Barbara's Comments "I've always been fascinated by neighborhood dynamics and the requisite balance of intimacy and separation. The Woman Next Door focuses on this, creating a situation in which four women use each other as a yardstick. Amanda measures herself as a woman against Georgia, who measures herself as a mother against Karen, who measures herself as a wife against the other two. And Gretchen? She measures herself against her three neighbors in ways that I'd rather you read about yourself. Suffice it to say, each of the neighborhood women is affected by one or more of the others, which raises the question of who, ultimately, is the woman next door." This book touches on another topic I've always wanted to write about — the in-law impact on marriages. In The Woman Next Door, Graham comes from a large and involved family that is now coming between his wife and him.   "Marriage is the bottom line of this book — what makes it work, what threatens it, what happens when life comes along and gets in its way."