Amazon.com
There is plenty of lying going on in psychotherapy offices to be found in Irvin D. Yalom's novel Lying on the Couch, and the lying is of every type defined in your average modern dictionary. Among those doing the lying are Carolyn, who hopes to ruin the career of psychotherapist Ernest Lash because she believes his advice led her husband to seek a divorce. Then there is the gambler whose plan is to lure another psychotherapist into malpractice so he can sue and pay off his debts. In Yalom's world, the relationship between therapist and patient is a tricky one indeed, and it's sometimes hard to tell who needs advice and counseling more--the patient lying on the couch or therapist sitting nearby.
Book Description
From the bestselling author of Love's Executioner and When Nietzsche Wept comes a provocative exploration of the unusual relationships three therapists form with their patients. Seymour is a therapist of the old school who blurs the boundary of sexual propriety with one of his clients. Marshal, who is haunted by his own obsessive-compulsive behaviors, is troubled by the role money plays in his dealings with his patients. Finally, there is Ernest Lash. Driven by his sincere desire to help and his faith in psychoanalysis, he invents a radically new approach to therapy -- a totally open and honest relationship with a patient that threatens to have devastating results.
Exposing the many lies that are told on and off the psychoanalyst's couch, Lying on the Couch gives readers a tantalizing, almost illicit, glimpse at what their therapists might really be thinking during their sessions. Fascinating, engrossing and relentlessly intelligent, it ultimately moves readers with a denouement of surprising humanity and redemptive faith.
Customer Reviews:
So good it is disturbing...........2007-08-04
I did not give this 5 stars because I think if you are not in the mental health field, the story is not as meaningful to you. As a grad student in counseling, there were times I gasped out loud at the story lines. GREAT BOOK!!!! I suggest all of Yalom's books, fiction and nonfiction.
good therapy in 369 pages........2007-07-19
I am addicted to Yalom's book. I like the way he writes and love the insights you get from each patient/story.
Lying on the couch puts YOU on the couch till the last page.
Tight story... makes you think... and think again.
Maybe I need therapy!!!!!
Unputdownable book.......2007-05-09
At the end of a book, if you want more and would have loved the author adding more pages instead of leaving some things to your imagination, the book is a success. Quite naturally, you'll dwell on such a book even after putting it away. "Lying on the couch" by Irvin Yalom is one of those successful books.
Based on accepted popular precepts about honesty and greed, that honesty is good and greed is bad, the author weaves a very interesting story with psychoanalysts and analysands as primary characters. One doesn't have to know transference from countertransference to love the book. The author throws psychoanalysis jargon at you thick and fast, frequently quotes many great authors and eminent personalities of the field and makes his characters make their points using Freudian (and his likes') research findings - but he also writes them in a way a lay person can understand and not feel the need to read between the lines or reach for a 'Dummy's guide to shrink's world" to get the plot.
The most interesting aspect of the book to me was Dr. Ernest Lash's resistance against the advances of a female patient, Carol who with intentions of ruining his practice comes on to him filling the therapy sessions with her fantasy erotica. Whether (or how) Dr. Lash works his way out of this hole makes a racy read. There are a couple of con-stories embedded in the narrative as well; they aren't great - it is easy to see through the stings - but they make interesting read all the same. The denouement in both cases gave me a good deal of satisfaction.
Common wisdom suggests that Shrinks are very good at getting to the unstated and that puts them at a distinct advantage in detecting lies. The author proves that wrong and shows how even the hardiest of psychotherapists fall for 'lying on the couch'. For many practitioners of the profession it is unthinkable that a patient would pay money to lie. The author also gives us a peek into various extra-therapeutic relationships that could ruin a therapy (and the therapist).
Though there has been a large corpus of psychoanalytic research of over 100 years - it is clear that the field hasn't progressed towards any unified scientific approach to problems. Understandable, `each patient is unique' as the author points out. Consequently, therapists though sharing affiliations with same professional groups sometimes vary vastly at their treatment methods. Added to that, there are many schools of thought completely at loggerheads with others creating much politicizing and back-stabbing in their elite circles. This kind of internal strife within professional bodies is brought out very well in the book.
Characters in this book are either therapists or patients. Every non-therapist you encounter has had shrink sessions for emotional, financial, legal, marital or any other conceivable kind of problems. Funnily enough, there is one character who gets a shrink to help him with his gambling problems; that is not to get rid of gambling habit, but to observe him closely during a card game and find all the tell tale signals he has been giving out unwittingly to his gambling partners.
==
While reading the book, at times I was convinced that if I chose to walk into a shrink's office, just for fun, he would still find some problem with me that I have been unaware of, and then resolve it to my satisfaction.
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All in all, a very good book!
Great Recreational Read.......2007-05-07
A fictional book that brings up the issue of therapist/client boundaries. I would recommend to anyone going into the psychology profession.
6 stars.......2006-02-24
If you like existential philosophy, or if you had never read Yalom before, this is a good way to start with this autor. At the same time, you are going to see in a great point of view the dilemmas that faces the therapists in the here and now in front of the patient, revealing the human sense of the therapist and in the same way where goes the objectivity in Science.
Book Description
It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man-Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars
Customer Reviews:
A walk on the romantic side...........2007-09-25
If you're in the mood for an engrossing historical mystery and willing to suspend disbelief and take a walk on the romantic fiction side, then like me, you may find C.S. Harris' 'What Angels Fear' to be be an enjoyable read.
The story is well plotted, the action is fast, the characters are interesting, and the background is quite well done.
But keep in mind that this is not a novel for students of 'serious' historical fiction.
What Angels Fear: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery.......2007-05-16
The book had the color of the time, but involved too much "chase anxiety", too much sex for me, which made the plot too common and "Hollywood". I prefer a Victorian, or Regency tale from a famous, or infamous, detective's viewpoint. A detective of uncommon ability, Sherlock Holmes' adventures are more my taste.
A Page-Turner!.......2007-04-18
I happened upon the sequel in the Library and immediately ordered this first book from Amazon (they do make it SO easy!). I literally could not put it down.
The action/suspense/pacing is great. We have the murder in a quick prologue, and then the protagonist is introduced in the midst of a duel at dawn. Not long after he is accused of the murder and on the run. Duels and murder are sensationalist and the stuff of Romances, but the tone is gritty and realistic and if one reads murder mysteries, a certain suspension of disbelief on these accounts is natural. It's all handled believably enough. Even St. Cyr's seemingly supernatural senses are an odd inclusion, but nothing too over-the-top (and there's a note at the end explaining them).
The characters are well-drawn. The mystery is intriguing. A somewhat straight-forward killing of an actress whose life left her exposed to danger. But it includes a number of elements from blackmail to foundlings and the poor to high politics and back-room deals and profiting from war, that also reveal a nice slice of history.
The period details are seemless enough to my eye. I'm admittedly not a very critical reader, but I do have an MA in History (primarily English), and am a long-time reader of Historical Fiction, Historical Romances and Historical Mysteries (nothing like being predictable!).
I read so much that most books blur in my recollection, but this one stands out. (I'll have to test it on my sister to see what she thinks, however. She's much more critical than I am! But--) I heartily recommend this book! At least if you enjoy a fast-paced, suspenseful tale, a solid--and fairly intricate-- murder mystery with a strong historical setting (particularly this period, on the cusp of the Regency).
Well written and believable historical mystery.......2007-02-10
"What Angels Fear" begins the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries, of which there are currently two. C.S. Harris starts the story off quickly with the brutal rape and murder of a young actress, Rachel York. The only evidence found at the crime scene seems to implicate Sebastian, and an order is issued for his immediate arrest.
The problem, of course, is that Sebastian didn't commit the murder, and slips away from the arresting constables to try to solve the murder on his own. He puts himself into Rachel's shoes and starts to learn as much as he possibly can about her life with the hope that this knowledge will bring him closer to the real killer.
About three chapters into the novel I had the sense that I was reading a quasi-romance story. Small things tipped me off: lingering on a description of a physical characteristic, an attribute given to a character that pushes the boundaries of suspension of disbelief, that sort of thing. I kept reading, the sense grew stronger, so I flipped to the back of the book to see if there was information about the author. There was...and she had also written award winning historical romances!
Not sure how the rest of the book would turn out, I continued reading, and found that I wasn't much bothered by the elements of the story that were slightly dramatic and would have lent themselves better to romance than a mystery.
The characters are all very well drawn and believable, and the Georgian feel of the novel is also well drawn and believable.
3.5, rounded up to 4.
Master storytelling by a respected historian.......2007-01-03
A fast-paced, suspenseful, fun read with the added bonus of being historically accurate. The author, a professional historian, has done a wonderful job of conveying both the spirit of the time and all the subtle details that make a story come alive. As anyone familiar with 18th and early 19th century England knows, constables and magistrates did exist at this time, and did take their detective work seriously. And while a few accents may have been dropped in the typesetting, a reading of the author's nonfiction histories will show that she is fluent in 18th century French.
Book Description
In London, 1811, a young woman is brutally raped and murdered, her body left on the altar steps of an ancient church. The prime suspect: Sebastian St. Cyr, a brilliant young nobleman still haunted by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars. Now he is running for his life, desperate to catch the killer and prove his innocence. Moving from Mayfair's glittering ballrooms to St. Giles's fetid back alleys, Sebastian is assisted by a band of unlikely allies and pursued by a Machiavellian powerbroker with ties to the Prince Regent himself. What Angels Fear seamlessly weaves an intimate knowledge of the period with a multi-layered and compelling story, and is the first of a series of novels featuring these characters.
Download Description
In London, 1811, a young woman is brutally raped and murdered, her body left on the altar steps of an ancient church. The prime suspect: Sebastian St. Cyr, a brilliant young nobleman still haunted by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars. Now he is running for his life, desperate to catch the killer and prove his innocence. Moving from Mayfair's glittering ballrooms to St. Giles's fetid back alleys, Sebastian is assisted by a band of unlikely allies and pursued by a Machiavellian powerbroker with ties to the Prince Regent himself. What Angels Fear seamlessly weaves an intimate knowledge of the period with a multi-layered and compelling story, and is the first of a series of novels featuring these characters.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent debut.......2007-01-09
Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, escapes arrest for the brutal murder of an actress, former prostitute, in a church. His pistol was found at the murder scene and he refuses to provide himself an alibi. Against the backdrop of King George's decent into madness, the coming Regency of the Prince of Wales and England's continuing war with France, Sebastian realizes his only hope is to find the true killer.
What an exciting book! St. Cyr, a classic hero with a past, is aided by a wonderful sidekick, the young street urchin Tom. The characters are fully developed, appealing and human. Harris is truly able to convey St. Cyr's frustration and the anger and jealousy of another character. The period details are exacting and the dialogue appropriate to the characters with some of the exchanges between St. Cyr and Tom being particularly enjoyable and touching. The story is engrossing with humor, great action sequences, a bit of sex, and red herrings along the way to a dramatic climax. This is an excellent beginning and I look forward to more in the series. I highly recommend it.
Masterful Story Teller with Great Historic Setting.......2007-01-03
A fast-paced, suspenseful, fun read with the added bonus of being historically accurate. The author, a professional historian, has done a wonderful job of conveying both the spirit of the time and all the subtle details that make a story come alive. As anyone familiar with 18th and early 19th century England knows, constables and magistrates did exist at this time, and did take their detective work seriously. And while a few accents may have been dropped in the typesetting, a reading of the author's nonfiction histories will show that she is fluent in 18th century French.
First rate; well researched.......2005-12-09
Excellent work! Well researched, yet the author has cleverly made the historical aspect fresher and more contemporary than so many authors have done. There's no bogging down in dry detail and the story keeps one's interest. Excellent editing.
a wonderfully engrossing read.......2005-11-25
I am especially partial to historical mysteries set in England; and my interest was piqued when I noticed C. S. Harris' "What Angels Fear" on the bookstore shelves. But I was also a little wary -- after all I had heard nothing about this book -- no advance praise or early review blurbs in magazines/web sites heralding the book's upcoming publication. Fortunately, because I work at a bookstore, I was able to borrow the book, which turned out to be a really good thing 'else I'd have missed one of the most thrilling reads of the year. What an absolutely riveting and breathtaking read "What Angels Fear" proved to be!
In 1811, George III is sinking deeper and deeper into the madness, as his politicians question the wisdom of carrying on England's war with France, as well as whether or not they should support the move to make the profligate Prince of Wales, Regent of England. But for the newly returned ex-soldier, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and heir to the powerful Earl of Hendon, the all important question is how he's going to survive an upcoming duel of honour without getting killed or killing his opponent. Having survived that ordeal however, the last thing Sebastian expected later that morning was to have a chief magistrate and a couple of constables at his doorstep, ready to arrest him for the brutal rape and murder of a young actress, Rachel York. Knowing full well that he had no hand in the young woman's murder and realising that the only way for him to clear his name is if he were to investigate the murder himself, Sebastian escapes from the constables and disappears into the bowels of London's poverty stricken streets. There, using his training as an intelligence officer, and the help of a few unorthodox allies, Sebastian begins his hunt for Rachel's killer, questioning her old friends and examining her past, sure that the key to her murder lies in her past, while evading the authorities. The last thing he expected though, was to discover that members of his own family had dealings with the late Miss York. Could one of them have murdered the actress and planted the evidence against him? As the days pass and as the constables begin to get uncomfortably close to arresting him, Sebastian begins to fear that he may never clear his name or discover the identity of the sadist who murdered Rachel York...
I can only say that I'm looking forward to the next installment in this series (if there is one, that is) -- it could go in several different directions, but I'm hoping that the author will keep Sebastian in England no matter what. I thoroughly enjoyed "What Angels Fear" and would heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical mystery novels that possess a clever and engrossing plot that is full of interesting and vivid period details, and characters that engage. Also, the almost relentless pacing lent an air of immediacy and tension to novel, and gave it that edge-of-your-seat feeling and made the book practically unputdownable. "What Angels Fear" brought to mind historical novels by authors such as Bernard Cornwell and Alexander Dumas; I was completely hooked from the very first page, and found the book hard to put down. All in all, an excellent read.
I couldn't put it down!.......2005-11-21
I was quite impressed with the captivating plot and the rich character development of C.S. Harris' "What Angels Fear." I can't wait to see what comes next from this author.
Average customer rating:
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What Angels Fear: A Historical Mystery
C. S. Harris
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Historical | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Literature & Fiction | Large Print | Formats | Books
Mystery & Thrillers | Large Print | Formats | Books
ASIN: 0786284072 |
Average customer rating:
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An Unseen Society: The Vampire's Rose
Jason, M. Curley
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Dark Fantasy
| Horror
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Vampires
| Horror
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Fantasy
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1420890484 |
Book Description
The Vampire's Rose is the first book in a series that depict the lives and problems for a unique group of people, Vampires. These men and women live in the shadows of society, forced to keep what they really are a secret from the rest of mankind. Like every other group of people in the world, some Vampires are good while others are evil. The story revolves around Katherine, a kind hearted vampire who makes her living as a master thief. The recent loss of her husband has left her without a partner. Yet Jason, a vampire she sometimes works for, has a plan. It is a dangerous heist to steal a priceless work of art from a ruthless vampire. The job will pay well if she can do it. Maybe well enough to retire, but there is a problem. Jason's plan rests on the shoulders of a mere mortal. He is a simple construction worker named Dustin, which knows nothing about being a criminal, art or Vampires.
Amazon.com
Respected AIDS and cancer specialist Jerome Groopman, M.D., discussed the convergence of illness and spirituality in his first book, The Measure of Our Days. In Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine, he shifts his focus to the ways intuition informs his medical decisions and enhances the quality of his patient relationships (even giving him an edge when examining a patient on referral). In eight chapters that vividly recount cases whose outcomes hinge as much on the doctor's gut feeling and empathy as on his expertise, Groopman eschews the impersonal and know-it-all role of the doctor, describing instead dire cases in which careful consideration of both the emotional and medical issues positively impacted his approach to treatment.
"A clinical compass is built not only from the doctor's medical knowledge but also from joining his intuition with that of his patient," Groopman writes. "This melding of minds occurs when the physician probes not only his patient's body but also his spirit." This uniquely integrated compass is the guide that determines the safest, least traumatic treatment for people who are in advanced stages of illness or whose diagnoses are clinical conundrums. Of the eight stories here, there's Isabella, who was diagnosed with asthma but actually has acute leukemia; Peter, whose sickness is an enigma although he's clearly dying of a vicious lung-tissue disorder; and Alex, who will die from bone marrow failure unless its exact cause is identified. Groopman's narrative nimbly relates all the details of his patients' battles as well as the professional and emotional steps he takes when facing a medical challenge. In most cases, he has been sought out to provide a second opinion of the patient's diagnosis and proposed treatment. More often than not, the original diagnosis was inaccurate and Groopman's meticulous and insightful examinations yield findings that mean the difference between life and death.
Second Opinions is a thoughtful, riveting book and a compelling tribute to the efficacy of medical care when handled responsibly and with empathy. It is also a cautionary collection of stories that reveal oversights inevitable in the health-care industry's rush to maximize efficiency, and as such it teaches an important lesson about the patient's role in ensuring a high quality of care. While Groopman runs the risk of seeming self-congratulatory, he proves himself a trustworthy advocate of patient empowerment and his sincere, articulate portrayal of intuition's subtle force will be inspirational for anyone confronting illness. --Rebecca Wright
Book Description
The acclaimed doctor and author of the best-selling The Measure of Our Days---who writes "beautifully, tenderly, truthfully" (Oliver Sacks)--explores the art and science of decision-making in today's complex medical universe.
Jerome Groopman, an eminent clinician and researcher at Harvard Medical School and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, explored the spiritual dimension of illness in his highly praised The Measure of Our Days. In Second Opinions, he focuses on the greatest challenge that patients and their families face--how to evaluate and act on medical advice.
Told in eight gripping clinical dramas, linked by Groopman's unique insider's vantage point, Second Opinions is a book that reveals the forces at play--from the realities of medical politics to the importance of patient intuition--in making critical medical decisions. As we accompany Groopman, we witness him and his wife as anxious young parents of an infant near-fatally misdiagnosed; a family trapped by an HMO's rote plan about what seemed like routine asthma; and doctors' conflicts over a patient with no clear diagnosis--a case where non-intervention turned out to be the wise, lifesaving choice. An extraordinary reading experience, Second Opinions takes us into the complex and ever-changing world of medicine where knowledge is imperfect, no therapy is without risks, no prognosis fully predictable. Readers will come away with a profoundly changed perspective and a new ability to make medical choices, from a doctor Publishers Weekly said writes "with the eye of a poet, the heart of a philosopher, and the voice of a novelist."
Customer Reviews:
Whom to trust . . ........2004-12-01
This thought provoking and often disturbing book should come with a warning. It will make you question the judgment of your doctor if you or someone you know is ever faced with diagnosis and treatment of a life-threatening illness. Medical science and technology continue to make great strides forward, but following each of the case histories related by Dr. Groopman in this book, you realize how tenuous is the judgment of individual doctors who must advise patients and lead them to decisions affecting their health.
Reason, in the delivery of health care, is balanced against intuition, and intuition can take many forms, including doubt, egoism, professional jealousy, impatience, resistance, and anger, all of which appear at one time or another in the stories Groopman tells. Or, as one of his patients says, intuition is reason operating below the level of awareness. Making life-saving decisions is, we realize, a matter of expert guess work, and if there's a lesson here it's that the best guess work comes from intimate knowledge of the patient, which the cost-saving constraints of managed health care often prohibit.
I recommend this book for anyone wondering how much trust to put in the medical profession. A well trained and experienced doctor can still make the difference between life and death, but Groopman shows how patients need to play an active role in decisions about their own health, and that often involves seeking a second opinion and making a choice between incompatible courses of action.
Engrossing medical stories.......2001-07-24
Yes, Dr. Groopman does have a rather elevated opinion of himself, and yes, this book serves admirably as self-promotion, but, so what? Dr. Groopman's inability to assume a socially correct humility may be annoying and distracting to some, but I found it amusing and almost endearing. He wants so much to please and be that delight of mothers everywhere, "my son, the doctor," that it is impossible for him to show himself in an unflattering light. Even when he volunteers his mistakes, one has the sense that he is a larger person for having done so!
Well, I can think of worse styles, and anyway, what is important about this book is not the author's self-perception, but the light he sheds on the practice of medicine for the reader, and that light is considerable. He has a fine gift for telling a story and he writes in a clear and vivid manner that is easy to read, and we are thoroughly engrossed . Furthermore, the moral of most of the very interesting stories he presents here from his practice, is that the physician's first responsibility is to the patient, not to his ego, not to his career, not to the HMOs, and not even to his fellow physicians.
I was particularly impressed with Dr. Groopman's ability to criticize those physicians who let their egos and their pride come before their patients. He wasn't afraid to show how doctors who do not put the welfare of their patients first can cause pain and suffering and even death. Most doctors would never come close to being as critical of their peers as Groopman is here. I don't know whether he has an inordinate amount of courage, or a particularly thick skin, but I do know that many doctors will not be pleased with what he has revealed in these pages about the competence of some physicians, and he will pay a price for that.
Also impressive was Dr. Groopman's unflinching willingness to share with the reader not just his clinical experience, but his personal experience as well. In the first chapter, "Our Firstborn Son," he and his wife, who is also a doctor, become worried parents who take their sick son to the emergency room of a hospital, feeling as vulnerable and helpless as any other parents would, especially when they become concerned that the doctor on call is misdiagnosing their son's illness. In a later chapter he shares the story of his Grandfather Max who suffered from Alzheimer's disease in a way that made him uncontrollably violent. Most significant, though, is the story he tells about himself in the prologue. It is disarming in the sense that he too is guilty of pride and suffers most painfully for it. Once a marathon runner, he ends up crippled for a year, and to this day has a chronic debility that limits his mobility, all because he thought he knew better than the doctors who were treating him. It was a great and painful lesson for a young physician, the kind of lesson that molds us to better appreciate our limits and to empathize with the suffering of others, the kind of lesson that shapes a great physician.
So, I don't believe Dr. Groopman is ensconced in any ivory tower. He is a physician that is intimately involved in the welfare of his patients (and in his research), a man who understands the suffering patients go through first hand, and is sympathetic and, most important, knowledgeable and skillful. He is also a very good writer. I would be delighted to be so lucky as to have Dr. Groopman as my personal physician.
Dr. Gideon, I presume.......2000-12-02
I've enjoyed Dr. Groopman's essays in the New Yorker and so was happy to learn about this book, which I found to be a highly compelling and instructive read. Groopman is no Tolstoy, but he writes with precision, clarity, compassion and great understanding about people struggling for their lives, usually against cancer, and the peculiarly intimate role a good doctor plays in that struggle.
Of course, one of the unifying threads of the book is also the potentially life-threatening role a bad doctor can play in that struggle -- thus the need for second opinions and the difficulty many patients have in demanding them. Groopman is usually the good doctor here, saving his patients from the misguided diagnoses of others. But he doesn't entirely spare himself his sins. He forcefully highlights the way a doctor's inexperience, fatigue, ego, or momentary inattentiveness can have potentially fatal consequences. His deep experience as both clinician and researcher give the stories real authority.
What really struck me, though, was how such a collection of case studies is like a fictional short story collection only more satisfying for the fact that these are classic beginning, middle and end stories that are in fact true. As important, Groopman begins with one of his own family's stories, which effectively draws you in to his own life. That's important because this is ultimately a portrait of the kind of super smart and caring physician we'd all like to have when facing a crisis.
Gideon's Crossing owes a lot to this book, having already built a couple of episodes around case studies found here. The ultimate compliment, I guess, is that Groopman has created a vision powerful enough to deserve Andre Braugher.
Beautifully written.......2000-10-12
I'm somewhat amazed by the comments of the other reader reviewers (though less so by the self-identified physician, who seems to me to be suffering from sour grapes more than anything else in referring to Groopman's "ivory tower"). I found this books to be gripping and thought-provoking--as moving in its way as Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich" or Chekhov's "Ward Six," two other classics of doctor-patient relationships). Groopman writes with passion, precision, and elegance. Only incidental to me was his powerful rhetorical point--urging all of us to be as proactive as he in taking active, questioning roles in our own health. Perhaps the physician-reviewer is put off by the fact that Groopman does not seem to subscribe to the "omerta" of too many in the medical profession, but places the patient first, even though he is a committed researcher. I also recommend Groopman's earlier book, "The Measure of Our Days" and the edited volume, "AIDS Doctors: An Oral History," which gives voice to Groopman and many other brave warriors of the hospitals.
More of the same.......2000-09-13
With so many mass market books for layment written by medical doctors, it really is necessary to choose between those who are merely writing about their own practices and they problems they encounter (whether medically, morally or ethically) and those who are also wonderful writers, who use their own experiences to paint a broader picture of the human condition. I find Groopman very much in the former category (good doctor, mediocre writer) and people like Sachs and Nuland in the latter. Also, there is an elitism in Groopman's tales that is off-putting.
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