Rachel Pastan's novel is pure pleasure. The mating habits of the subspecies we might call "Very Intelligent Woman" are examined by a writer whose eye is sharp, whose wit is keen, and whose heart is open to the possibilities that love offers.

(Ann Packer).

The Rubin daughters are three eligible sisters from an affluent suburban Philadelphia family whose well-meaning but domineering mother is single-mindedly determined to see them all happily married.

The book opens at a Sunday brunch where Dr. Rubin, mother and obstetrician, is scheming to introduce her eldest daughter, Alice, to a doctor who is almost too good to be true. But why hasnt Alice, who is beautiful and smart (as well as extremely nice), been able to find a husband on her own?

Is her sister Isabel, the real heroine of the story, genuinely happy in her marriage, and, if so, why wont her husband co-operate with her attempts to get pregnant?

And is Tina, the youngest of the sisters, as shallow as she seems, or is she something worse than shallow?

Full of surprises, yet filled with feeling, This Side of Married is witty, intelligent, and utterly delicious.