Before and Again - Doris Mortman

Advantages: A Book Well Worthy of Reading
Disadvantages: None of Note

...“None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.” FBI Agent Pender is looking forward to his retirement, years of dodging bullets and chasing bums finally giving way to leisurely fishing trips and lazy days on his sun porch. Unfortunately his replacement, Agent Abruzzi, passes on a letter addressed to him from a Dorie Bell, and in doing so puts off his retirement for the foreseeable future. Dorie Bell is a worried woman, since attending the PWSPD (Persons with Specific Phobia Disorder) convention in Las Vegas a number of her fellow phobia sufferers have died in suspicious circumstances, suspicious because they have died in relation to their phobias. Take for example the case of Carl Polander – a sufferer of Acrophobia (fear of heights) who died after jumping from a twelfth story window, a man who could not even use... Read review

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Advantages: Written by an devoted fan
Disadvantages: Not much infomation outside of her films

...Unless you are lucky enough to already own or get hold of a copy of Miss Days Official Biography (Doris Day: Her Own Story) which is sadly now out of print, you will not find a better way of discovering or re-discovering Doris in print than Orion's updated version of "Doris Day" (snappy title-no?). The publishing of the fully revised edition of Eric Bruan's book in 2004 coincided with Doris Days 8oth Birthday and includes a nice "prologue" that updates us on the work she has been doing since the books original publication in 1996. Over 240 pages you will learn all about Doris' films, her 4 husbands, and not surprisingly, quite abit about the lady herself! Doris Day made thirty-nine films with the likes of Rock Hudson, Cary Grant and James Gardner, But under the wholesome all American gal the studios portrayed her as, was the real... Read review

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Advantages: You can almost feel that hand
Disadvantages: unsympathetic characters, and a plot that's a tad boring

.... A more anomalus character would be Doris Clausen - the wife of Otto, whose hand is donated by Doris to Patrick for the transplant. What makes her so curious is the way she is attached (morbidly so, if not almost physically) to her dead husband's hand. That attachment is probably part of the reason why Patrick finds her appealing, or could it be that she seems to be the only woman he's ever met who isn't at all sexually interested in him - but rather in the part of him that doesn't originally belong to him! Once again Irving didn't give me enough to go on about Doris to actually allow me to envision her as a real person might appear. I'm not saying Irving doesn't describe her looks. On the contrary, he is quite clear about that. But unfortunately, like with Patrick, Doris' character doesn't seem to click with the descriptions that Irving... Read review

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