The Woman Who Wouldn't-Gene Wilder

The Woman Who Wouldn't
Gene Wilder
St. Martin’s, Mar 2008, $19.95
ISBN: 9780312375782

In 1903 Cleveland Orchestra concert violinist Jeremy Spencer Webb has a nervous breakdown on stage during a performance. The British expatriate tears apart the first violinist’s music sheets, pours water down a tuba and punches the piano like a maniac before sitting on the stage crying. The men in white took him away in a strait jacket to a nearby neuropsychiatric hospital. When he began speaking three or four weeks later, he was sent to a health resort in Badenweiler, Germany in the Black Forest to recover paid fully by the Orchestra; the same place he was told that Chekhov was there battling consumption.

Dr. Karl Gross, brother to the Cleveland Orchestra’s artistic director Otto Gross, takes charge of Jeremy’s recovery. There the patient meets Chekhov and "cute Belgie" Clara Mulpas whom he tries to seduce but she proves to be THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T. His treatment consists of walks, special soaks, and fine dining with wine. When Dr. Gross decides Jeremy is ready, he asks him to perform with the string quartet entertaining the clinic’s guests. Although that ends in failure, Jeremy and Anton become friends and he begins to win Clara’s heart.

As with MY FRENCH WHORE, Gene Wilder takes a fun look at lampooning the excesses of the aristocracy who still controls the upper crust in spite of changing economics and soon lifestyle when WWI occurs. Thus readers obtain a sweet satirical glimpse of the elite through life in the Badenweiler health resort; pampering being the cure of all ills. Lighthearted yet insightful, fans will appreciate Gene Wilder’s amusing yet deep THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T.

Harriet Klausner