{"id":179,"date":"2021-12-07T11:03:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T16:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/?page_id=179"},"modified":"2025-07-21T13:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:50:10","slug":"a-fight-in-the-doctors-office","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/novellas\/a-fight-in-the-doctors-office\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fight in the Doctor&#8217;s Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">CARY HOLLADAY<br><br>2008 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED BY BRIAN ROLEY<br>2008. 978-1-4243-3111-6<br>$15.00  <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/books\/a-fight-in-the-doctor-s-office\/9781424331116\">Bookshop<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Fight-Doctors-Office-Cary-Holladay\/dp\/1424331110\">Amazon<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pathwaybookservice.com\/products\/a-fight-in-the-doctors-office-1\">Pathway<\/a> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>In Spring 1967, Jenny Havener, a young newlywed in Washington, DC, finds herself deserted by her husband. Her parents, ashamed and eager to find him, take Jenny on a search through the Virginia countryside. Their travels lead them to the rural community of Glen Allen. Jenny doesn\u2019t find her husband, but she meets a disabled African-American baby with whom she falls in love on sight. She abandons her search for her husband, parts way with her parents (who worry she is becoming unhinged) and settles in Glen Allen for the purpose of spending as much time as possible with the child. She settles into an abandoned furniture store and defies the community\u2019s growing suspicions about her reasons for being there. As her obsession about the baby grows, a battle of wills erupts between Jenny and the child\u2019s guardians\u2014his elderly, impoverished great-grandparents\u2014leading to Jenny\u2019s attempts to claim the baby as her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">Reviews &amp; Such<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>A Fight in the Doctor\u2019s Office<\/em>\u00a0was reviewed in the Spring 2010 issue of\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.engl.unt.edu\/alr\/current.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The American Literary Review<\/a><\/em>. Read the review\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.orgs.miamioh.edu\/mupress\/downloads\/AmLitReview_Fight.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cary Holladay\u2019s lovely tale of misguided desire combines the precise vision of Flannery O\u2019Connor with the brutal comic touch of Lewis Nordan. I can\u2019t remember the last book I read with as many moments of mystery, illumination and emotional honesty.<br><strong>\u2014Michael F. Parker<\/strong>, author of\u00a0<em>If You Want Me to Stay<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Don\u2019t Make Me Stop Now<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>A Fight in the Doctor\u2019s Office<\/em>\u00a0displays Holladay at the height of moral maturity and artistic control.<br><strong>\u2014Eve Shelnutt<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Astute, compassionate and elegant in its rendering, Jenny Hall Havener\u2019s search for purpose is the kind of tale whose narrative arc and urgency demand it be read in one sitting. While featuring a spellbinding child, a fiercely loyal old woman, the precocious Shirley Lloyd and a spectrum of sleep-walking eccentrics,\u00a0<em>A Fight in the Doctor\u2019s Office<\/em>\u00a0is at its heart the story of Jenny\u2019s afflictions, disappointments and hunger to build a meaningful life around a chance meeting. Circumstantially as it begins, Jenny\u2019s story gathers momentum and whirls toward a terrible reckoning in which we are reminded that the journey to the self is always a matter of life and death. Anyone who has wondered about the purpose and possibilities of the novella will find in Cary Holladay\u2019s creation a satisfying, soul-wrenching answer.<br><strong>\u2014R. T. Smith<\/strong>, author of\u00a0<em>Uke Rivers Delivers<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\"><br>About the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cary Holladay grew up in Virginia and Pennsylvania. She holds degrees from the College of William and Mary and from Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of four previous books:&nbsp;The Quick-Change Artist: Stories; Mercury; The Palace of Wasted Footsteps; and&nbsp;The People Down South. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, The Goodheart Prize, and the O. Henry Prize, among others. Her husband is the writer John Bensko. They live in Memphis, Tennessee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"958\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/a_fight_in_the_dr_office-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-180\" style=\"width:450px;height:719px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/a_fight_in_the_dr_office-1.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/a_fight_in_the_dr_office-1-188x300.jpeg 188w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"660\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/Holladay.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-181\" style=\"width:450px;height:495px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/Holladay.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2021\/12\/Holladay-273x300.jpg 273w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CARY HOLLADAY 2008 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED BY BRIAN ROLEY2008. 978-1-4243-3111-6$15.00 Bookshop | Amazon | Pathway In Spring 1967, Jenny Havener, a young newlywed in Washington, DC, finds herself deserted by her husband. Her parents, ashamed and eager to find him, take Jenny on a search through the Virginia countryside. Their travels lead them to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":995,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":16,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-179","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/179\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}