In August, Rossner again argues, as she did in Attachments (1977), the need for a woman to have a meaningful life of her own through Dr. Lulu Shinefield, a Manhattan psychiatrist, whose professional life works smoothly but whose private life is filled with "attachment" problems. She is not, despite her career, the "New Woman," the terrific career type she both admires and fears. Lulu, by carrying her training to her own home, manages to make serious mistakes in dealing with her daughter, her husbands, and her lover.

The book also focuses on psychiatry itself through the developing relationship between Lulu and her analytic daughter Dawn Henley. The title August highlights the tremendous dependence that develops between a patient and her analyst. During the month of August, when New York analysts all take their vacations, patients must survive on their own, and insecurity mounts. Each successive August in...