book. The characters were unlikable and the storyline was boring!
Feb 01, 2009
Kaye
added it
Martha Moody's insights into human behavior are very thought provoking.
Half of a 2-for-$10 from Walgreens. Not very good.
I borrowed this book from a friend and just couldn't get into it. I've vowed to myself I wouldn't waste time on books that didn't keep my attention, because I have too many on my TBR shelf. Maybe I'll give it another try some day. It's disappointing because I really liked her first book - Best Friends.
Listened to this on CD
boring, depressing.
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