K

While I agree with some of the comments in the two preceding reviews, in my biased admittedly jaded view, this novel was too long, too predictable, and too ridiculous.
To me it is so improbable that K, the main character, a respected, famous surgeon, drops out of his profession at the peak of his career because he loses faith in his abilities. He emerges in "Small Town, America" as a non-entity drifter, working as a clerk. He then proceeds to act like a junior social worker, counseling and trying to "fix" everyone in sight who has mental conflicts, marital problems, un-wanted pregnancies, death in the family, moral issues, and the like. Since I am a Health Care Professional, I simply could not envision his character as portrayed - he lacked the steadfastness, personal strength, intelligence and professionalism that most physicians possess under all sorts of duress. When he finally emerges from his self-imposed exile, he does get Sidney, the woman he loves - but we knew he would from the start.

A bildungsroman evocative of the works of Edna Ferber, "K" is the tale of a middle-class city neighborhood and its residents, an urban version of Grovers Corners.

We meet Sidney, a young woman who wants to be a nurse, and her family, neighbors and lodgers, among them her Aunt Harriet, who yearns to be more than a simple dressmaker; Joe, the boy who loves her; Dr. Ed, the selfless G.P. across the street, and his younger brother, Max, a handsome, philandering surgeon; her friend Christine, about to marry a wild Society youth; Tillie, the 40ish boardinqhouse waitress who's sorely tempted by a life of sin; and the mysterious K., the shabby tenant who is more than he seems.

Intricate and engrossing, the novel holds one's attention to the very end.

This is the first book that I have read by this author and I loved it. From Sidney, who is so plucky as she learns that life is not always black and white to K., who learns how to believe in himself again, the characters are genuine and completely believable.