Good in a Crisis

October 24, 2011
In this smart and clear-eyed narrative of one woman’s midlife divorce, Chicago anesthesiologist Overton writes of how she and her surgeon husband of nearly 20 years drifted into mutual emotional apathy (he was having an affair, it turned out, and not for the first time) and decided to divorce in 2002, precipitating for her a long, unlovely withdrawal of trust in men. The divorce would turn rancorous and head to court—for reasons not fully explained—as their two daughters, at 16 and 19, were nearly grown and it seemed a “hyperbolic meanness” had gripped the couple. Overton writes frankly of the “collateral damage” the whole enterprise wrought on the people around her, from the hurtful way she treated others to the crazy purchases she made and the wrongheaded belief that she would replace her spouse and sex partner in the space of a few months. In the last endeavor, she tried mightily to find a new companion on the Internet, having been told this was the only way to meet a man in her mid-40s, and a good bit of her engaging narrative involves dates with unsavory specimens. Overton managed to overcome her many trials as she imparts with humor and some high-handed poise.