Therapy: A Novel by Harrie Rose

As she daily sinks deeper and deeper into a depression, Barbara's husband Joe finally insists that she seek professional assistance.  She turns to Alex, a therapist seventeen years her junior.  While he is helping her rebuild her life, Barbara can't help falling in love with him. 

Barbara is a very successful woman; she is a professor at the local campus, and admirable cook, house keeper and an excellent gardener.  She is not happy and she doesn't know why.  She has no confidence in herself even with her many accomplishments.  She feels that no one likes her.  She feels that they think she is too smart, too Jewish, to good a cook, even too good a hostess.  Personally, I think Barbara tries too hard to please everyone else and fails to please herself.  She is too concerned with everyone else's perception of her.

For the first time in her life, She has someone listening to her.  That is what a therapist is supposed to do, but in the depths of her depression she grabs onto this lifeline and won't or can't let go.  I can totally understand why she falls for Alex,he's a light in that tunnel that she didn't even know she was in,  but she is such an intelligent woman, she must know that it's wrong.  I can respect the character of Barbara for all her accomplishments, but I don't really like her.  I wonder if she ever took the time to get to know any of the people she invited to her house, or was she too busy trying to impress them.  Was Alex the first person that she really wanted to know.

I enjoyed this book.  I felt that it truly captured the feelings and mixed up thoughts of a depressed person.  The one thing Barbara could control in her life was her gardens, so she worked at them in almost a frenzy and they responded to her in a like manner.  She needed a therapist to help re-gain her perspective of her self and to re-direct her energies back to making herself happy.

Thanks to Nurture Your Books for my review copy. 
Visit Harrie Rose's blog.