Foreword
The ink in which a novelist dips his pen is the blood of people, for literature is inherently the mirror of the human condition. Great books have been written and will continue to be written, about nature and worlds other than our own, yet the abiding strength in acknowledged literature has been man's relationship to himself and his society. Now, in the tumultuous years of cultural upheaval that have marked the middle decades of 20th century America, such focus is more important than ever, and we, the publishers, are indebted to author Milton Granby for delving courageously into the very thick of social battle - the Women's Liberation Movement.
The Lady Dentist, is not a male chauvinist tract against female equality, and its author does not facetiously say that in order to be equal, women will have to give up some of their rights. Nor is it an apology for the movement, with its strident banner unfurled and its more extreme postures of anti-man, anti-family defended with emotional fervor. It does, however, frankly and fearlessly explore the roots - the vacillations in American society which are responsible for the movement's growth - and it graphically examines the results - how its message may affect the average woman's relationship with others around her, as well as with herself. Mr. Granby's book presents the thesis that a vast number of women have lost faith in their men, and that a woman without faith is a disruptive and oft-times emasculating thing.
This loss of faith is not her fault; it is the men who have surrendered it, squandered it as society has demanded more and more conformity and submission from them. But with this loss of faith has come a sense of drifting, an almost panicked return to the concepts of motherhood, with its coddling of both male and female in the soft wool of parental protection. And, moreover, it has produced at times a shrill contempt toward men, a rejection of them for being weak - for not being worthy of faith.
Whether the reader is in agreement with this argument or not, is, we feel, less important than the necessity to present its startling story for the discussion it so richly deserves. Therefore, while we do not take a stand, we strongly urge you, the reader, to follow the twisting development of young Angie Thompson as she lives through the torment of sexual adjustment.
She, as a rising young dentist proud of her independence and scornful of men, must still reconcile herself to the opposite sex on a biological level. And, because of this "mothering" syndrome, she is drawn to children as proper love objects, only to find that she is herself the object of a lesbian relationship when she, in turn, is in need of mothering. Yet the undercurrent of vengefulness swells beneath the surface of the men she deals with, and finally breaks to the surface in an explosive climax. The secret desires and fears in all of us - men and women alike - are therefore bound together in a whirlpool of conflict and lust from which none may escape unscathed or unaffected.
Join us, then, as Angie Thompson comes to grips with what all masters of the written word have so ardently expressed, the human condition.
-The Publishers