A Dream of Wolves

Starred review from February 1, 2001
White (A Brother's Blood; The Blind Side of the Heart) skillfully swirls gut-wrenching self-discovery and mystery in his newest fictional offering. Part-time medical examiner and full-time ob-gyn "Doc" Stuart Jordan is called early one morning to a murder scene at a cabin nestled in the frigid hills of North Carolina. Expecting domestic turmoil, Doc is surprised at the composure of the suspected murdererDthe deceased's common-law wife, RosaDand her absorption with her four-month-old baby daughter, Maria. Making a rash pre-arrest vow, Doc promises Rosa he'll care for her child. Despite his ageDhe's 50Dhis full-time practice, his current affair with a married woman, and his estranged wife, Annabel, who has drifted in and out of his life since the death of their son, Doc feels bound to keep his promise. Maria's entrance into Doc's world sends him on a new path, unearthing remembrances of his son; however, it is the reappearance of his wife that throws Doc into a tailspin. Annabel, who has been unstable since their son's death, believing she was partly responsible for it, breezes into his home, assuring him that she is "better" and able to care for the baby, but Doc is wary and unwilling to trust her again. Sleuthing on the side, juggling work and foster-parenthood, a wife and a mistress, Doc must also confront the ghosts of his past and search for a balance between forgiveness and acceptance. Facing pressure from his lover, who has just left her husband, to finally divorce Annabel, Doc is torn between the woman he currently loves and the one he's spent a lifetime caring for. White's emotionally packed novel delivers first-class examinations of morality, mixing strong supporting characters and unexpected plot turns, enveloping the reader in an extraordinary story.

November 1, 2000
Stuart Jordan's nearly 30 years of work as an obstetrician-gynecologist and part-time medical examiner in a small town in North Carolina has brought him satisfaction and respect, but his private life is a mess. His wife, Annabel, is a manic-depressive who was evidently responsible for the death of their six-year-old son 14 years earlier. Although Will's death caused Annabel to hit bottom, and she now drifts in and out of Stuart's life, Stuart has never found the energy or inclination to divorce her. However, during a routine murder investigation, Stuart finds that it is impossible to withdraw completely from life's commitments. A young Indian woman accused of murder extracts a promise from him to become the guardian of her infant daughter, an event that will bring Annabel back and force him to confront his growing feelings for Bobbie, the local district attorney prosecuting the case. Unfortunately, White's (The Blind Side of the Heart) writing in his overlong novel is ponderous and repetitious. He has neglected to develop his characters into anything more than stick figures who in conversation shift uneasily between sounding like the highly educated professionals they are and extras from The Beverly Hillbillies. Not a necessary purchase.--Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2001
Dr. Stuart Jordan, White's hero-narrator, works both ends of the life cycle. As an OB-GYN, he ushers people in. As a part-time medical examiner, he sees them out. He fulfills this double role, to his own bemusement, as a transplanted Yankee in Hubbard County, North Carolina, deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This dual perspective and the meditations it awakens on what goes right and what went wrong inform the novel. So does Jordan's grief over his five-year-old son, who died 14 years ago. This mystery of character is jump-started with a "pronounce death" call one night. Jordan finds Roy Lee Pugh, a member of a criminal clan in the hills, dead from two shotgun wounds; his Native American wife sits stolidly by, nursing her baby. His promise to the woman, that he'll take care of the baby, draws him into longstanding feuds, bad blood, and criminal enterprise--and into another view on his own life. Jordan's carefully constructed life of habit, punctuated by figuring out the cause of death, which appeals to his love for the mathematical elegance of causes and helps make death manageable, is blown apart by the shotgun blasts of the Pugh homicide. Jordan's is the kind of wise, flawed narrator's voice you want to keep listening to; his takes on Appalachia are eye-opening; his takes on human nature, wrenching.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)