The author admits that the character of Jebediah Copper Coltrain pretty much wrote this book himself. And he is a poor writer. Nearly every single character in this book is horrible. Coltrain himself is a renegade whose heart has been broken by a woman named Jane, and who has two other women, his nurse Nickie and a nursing director named Dana slobbering after him. The one woman he actually likes, Dr. Louise Blakely, is his arch-nemesis. It seems that Dr. Blakelys father (a notorious alcoholic and womanizer) did something to a woman Copper once loved. Details are unimportant, and plot is secondary in most of Palmers books, anyway.
What angered me so much was how rude and obnoxious Coltrain (and Nickie, to an extent) were to Louise. At one point, he nearly rapes her in a parking lot after hes had too much to drink. This remains Louise too much of her fathers alcoholic rages, and she rebuffs him. The very tired trope of virginal heroine/experienced man is here; Coltrain continually tells Louise he wants to wait until theyre married, but he gets to second and possibly third base before stopping. Whatever happened to chaperones and chastity? Coltrain then saunters into the arms of Nickie, much to Louises consternation. My only thought after slogging through this unromantic mess was that a tactical nuclear strike should be directed at Jacobsville, Texas, and these deeply unpleasant people.
What angered me so much was how rude and obnoxious Coltrain (and Nickie, to an extent) were to Louise. At one point, he nearly rapes her in a parking lot after hes had too much to drink. This remains Louise too much of her fathers alcoholic rages, and she rebuffs him. The very tired trope of virginal heroine/experienced man is here; Coltrain continually tells Louise he wants to wait until theyre married, but he gets to second and possibly third base before stopping. Whatever happened to chaperones and chastity? Coltrain then saunters into the arms of Nickie, much to Louises consternation. My only thought after slogging through this unromantic mess was that a tactical nuclear strike should be directed at Jacobsville, Texas, and these deeply unpleasant people.
