Heart of the Matter

[MDPhDWife]

You're welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying it as much as I did. I hadn't heard of this author until this book was recommended in one of my Redbook issues.

Love Emily Giffin and Heart of the Matter was a pretty good read. I enjoyed it for the most part but couldn't help wondering how many of our medical school friends marriages will fall apart. . . So, kind of depressing.
I've read My Sister's Keeper but haven't heard of Harvesting the Heart. . . I'll have to look into it.

[NYCHoosier]

I like Piccoult okay, but she gets to be a bit formulaic. Now, Emily Giffin, I LOVE! I fly through her books because I can't wait to find out what happens next.
I bought Heart of the Matter when I was in New York for plane reading on the way home and ended up finishing it the morning after I bought it. Oops! Granted I'm only a year into the doctor's wife role (after 3 years as a med school wife), but I really think she nailed it.
I also related to the other character, too. The brilliance of Emily Giffin's [admittedly "chick lit"] writing is that her characters are so sympathetic.

For those of you who haven't read any of her novels, first, she's a different genre from Piccoult, but also, I suggest starting in order. The only true "sequel" is her 2nd, but there are a lot if characters that cross books. At least read Something Borrowed and Something Blue before reading Heart of the Matter because there are spoilers for SoBo/SoBl in HotM because of the character overlap.

[MDPhDWife]

Ooh, I didn't know Something Borrowed & Something Blue had some of the same characters! I'll definitely read those next! Hopefully the spoilers won't be too bad.

[NYCHoosier]

The spoilers do give away the ending of Something Borrowed, but I don't think it'll totally ruin it...the joy is a much in the journey as the destination (sure you'll know WHAT happened but not WHY or HOW). And the Something Blue spoiler is really just a tiny epilogue spoiler.
If you haven't read any, I'd still suggest SoBo and SoBl first, but if you've already gone out of order, it's not catastrophic.

[houseelf]

I just finished this book. I agree with NYCHoosier on a couple of points. If you like Piccoult, you'll like Griffin. Also, she does an excellent job making the characters relatable and likeable. There is no hero/villain complex, just good people mucking their way through bad situations and a couple of poor choices.

Not to be contrarian, but I disagree with this

Granted I'm only a year into the doctor's wife role (after 3 years as a med school wife), but I really think she nailed it.

Funny, because I felt Griffin missed this aspect entirely. I'm 12 years into being a dawktor's wife, a pediatric surgeon to boot. Like the protagonist, I was married to him through training and have given up my career to raise kids.

Let's just say that I felt the protagonist and the lifestyle were not rendered accurately. It was kind of an outsider's view of what medicine should look like, not what it actually is: years of disengaged spouses, terrible wages mired with high expenses, multiple moves, politics, the stress of boards, licensing, planning a family around training, arrogance, loss of spousal career, etcetera. (NOTE--I'm only highlighting the suck side of medicine because the author didn't mention any of this.) Medicine permeates an individual and family at a cellular level. This portrayal seemed like a soap opera version. She did nail his arrogance masked as nobility and selflessness.

Wow, reading my own criticism really underscores my true feelings about what a beyatch medicine can be. I do love my life and my husband is fabulous. Getting here didn't come free however.

Back to the topic at hand, it is a good, quick read.

[NYCHoosier]

She didn't harp on all of those things (because that's really not the point of the book), but the lower wages were mentioned and the loss of spousal career was a pretty big theme tied into the disengagement. That's a big part of why I thought she did a pretty good job of capturing it.

[Meenah]

IRL the barometer on suckitude changes frequently.

[Vishenka69]

I just finished it yesterday and I have to agree with Kelly. I had a hard time relating to Tessa because her character just didn't seem real to me. I'm not sure what kind of research Giffin did prior to writing this book but she didn't talk to enough medical wives. In fact almost every reference to the medical lifestyle bugged me in some way.

[MissCrabette]

I just finished it yesterday and I have to agree with Kelly. I had a hard time relating to Tessa because her character just didn't seem real to me. I'm not sure what kind of research Giffin did prior to writing this book but she didn't talk to enough medical wives. In fact almost every reference to the medical lifestyle bugged me in some way.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it popped up at the bottom of an existing thread, and I had actually been thinking about the book recently. I agreed with NYCHoosier at first. I thought the author had nailed it, but that was before residency started. Not so much anymore. I'm not even as good as the "bad" wife. She's got it together so much more than I can hope I ever will. It now feels like I'm failing at failing, you know?

[AmeliePoulain]

My sister says The Help is the only book she has liked in a very long time. She got attached to the characters and was sad to finish the book because she missed them. I read the beginning at B&B, it's a really easy read. I'm reading Anna Karenina, not from our time but I sort of admire the character that represents Tolstoy... I kind of hate Anna's brother though. If you like classics and don't mind reading through the lengthy descriptions of farm life, then you will like it. The Alchemist was pretty good too but I read the Spanish translation thinking well it's close to Portuguese... maybe I will lose less in the translation.