Random Winds: A Novel

Random Winds by Belva Plains. I received this novel in good condition and was pleased with the fast service. Thanks. Janice Ewing

Once again, a fabulous read! Ms. Plain's choice of words, timing, descriptions, characters, plot create a book like no other. Truthfully, I feel that way about all of her books and every time I reluctantly finish reading, what I consider an all too short story, I'm repeating her praise. The Doctors Farrell, father and daughter and grandfather are complex people. Pathetic Hazel and once pathetic, Jesse, the intriguing Mary Fern and all of the other characters are well thought out and hold your attention throughtout the story. You end up feeling like you've been an integral part of each and every character's life with it's successes, failures, heartache, disappointments, etc. Shouldn't a great novel involve the reader in more ways than one? This one certainly does!

Dr.Martin Farrell watched his father, also a doctor, work himself to an early death from the constant demands of his country practice, and so is determined to make his own medical career more lucrative. He becomes interested in brain surgery but to be able to afford to train as such, agrees to marry Jessie, the crippled sister of Fern, the woman he has always loved. The girls' wealthy father realizes that this is the only way that Jessie will be married and safe after his death and convinces Martin that this is the only path to his dream of becoming a top brain surgeon. They have a daughter, Claire, a pretty and clever girl who is set to follow in her father's footsteps. Martin and Jessie divorce after bitter fighting and Martin marries Hazel, a homely but good woman who gives him three more children. Martin's professional career grows and develops but he can't forget his love for Fern and this love, though never mentioned, eventually sours his marriage. Claire does become a doctor but prefers a practice more like that of her grandfather with closer contact with her patients. There are many dramas interwoven through this story of three generations of doctors with their personal loves and tragedies, and I found this to be one of those big, cosy reads which are just right when one is in the mood for it.

Wonderful book. Once again Belva Plain brings forth, with beautiful detail, the complexities of life.This book tells not only the story of three generations of doctors, but it is mainly the story of human souls. Whether you are a doctor or a painter, a decorator, or simply a housewife, you suffer and you rejoice with everything that life brings to you.Belva Plain makes us understand, through her characters, that nothing in life is simple and straight. Or, black and white. But rather a web of events that moves us back and forth.Great book and good read.

Random Winds tells the story of one man's life, a doctor whose passionate love for another man's wife threatens the very foundations of his existance. This is one of those impossibly romantic novels one curls up with on a rainy day. Also, as a gay man who read this as a teenager, it was so important to me that Ms. Plain included a positive homosexual character; I've always been appreciative of that.