The Professor's Bride

Sexual tensions and frustrations obviously affect the lives of officers and enlisted men alike, even those assigned to the comparative tranquility and comfort of a Navy postgraduate school like the one which provides the setting for this novel. No one could be more aware of this than its hero, Carl Crandall, Ph.D., who wants to bring such up-to-date techniques as “off-site” encounter groups into general use to improve the psychological health of today's Navy. Unfortunately, his awareness is limited to the theoretical; and the difficulties of persuading the authorities to accept his ideas and plans plus a crushingly heavy work schedule have made him virtually blind to the problems and desires of his own wife, Maeve. Maeve is an entirely normal, healthy young woman in every respect—except that she is totally frustrated by the lack of any attention, particularly sexual attention, from her husband. Like most frustrated people, she attempts to divert her burning energies into another channel. In this case, Maeve develops an interest in art, spends many hours a day painting... and thus in her turn begins to neglect her housework and her husband.