The Tiger In The Tiger Pit (edition 1984)

The 50th wedding anniversary party of the Carpenters brings to a peak all the tensions and mystery that has built up during those years. It has not been a happy family- Elizabeth, an artist married to a stern, angry and frustrated school principal have raised three children: Jason, a selfish womanizing psychologist, Emily, a world renown concert violinist, and Victoria, a mental mess who resides in a mental institution. It is Emily's son who becomes the catalyst for reducing the tension and leading to some resolution of the family problems. A major irony in the plot is that the husband has always regretted not consummating the affair he imagined with a colleague's wife when we learn that the colleague & Elizabeth did have a consummated affair and the colleague's wife always thought that the Carpenters' son was her husband's. Slow to start as Hospital introduces the characters but concludes with a bang. We see some of the same parts of the story through the eyes of different characters which reveals the differing motivations for how they act. ( )