The Doctor Wears Three Faces

by Mary Bard

Three faces wears the when first sought An angel's; and a god's the cure half wrought; But when, the cure complete he seeks his fee The devil looks less terrible than he.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

254 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

The eldest daughter of a mining engineer, Mary Bard moved frequently as a child, owing to her father's work. She went to kindergarten in Mexico City, first grade in New York, and second grade in Colorado. She attended college at the University of Washington, in Seattle, married a doctor, and eventually settled on Vashon Island, near Seattle. She had three daughters, and was active as a Brownie troupe leader. Best known for her series of children's novels about "Best Friends" Suzie and Co-Co, Bard also wrote a number of adult titles. Her sister, Betty Macdonald, best known for her Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, was also an author.

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book by Betty MacDonald's sister. Mary, judging by what Betty had to say about her, was a force of nature. She was not as funny a writer as Betty, I don't think. Dated, cute, engaging but not hilarious.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been a big fan of Betty MacDonald and have read her books. I did not know that her sister was also a writer of several books and was very excited to find this one. In this book, Mary describes her married life to a very busy doctor and raising a family, along with remodeling a home and the endless problems with all of it. She has a similar writing style to her sister and puts a lot of humor and wit into her writing. If you enjoyed her sister's books you will enjoy Mary's spin on life.

[Barbara Mader · Rating 3 out of 5]

March 2012: re-read.

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December 2007:
By Mary Bard, sister of Betty MacDonald. I don't think she wrote as well as Betty, but she sure seems an interesting person, and there are some meat and potatoes to her books.
first read & posted in Goodreads 2007)

[Katie Kinsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Betty's work but this is one of my favorites from Mary Bard. I find the dry wit fascinating, especially considering the Generational differences.. intriguing to me to read memoirs from the 30's, 40's, & 50's.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Bard is the big sister of author Betty MacDonald, and here she writes her own experiences as a doctor's wife. The Bard family is clearly intelligent and witty, and I laughed several times at her wicked turns of phrase. And then would come the crushing racism, out of nowhere, time and time again. Funny, dated, glad it's out of print.

[Rachel Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Mary Bard’s Best Friends books when I was a kid, and LOVED her sister Betty’s comic memoirs, so I was a bit disappointed that this was just … OK. Instead of making the tedious/annoying funny, as Betty is so skilled at, the events of this book are still quite tedious and annoying, with some humor spread on top.

[Erica L Wheelock · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting enough

Mary isn’t quite the writer as her sister Betty (I was often left slightly confused by a lack of context in a new paragraph) but I enjoyed her stories and perspective, even if I was often horrified by the treatment and seeming disdain for women from the medical establishment of the time. Certainly worth reading if you’re a fan of Betty MacDonald.

[Margaret Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Betty MacDonald's sister

This is a comic tale of what it was like to be a doctor's wife in the 1950's.
Nice read

[Juli Blasiname · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

The authors voice was fun and as a modern day housewife I could relate to much in the book, however at times the dates language was a bit distracting

[Eva B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this on my Kindle while I walked.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read

[Lady Stirling · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun book

by a sister of betty mac donald. a fun account of life as a doctor’s wife in the 20s and 30s; light and amusing.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing her sister's memoir that was mostly about Mary I decided to read Mary's version of herself. It was interesting because the two perspectives didn't match very well, maybe partly because they are two different time periods in Mary's life. Yet, another interesting view of the daily life of a PNW woman in the 1950s. It is interesting how 75ish years later some things are so similar, and some things are so different.

[V. Briceland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Bard is, of course, the older sister of beloved humorist Betty MacDonald, whose The Egg and I was a three-year sensation on the best-seller lists at the end of the nineteen-forties. Apparently spurred by a gentle sisterly competitiveness and a sense that "Anybody Can Do Anything"—the title of MacDonald's third memoir, which focused mainly upon Bard's resourcefulness in the face of the Great Depression—Bard wrote a children's series and trio of humorous memoirs of her own.

The Doctor Wears Three Faces is the first of these, and like The Egg and I, it covers the early years of the author's marriage. To a physician, as the title gently suggests—not a chicken farmer. None of the incidents Bard covers, whether her attempts to mingle with the big boys of medicine instead of the doctors' wives, or her battle with cockroaches, or even her own first pregnancy, are exactly earth-shaking in their depth or content, but Bard relates them with a Betty MacDonald-ish sense of humor and a wry, crackling briskness that carries most of the chapters through in a swift manner.

It's true that there doesn't seem to have been an em dash that Bard didn't like, appropriate, and use in her book, and her writing doesn't have the indefinable sparkle of her younger sister's. There's also some not-so-veiled racism toward a Japanese servant in the book's early chapters that modern readers might find uncomfortable. It's racism of a sort that Betty MacDonald actually protested in dozens of subtle ways in her own books, so it's a little surprising to see it so blatantly on display in Bard's work.

For MacDonald fans, though, the Mary Bard books are tough to put down; their sense of time, place, and humor can be uncannily similar. And like the similarly-structured The Egg and I, The Doctor Wears Three Faces was made into a movie of its own—the Dorothy McGuire vehicle Mother Didn't Tell Me.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ak máte radi zmysel pre humor Betty MacDonaldovej, tak si prídete na svoje aj u Mary Bardovej. Život s lekárom nie je veru taký ideálny, ako si to mladá pani doktorová predstavovala. Kniha sa mi čítala príjemne, každý kapitola sa začínala citátom z lekárskej encyklopédie, ktorý vysvetľuje nejaký zdravotný neduh, a od toho sa odvíja dej. Nejde však o príslušnú chorobu, ale skôr o rozmanité životné osudy ľudí.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun. Written by Betty MacDonald's sister.

[Jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vashon author

[CLM]

Found this on my way back from the dentist at lunch time for $1...