Papa's Cord — Mary Pleshette Willis

A fresh, original, laugh-out-loud first novel that takes us into the life of a young, rich-ish New York Jewish girl, the daughter of the city's most renowned gynecologist, and tells the story of her girlhood, her marriage, and her career as a screenwriter, all in the cause of winning Daddy's (withholding) heart.

The first time Josie Davidovitch sees her father with another woman, she's a little girl. It seems to Josie that every woman alive is in love with him. She wishes she could be his patient and have babies, and then he would share all his secrets with her.

Josie grows up to be a sweet, smart, smart aleck who dreams of being married and living happily ever after with Mr. Right, finds him (thank God), plans the wedding (announcement in the Times, registered at Tiffany's, the cake from William Greenberg). And all is wonderfully well until, just before the wedding, her husband-to-be breaks his neck in a swimming accident (Josie's father to Josie: "You shouldn't feel guilty if there's a part of you that wants him to die. I would if it were me"). But she doesn't feel that way and plunges ahead.

This is what happens when they marry and try to move beyond their tragedy by writing a book about the accident, when they are wooed to Hollywood and allow the story of their short life together to be made into a movie. As Josie's father suddenly finds himself in retirement--no longer the eminent Doctor--and in a state of panic and loss, and her mother, who only wants things to be nice, tries to make things nice (and pays for it), the real stuff of Josie's life--her desire and failed attempts to have a baby--becomes paramount. And the grip of her family past is wound tighter until, forced at last to see and understand her father, she is set free.