Moody, Martha (Martha Moody Jacobs)

PERSONAL:

Born in OH; married Martin Jacobs (a physician), 1985; children: four sons. Education: Oberlin College, graduated; University of Cincinnati, M.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Dayton, OH. E-mail—info@marthamoody.net.

CAREER:

Physician in private practice, c. 1986-2001; freelance author, 2001—; volunteer medical director at a clinic.

WRITINGS:

Best Friends (novel), Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Office of Desire (novel), Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to the Dayton Jewish Observer under name Martha Moody Jacobs; contributor of stories to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Martha Moody is a physician who was in private practice for fifteen years before retiring from her professional life to write and care for her family. Moody had an interest in poetry as a college student, but after visiting South America with a Spanish professor and witnessing the poor health of the people there, she decided on health care as a career. Her plan was to enter nursing, but upon graduating college she decided to become a doctor. Although she became a full-time writer with the publication of her first novel, Best Friends, Moody volunteers as medical director at a clinic for the working poor.

On her Web site Moody writes that after returning from the South American trip: "I read Mario Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral, a big, intricately plotted novel with a wide range of characters and subplots. Reading that book felt like walking through a large building and noticing everything visible—the floors, the rooms, the paint job—and, at the same time, sensing all the unseen things—the wiring and the plumbing and the supports—that had gone into the edifice. I thought: I understand this. I don't think I've ever been so excited about something I read. That novel inspired me to try and write fiction."

Moody's first novel, Best Friends, is a story of two friends who meet at Oberlin College, Moody's alma mater. Narrator Clare Ann Mann comes from a middle-class Ohio family, and Sally Rose is the daughter of a Los Angeles magazine magnate. Not typically, it is Clare who wants to protest and challenge the system, while Sally has led a relatively protected life. Clare and Sally remain lifelong friends, first in college as roommates, then as each pursues a career—Clare in medicine and Sally in law. Both women idolize their fathers, but they discover that neither is perfect. Clare's father is an embezzler, and Sally's father, Sid, produces pornography. As the story progresses, Sid begins a descent into Alzheimer's, and Ben, Sally's brother, turns to drugs. The friends stick together through everything, sharing the good and bad of their families and marriages. Redbook reviewer Lisa Pilnik wrote: "You'll definitely see elements of yourself and your girlfriends in this terrific novel." A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that the story "never loses its edge, at once compassionate and humorous, nor its moving conviction that a strong friendship between women can be one of life's most powerful relationships."

Moody followed Best Friends with The Office of Desire, which is about the staff of an internal medicine practice. Hap Markowitz and William Strub are supported by Caroline, the receptionist, who, with Hap, acts as narrator. She has lost a leg to cancer, but her prosthetic leg does not detract from her warm character, and she attracts a number of lovers. Alice is the nurse and mother of teenager Jesse, and Brice is the gay manager who lives with his mother. When William divorces, he begins a relationship with Alice, which disrupts the harmony of the office. Caroline sympathetically engages in sex with the shy Brice, even though she knows he prefers men. William and Alice marry, but they are not happy, and he turns first to Internet pornography, then to religion. Alice also becomes a zealot, and the couple begin to sell Christian vitamins in the office. Hap is so distracted by his wife's hepatitis C that he does not even object. Jesse tells his fundamentalist parents that he is gay, and Caroline notices Brice's obsession with the boy. Kristine Huntley wrote in Booklist that The Office of Desire "perfectly captures the nuances of a small group of people working closely together in an insular environment." A Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that it is a "provocative, intensely moving novel of ideas and opposing philosophies presented by deeply flawed, deeply human characters."

Moody told CA: "The most surprising thing I've learned as a writer is that there are really not that many stories. It's the telling that matters, more than the tale.

"In my dream world, I hope that my novels will entertain, comfort, and provoke."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2007, Kristine Huntley, review of The Office of Desire, p. 29.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2007, review of The Office of Desire.

Library Journal, June 1, 2001, Patricia Gulian, review of Best Friends, p. 217.

Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2001, review of Best Friends, p. 47; June 11, 2007, review of The Office of Desire, p. 37.

Redbook, August, 2001, Lisa Pilnik, review of Best Friends, p. 2.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), May 26, 2002, review of Best Friends, p. 7.

ONLINE

Bookreporter.com,http://www.bookreporter.com/ (February 9, 2008), Lipkien Gershenbaum, review of Best Friends.

Martha Moody Home Page,http://marthamoody.net (February 9, 2008).