Amazon.com
Snow White's stepmother looks like a pussycat compared to the monster under which Adeline Yen Mah suffered. The author's memoir of life in mainland China and--after the 1949 revolution--Hong Kong is a gruesome chronicle of nonstop emotional abuse from her wealthy father and his beautiful, cruel second wife. Chinese proverbs scattered throughout the text pithily covey the traditional world view that prompted Adeline's subservience. Had she not escaped to America, where she experienced a fulfilling medical career and a happy marriage, her story would be unbearable; instead, it's grimly fascinating: Falling Leaves is an Asian Mommie Dearest.
Book Description
Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer.
A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood, Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains,
Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China.
Customer Reviews:
Read it entirely in one night.......2007-09-05
I found this book while browsing the library and borrowed it. I thought it would be good reading material for my daily subway rides since the book wasn't too long at all.
I had a quiet evening, so I started reading. Page by page I turned and when I finished the book it was 1am in the morning. It was definitely a page turner. The reader is kept on their toes to find out what comes next.
I was truly touch by Adeline's story and there were a couple of tear-jerking scenes. This book reminds me a lot of the 1st Harry Potter book somehow. Both tell the story of a rejected child living with sinister relatives.
Adeline's story is different from many other books in that she was a rejected child from a rich family that could have given her everything. Many memoiors tell of a very poor childhood, so I really liked that this was different. She was pretty much poor in a rich family.
I was full of rage when I found out Lydia was backstabbing her & how her brothers are still jerks as adults. Inheritance issues always bring out the nastiest in people. Ultra-rich families do not usually fare well & are usually the subject of drama serial TV in Hong Kong.
Lydia can just shove it...she is just about as dragonlady as Niang for what she did.
Edgar...gosh I wonder if he made a good doctor at all.
James...he's such a timid turtle & it got annoying to see him still like that as a grown adult.
Susan...she married into an ultra-rich family and didn't even care for the inheritance. I was happy for her as she was able to let go of her family.
Adeline...I wish she would stop being the nice person all the time. It was so unfair to her to be taken advantage of even as an adult (Lydia two-timing her while Adeline was willing to help Lydia's song, putting up with 1st abusive husband, still scared of Niang as an adult).
I really wish she had the courage to cut her family off and carve her own happiness with her own family (husband and 2 sons and future grandchildren). I really hope that Adeline is able to/or has already done so. I hope she is having a much happier life right now :)
A PERFECT STUDY OF SCAPEGOATING! ADELINE, YOU GO, GIRL!!!!.......2007-08-10
i have to respectfully disagree with Jazmanian here. No, not 'any family therapist would tell you being cut off from your family of origin would not do any good to your own family.' Even apes have families, and 'family of origin' is not always a safe place.
This book was ALL about moving on and finding blessings in the hand one is dealt. The author had one family member who truly loved her unconditionally and without deviation. Her discovery that her father truly did love her, in spite of his cowardice and weakness of character, gave her some satisfaction; but to realize that throughout her years of emotional torture, there was always one member of her immediate family who had never hurt her and loved her unconditionally, incontrovertibly - namely,her Aunt Baba - was enough for her to move on in her life, taking comfort in the love and support of her husband and child.
The abuse this woman endured was mind-boggling. The incidents with her pet duckling, the orange juice, and being sent to a boarding school that ALSO served as an orphanage was deplorable. But the most painful part of the book to me was when she and her husband accidently walked into that hotel room to find all her siblings having a celebration party to which she was not made aware. That broke my heart, because it hit so close to home; I experienced a similar incident with my own family.
This book was a great comfort to me because I learned that I'm not the only child this has happened to; my similarly dysfunctional family did the same sort of things to me (add in sexual abuse and daily beatings, and there you have it).
Sometimes one must accept that the family is sick and will never be healthy, and realize that one must remove one's self in order to, as you worded it, "do any good to your own family". Had she kept in contact with her sicklings, er, I mean, siblings, 'her own family' would surely have been exposed to their pathological toxicity. Her moving on was the best gift she had to give her family. Past behavior is a pretty good indication of future behavior; why would she want to expose her husband and children to these people?
As one who finally 'pulled the plug' from her bio toxic family, I applaud her for letting these people go.
Tragic beginning, whiny ending........2007-08-03
I enjoyed the beginning of this book. It presented a slice of history about which I was uninformed, wrapped in the personal true story of a little girl persecuted by her family. By the end of the book, though, I felt the author was more determined to make her case against her stepmother than to write a compelling story. The book did not hold my interest to the end, although I did finish it. I wanted to celebrate the triumph of the author over her painful start in life. Instead, I read an endless list of family misdeeds. Victimization of a helpless child is tragic. Wallowing in it as an adult is annoying.
Captivating memoir.......2007-07-10
This book had me very engrossed and actually crying. It doesn't overtly try to teach a lesson or philosophize, but it still makes you think about how it is that people can be so heartless, because we all know, they can.
Story of a Heroine? Or a desperate orphan?.......2007-06-12
Falling Leaves is a true story (from the perspective of the author) about how everyone's life in a rich Chinese family was turned upside down by the marriage of the father and an Eurasian step-mother. Besides the devilish treatment of the step-mother towards the author and her siblings, there was the betrayal between brothers and sisters, and how they fought mercilessly over the inheritance left by the father. Though the author became immensely successful in her medical career as well as her writing career over the Falling Leaves book and other novels, her unresolved bitterness towards her step-mother and her siblings was evident from the book. I would imagine that the author remains cut off from the rest of the family to this very day. Though the book tried to lead readers to see the heroine side of the author and how she overcame the torments given by her family and other misfortunes, one just can't help but wonder the price of her success--disclosing the ultimate ugly side of her very own family and the broken family relationships she is probably still suffering. I as a reader do doubt her motive of writing this book. Was she trying to inspire readers to overcome adversities in life, or was it to earn justice for herself outside the walls of the courtroom? Despite her success as a writer, I would not envy her life so filled with un-forgiveness and broken family relationship. Yes she also seems to have a happy marriage and good children, but as any family therapist could tell you, being cut off from your family of origin would not do any good to your own family.
Average customer rating:
- Uncle Oliver
- I wish all children were introduced to science like this!
- Memory is Precious
- If you rated it poorly, you'll never understand.
- A Chemical Childhood
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Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Oliver Sacks
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ASIN: 0375704043
Release Date: 2002-09-17 |
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Oliver Sacks's luminous memoir charts the growth of a mind. Born in 1933 into a family of formidably intelligent London Jews, he discovered the wonders of the physical sciences early from his parents and their flock of brilliant siblings, most notably "Uncle Tungsten" (real name, Dave), who "manufactured lightbulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire." Metals were the substances that first attracted young Oliver, and his descriptions of their colors, textures, and properties are as sensuous and romantic as an art lover's rhapsodies over an Old Master. Seamlessly interwoven with his personal recollections is a masterful survey of scientific history, with emphasis on the great chemists like Robert Boyle, Antoine Lavoisier, and Humphry Davy (Sacks's personal hero). Yet this is not a dry intellectual autobiography; his parents in particular, both doctors, are vividly sketched. His sociable father loved house calls and "was drawn to medicine because its practice was central in human society," while his shy mother "had an intense feeling for structure ... for her [medicine] was part of natural history and biology." For young Oliver, unhappy at the brutal boarding school he was sent to during the war, and afraid that he would become mentally ill like his older brother, chemistry was a refuge in an uncertain world. He would outgrow his passion for metals and become a neurologist, but as readers of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat know, he would never leave behind his conviction that science is a profoundly human endeavor. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals–also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.
In
Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks’ extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his “Uncle Tungsten,” whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes–in his own home laboratory.
Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.
Customer Reviews:
Uncle Oliver.......2007-07-19
The relationship between uncle and nephew is the most precious. Why? Because nephews confide in uncles like they don't confide in a father or mother. And uncles are sort of pseudo fathers to nephews. The responsibility of an uncle is not less than a father: to inspire and stimulate the child wherever he resists parental influence. I would imagine the rapport between an aunt and a niece is the same way, looking up to the corresponding role model and same sex mentor.
Although Dr. Sacks paints a portrait of his extended family in this book, his Uncle Dave "Tungsten" is highlighted as an important source of inspiration. His retelling of his childhood and adolescence is fascinating. This is a beautiful book, sometimes overwhelming when scientific lingo becomes predominant but very warm and engaging. Even with a poor knowledge in chemistry -- my case -- it's immensely enjoyable. Dr. Sacks' childhood memories are colorful, jam-packed, very serious at times but also humorous, a bit like John Boorman's movie "Hope and Glory".
I wish all children were introduced to science like this!.......2007-05-15
Sigh...as a science educator who sees students turned off of science in spite of it being much more interesting and useful then English and history, it's frustrating to read about a child whose family managed to convey the fun of science. I've enjoyed Oliver Sacks books so much. He is such a great person, a great neurologist, a great writer who manages to introduce the world to his scientific world and keep them interested. Too bad we cannot get someone like Sacks to write some of our textbooks because they are too dry, without showing the practical applications of the science. Sack's was lucky in having a family with immense background in the sciences, who spent their entire lives performing or doing science in some way. Very few of us have access to the equipment and the materials needed to do lab science at home, but Sacks did have access to this stuff and he certainly made the most of it.
Sack's stories include information about his big family and their great variety of work in the sciences. His descriptions of his family members, his memories are filled with both love and awe for their patience with him and his interests in sciences which sometimes were not the same as theirs (his mom and dad wanted him to be a physician, and not a chemist).
Sack's books are usually compendiums of short stories, which make for interesting reading. He has had so many intriguing forays into different fields of chemistry, and his ability to remember the textbooks and the books that famous scientists from that golden age in England and Germany are phenomenal in the recall. I remember the teacher in science who made such an impact on my perception of science, and I am only too aware of how short we are in obtaining good science teachers and introducing science programs into public schools. Maybe reading this book will encourage other young people with talent to look into science as a career possibility.
Karen L. SAdler
Memory is Precious.......2007-03-15
I loved reading this book for multiple reasons, but I will restrict myself to mentioning two. The first is that it is a well constructed story with excellent writing---a combination I cannot resist. The narrative moves at a pace to engage and captivate the reader without making the story just a rush to get to the next page. Writing that is thoughtful makes sure that the reader will savor and think about the events presented. This is worth a read merely to have the understanding of one more perspective presented well.
But there is more to the book that makes me give this an enthusiastic five stars. As a chemist I was delighted to read a book that gave insight into this space of history of the chemistry profession. The history is two-fold: first it is a history of childhood enthusiasm for science and second it is a history of chemistry in the middle of the 1900s. many a child is enthusiastic about something. For all those children who loved science but never had the means to explore this book will bring sadness at what they lost for not being given such freedom and support. But the book also brings joy at reading that someone, somewhere had the chance to be the brilliant child you always thought you were. Today we highly restrict certain chemicals and also have an emphasis on safety in working with all chemicals. Sacks presents a time period when chemistry and science in general was done with little concern for safety. Instead of glossing over things Sacks presents information and experiments without deluding the reading into thinking it was perfectly safe.
This book is an excellent exploration of multiple themes that are well worth thinking about. I challenge anyone to read it and not find something in it that doesn't provoke some thoughts about what you are doing now with what you are enthusiastic about or what you loved childhood and now have lost as an adult.
If you rated it poorly, you'll never understand........2006-07-15
I ran across this book quite by accident, on the bottom shelf of the Engineering section in the bowels of a major brick-and-mortar bookstore. Perusing the first few pages convinced me to give it a try. I was hooked, and devoured the book in two nights.
There are enough reviews here to give you a feel for the book. My only point for writing this is that those who have given the book poor reviews simply don't "get it", nor, likely, shall they. If you grew up with an avid interest in what makes the world work, wore out VHS tapes of Cosmos, and were reading Gribbin, Rucker, and Asimov (nonfiction) in second grade, you "get it" and will adore this book. Sacks's voracious appetite for knowledge at this young age mirrored my own, and his enjoyment of discovery for discovery's sake made me nostalgic of my own youth within the first few pages - an amazing testimonial of the timelessness of his relevance, given the nearly-50-year difference in our ages.
Note: I'm a professional manager of computer geeks, not a chemist.
A Chemical Childhood.......2006-05-28
Oliver Sacks is one of my favorite authors and I especially like his autobiographical-chemical tome "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood." I read it a while back and never reviewed it, but on the second reading while flying from El Paso, Texas, to Washington, DC, recently I was so delighted with it that I thought that I would put in my 2 cents worth.
I was lucky enough to meet Oliver Sacks about the time I read this book the first time and had a chance to talk with him (with a group of students) for a few minutes after his lecture. He is certainly a very interesting man and well versed in a number of fields.
His book on his early life and his association with chemistry as a nearly all consuming hobby was in many ways somewhat echoed in my own childhood- except I became consumed by both astronomy and chemistry in my teens. Still, like Sacks, I performed a number of experiments with a friend of mine that would now curl the hair of any parent, and in the process learned a lot about chemistry (it was my favorite science after biological sciences in college). Also like Sacks I became a biological scientist, but in a different specialty. Unfortunately I had no relatives who remotely understood my interests and I do envy him for his uncles and even his parents, who were not always so supportive, but did give him a love of learning and science.
Sacks has written an account of his early life with its sorrows (being sent away to a boarding school run by a sadistic head master during the Blitz in London) and the ecstasies (chemistry, books, science history and even marine biology)of a young boy caught up in the pure love of science and life, despite the trials. The book is simply charming and shows what a resourceful child can do, even under often difficult times, to make his or her life interesting and even joyful.
I recommend this book highly. It will brighten up any reader's day.
Book Description
Chairman Mao's personal physician and confidant for twenty two years, takes us for the first time into the Chinese dictator's very private world.
Customer Reviews:
This poor poor doctor.......2007-08-24
All the while while reading this book, the only thing I could think about was to feel for this poor poor doctor. Dr. Li was supposedly headed for a great life as a doctor in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, by following his brother's urging, he returned to China to a pretty much "doomed" career. Not only did he not get to pick his hospital job as wanted after returning, but after being summoned to be Mao's personal doctor, his dreams as a neurosurgeon was pretty much over. He was abolished to pretty much treating common colds and maladies, and acting as "nanny" to the Mao family, living in fear throughout the 20 years that he would be blamed for any illness of Mao.
I also felt so much for Dr. Li's wife Lillian whose career was reduced to rudimentary tasks.
Not a global view, but a wonderful sharp focus.......2007-01-18
This is a fascinating examination of one of the most powerful and (arguably) destructive world leaders of the 20th century. For somebody like me with a very basic familiarity of the history of Communist China, this book is a little lacking as a biography. It offers little detail on Mao's background and nothing about his rise to power. It does provide, however, a unique perspective on the Chairman's life between the years of 1954, when Dr. Li became Mao's personal physician, and Mao's death in 1976. It is the first biography I've ever read to so closely examine the head/body connection in terms of how one's politics affect one's health and one's health, one's politics.
The book has a natural bias, since Dr. Li lived with Mao throughout most of this time and was directly involved in many of the events described. He seems to strive for frankness, but a reader might sense that his memories are colored by his own attempts to save face. In some respects, it's more memoir of Li than biography of Mao--though that seems a small point to quibble about, since Mao was such a profound presence and influence in Li's life. Those seeking a detached perspective are advised to look elsewhere; this is a purely personal view.
I found it very rewarding. It humanized Mao to a much greater extent than biographies of political leaders generally do. Li seems to want to do justice to his subject, casting blame where appropriate and giving credit where he believes credit is due. The overall picture it presents of the Chairman is of a man with a sharply manipulative mind, but far more power than he could manage; with a much greater love for himself and his image than for the people he professed to serve. But at the same time, though Li may not intentionally have presented the image, Mao also emerges as a prisoner of the system he helped to emplace and so liberally exploited, particularly as he ages and his heath deteriorates. Hounded by his own superstitions and paranoias, he was ill-served by the sycophants he chose to surround him, but so blinded by his own cult of personality that he could never accept a true friend. This towering and terrifying figure is reduced to a querulous, feeble old man with no recourse to privacy or claim to humanity even in death, where his objectification extended to the point that his doctors were ordered to preserve his bloated corpse for eternal display. Sadly, I can't help but think that the Chairman would have approved.
take a look.......2007-01-06
Fascinating reading but not substaniated with facts. A personal experience point of view which may well be close to the truth.
Also a lesson of survival from Dr. Li.......2006-11-29
This book is not only an entertaining way to learn Chinese modern history as many of the reviewers here pointed out but also an important personal lessons of survival when we have to deal with a difficult boss for example. Borrowing the language from "7 habits of effective people," it is to focus your energy on your circle of influence and not on the circle of concern. In this book there are countless examples of people who did the latter (voiced their concern about the welfare of China as a nation and the common people) and invited misfortune upon themselves almost without exception. Dr. Li taught us that we must be aware of what we can do and never worry about what we cannot do.
If I could recommend only one China book... .......2006-08-27
Dr. Li was the man responsible for Mao's health from 1954 until Mao's death in 1976. He saw a lot. He's honest, eminently readable, and eye-opening. The translation is excellent. A cover blurb by Professor Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia University, calls it, "The most revealing book ever published on Mao, perhaps on any dictator in history." I agree with that. Even though it's almost 700 pages, I enjoyed every word. Long-time subscribers know I prefer to read a book in one sitting instead of two. Dr. Li had me for three, despite my notoriously short attention span. If I could recommend only one China book...
As I've mentioned elsewhere, this book makes me feel like I've been "behind the scenes" during Mao's regime. I almost want to go back and reread all my "China books" and enjoy my new perspective.
Book Description
limited 1,000 copy edition reprint of an extremely scarce memoir only previously published in England, and published by Aberdeen Bookstore. This is a story of Stalingrad seldom talked about. Dibold relates his experiences in Stalingrad during the battle, and the utter helplessness he felt as the casualties were so high and in conditions so appalling with little or no medical supplies. Then after capture Dibold remained in Stalingrad and in conditions that are beyond comprehension. Part of the time he was in the huge underground Timoshenko bunker the Russians built. Often working in complete darkness in narrow corridors crammed full of injured soldiers, Dibold again was in a position of being able to offer little in comfort. The lice were atrocious, Dibold talks of scooping them from injured abdomen, the stench unfathomable, and the black tarry walls dripping with stench from the condensation of steam coming from wounds. Tyhpus was rampant. Even after the last shot was fired in Stalingrad, things were far from over for Dibold. He words aren't minced, and he tells of the finest and darkest of human behavior during these times, only 1000 copies printed, bound in full cloth using an exact copy of original dust jacket published originally in 1958!
Customer Reviews:
A Well Deserve Penance!.......2006-07-31
As an historian and avid reader who purchases dozens of books each year and who researches each purchase beforehand, I rarely have cause to be disappointed in the books I buy. This book, however, was a major exception. I found it less than compelling reading; poorly written, disjointed, confusing and certainly not worth the purchase price.
Also, I found that the author's underlying theme of his own martyrdom and that of his fellow German prisoners in Soviet Prisoner of War camps, irritated me tremendously. Indeed, the book's full title, "Doctor at Stalingrad. The Passion of a Captivity" says a great deal about the image the author wished to create.
One wonders about his piety and those of his fellow soldiers when the German armed forces were running rampant over the Soviet Union, exterminating Jews and Slavs, razing cities, and starving the population of the Soviet Union. German historians have now made it very clear that the German army played a major role, alongside the SS, in the large-scale atrocities committed throughout Soviet Russia. Indeed, most of the prisoner of war camps, in which some millions of Soviet POWs died, were run by the German army. And thus it is hard to pity Hans Dibold or his comrades taken prisoner after the German Sixth Army's debacle at Stalingrad.
Yes, life in Soviet POW camps was terrible, a virtual hell, but Dibold and his colleagues were only reaping the hate-filled whirlwind they had sown. And unlike millions of Red Army soldiers who fell captive to the Germans, Hans Dibold survived. Had the Red Army not defeated the Third Reich in battles such as Stalingrad, Hitler's Wehrmact would have exterminated a good part of the Soviet population, while enslaving the rest. And it would have been virtually impossible, without the hundreds of Wehrmact divisions tied down by the Soviet Army, for the remainder of the Allies to invade and liberate Europe.
Rather than buy this book readers would do better to turn to some of the new histories and Red Army memoirs of the Eastern Front in World War II. Most are much better written and a great deal more compelling, honest and insightful than this book.
A rare view of the war.......2005-11-10
This is one of the rare first hand accounts of the fall of Stalingrad and the end of the German 6th Army. This first rate book was produced with a very high quality binding and with great care given to the choice of paper used as a reproduction. Limited numbers of these books have been printed.
A Ghastly Reality.......2003-04-27
This book is a great read and an account that portrays what it was like to fall into Russian captivity after the German surrender at Stalingrad. Be warned, this book is not for the faint hearted as the author descibes the appalling and ghastly conditions experienced as he remained in Stalingrad with the worst cases of the sick and wounded. The author creates a picture of the 'living dead' as the remnants of the Sixth Army waste away with starvation and diease as he and his fellow doctors work unrelentlessly to keep them alive. This is no easy task considering the doctors are suffering under the same conditions as that of the other German prisoners, conditions of a cruel Russian winter, no adequate warm clothing and shelter and near to nothing in way of food and medical supplies. Incredibly the author bears no grudges againsnt the Russians and at times shows them with a compassion and in a more favourable light than some of the German prisoners.
Although this a book of much suffering, death and dispair, it is also a book of survival and shows the grim results of war and how man can endure such terrible conditions. Conditions of living in darkness in the Timoshenko bunker with condensation dripping off the walls, thousands of lice and rampant diseases of typhus, dysentery, scurvy to name a few and of course starvation. These conditions destroyed the soul and will to live of many. Those that survived had the ultimate courage and faith in mankind but would be tormented mentally or physically for the rest of their lives for what they experienced.
A special thankyou should go to the publishers Aberdeen Books for reprinting this rare and tragic account of life after the battle of Stalingrad. This is an essential read.
Book Description
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City saw its first AIDS patient in August 1985. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases who became, by necessity, the local AIDS expert. Out of his experience comes a startling, ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland.
Customer Reviews:
A Doctor's Love for his Patients.......2007-05-30
This based-on the author's true-story details the time he was just starting out as a doctor. He picked a Hospital in smalltown United States where he would be the infectious disease specialist. Suddenly, cases of AIDS appeared even in that small town. It was the 80's epidemic and as it spread from the big cities AIDS victims were met with fear and a lack of compassion from most doctors. Verghese was one of the few who truly listened to and cared for his patients through such a terrible disease.
An excellent personal account of the emergence of AIDS.......2007-04-24
In "My Own Country" Dr. Abraham Verghese tells the story of the emergence of AIDS in rural Tennessee from his perspective as a new foreign doctor. In the process of describing the increased presence of the disease in his community, Dr. Verghese also tells the personal stories of his patients as well as his own story - how working with the disease opens his mind to new perspectives as well as the toll it places on him personally. The author's narrative style is compassionately captivating, managing to entertain and inform at the same time. I'd highly recommend it for those seeking to learn more about what being a good doctor is like or about the difficulties faced by those that had to deal with the disease in its emergent era.
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story.......2007-01-11
This is an excellent story. It is an interesting and informative read.
An Important Chronicle..........2006-10-05
Dr. Verghese's depiction of AIDS in Johnson City is a powerful book about the way this disease first entered the American consciousness. As an outsider - an Indian doctor in the Midwest - writing about his experiences with the gay community and others who were first diagnosed with HIV and AIDS provides a unique perspective into the way people ostrasized and condemned, often in the name of God, those who were first diagnosed. One reviewer commented that the book is dated, but in fact, Verghese's account remains an important one as it not only describes a disease that has shaped and continues to shape our collective consciousness, but is also applicable for the way it reminds us how terrible we can be when faced with an unknown and how easy it can be to attack those we don't understand.
What Verghese does so well is provide a human aspect to almost everything he writes about. I, too, read the Tennis Partner before reading this, and I think the way he is able to juxtapose his own family life and the way it slowly disintegrates, while at the same time doing so much to keep other families together btoh physically and spiritually is remarkable. The individual cases he describes are so vivid and truly provides a face to the diease.
I highly reccomend this book to anyone considering the health profession (along with his other book the Tennis Partner and Gawunde's Complications) as well as people who are curious about infectious disease and its impacts upon society.
Tells an important story, but is too dated for 2006 readers.......2006-03-06
I love to read medical non-fiction, about doctors, nurses and their experiences in the world of medicine. Since I was a fan of Verghese's work from The Tennis Partner, I picked this book up with a lot of enthusiasm.
This book tells a quietly tragic and compelling story about the beginning of the AIDS crisis, and Verghese's personal experiences and feelings as he treats his first AIDS patients. The writing is clear and he is great at observing the small details in life that make you feel like you are living the story.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't feel current anymore. The perspective that Verghese has is still very valuable, but in 2006 the book is more valuable for understanding the history of the disease than it is for understanding the current reality for those dealing with HIV/ AIDS.
He does an amazing job chronicling the incredible stigma and difficulties faced by those with the disease, and the attitudes that were common then about AIDS and homosexuality. But our culture, medicine, and treatment of HIV/ AIDS have all changed so drastically since the eighties that this book really is better as a look backwards at how things used to be than it is a current look at the treatment and care people with AIDS experience now.
I hope Verghese writes more, because he is a powerful writer with some amazing stories to tell. I think this book has an important place in our cultural library, but if you are looking for a book to help you understand how people with AIDS live nowadays, you would be better off looking elsewhere.
Book Description
"We walked out onto a side porch, with woven-seat rocking chairs strewn across it, to look out at the hills that were literally ablaze with color--reds and yellows were painted across the promontories, with amber and orange hues specked the bluffs. The spectacular view all the way to the peak of the distant Frye Mountain reminded us of why so many chose to visit this wilderness area during the fall color season."
But the little mountain hamlet of Bryson City, North Carolina, offers more than dazzling vistas. For Walt Larimore, a young "flatlander" physician setting up his first practice, the town presents its peculiar challenges as well. Schooled in the latest medical technology, the eager doctor--his wife, Barb, and two-year-old daughter, Kate, in tow--is about to discover that there are some things in rural practice for which medical school just hadn’t prepared him. But he’s about to learn. His patients will often be his best teachers, and his classroom will range from hospital corridors and smelly barns to homey kitchens and mountain streams.
With the winsomeness of a James Herriott book, Bryson City Tales sweeps you into a world of colorful characters, the texture of Smoky Mountain life, and the warmth, humor, quirks, and struggles of a small country town. It’s a world where the family doctor is also the emergency physician, the coroner, and the obstetrician, and where wilderness medicine is part of the job, search-and-rescue calls in the national forest are a way of life, and the next patient just may be somebody’s livestock or pet. And it is the place where the practice of medicine will forever shape Dr. Larimore’s practice of life and faith.
Sharing the joys, heartaches, frustrations, and rewards of rural mountain medical practice, Bryson City Tales is a tender and insightful chronicle of a young man’s rite of passage from medical student to family physician. Laughter and adventure await you in these pages, and lessons learned from the strengths, foibles, and simple faith of Bryson City’s unforgettable residents.
Customer Reviews:
Tired of sex and violence?.......2007-03-09
Nice, homey story.....I have the series nice change from the crazy world of today. No "bad" word, no sex no violence just nornal home towm life. A young man graduates med school and starts his practice in a small town where he make adjustments, not always easy but worthwhile........
Good for future doctors..........2007-01-16
As someone from a small town who is in medical school and wants to do family practice, I found this book inspiring. It was reccommended to me by a friend. Some of the stories seem a little exaggerated for good storytelling (hence the 4 stars instead of 5), but overall it's an easy and fun read. I read the whole thing in two short afternoons. Definately a must have for anyone considering family practice or anyone considering a medical career in a small town.
A bit of a confusing mix of medicine, religion, sports and memoir.......2006-06-04
Although there are certainly interesting elements here, this book has some of the most jarring transitions from one element to another I've ever read. Parts of it are strictly medical, including a tale at the beginning that would make any seasoned viewer of CSI troubled. Then there are long sports sections---high school football and fishing especially. Then the author has a religious revelation, and we read about that for a while. After that, it's straight memoir for a bit, and we learn about his family and past, but in disjointed, someone confusing pieces. None of the writing is bad, but I just couldn't settle in and really get much out of it.
Also, the backwoods people the good doctor encounters are often way too stereotyped to strike me as real. This book is not set in the distant past, but the folks we meet seem straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies, with dialet and folk remedies galore. I can't say that wasn't really the case, but it seems a bit contrived to me.
The background story of new doctor not being accepted is a bit confusing to me---we aren't really told enough about WHY the older doctors had it in for him quite so badly.
I think the author might do well to seperate this book out and REALLY tell the stories. I'd love to read more about his daughter and her struggle with CP, something we are in the process of figuring out in our family. His medical stories are interesting also, and I would be interested to hear about his journey to faith. But it can't all be in one book!
Delightful memoir.......2006-04-05
Dr. Walt Larimore received excellent medical training at Duke University. Armed with a new medical degree, his wife, and 3-year-old daughter, he journeyed to the small town of Bryson City, North Carolina, to begin his practice. What he learned is that there were many things which had not been taught at the Duke Medical School. Doctors and nurses who had been in practice for many years taught him that sometimes the old, simple procedures worked just as well as the up-to-date techniques which he favored early in his practice. He also learned that appeals to the Great Physician were much appreciated by his patients and served to calm him in a crisis. He was surprised to discover that a country doctor does not only deal with human patients, but animal ones as well. All was not easy, as both of his children faced medical crises, and some of the older doctors opposed his presence in their town. Dr. Larimore's self-effacing manner and gentle humor make this a delightful read. I am looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.
Excellent - entertaining, captivating, and heart touching.......2005-02-21
Larimore captivated both my wife and I with his writing and tales of his experience as a new doctor starting out in a new town in North Carolina. Unlike one reader, I never got the impression that the local people were anymore "backwards" than you would find anywheres else. Indeed, it becomes quite clear as Larimore continues to develop as a complete doctor that he has a number of things to learn from the people that were around him. It is fascinating to watch him grow in his practice and expertise, in his faith, and in his relationships with the local people. His love for his patients come through quite clearly.
His tales range from soul touching and heart touching to downright hilarious...the theological exposition that Christ was most definitely a fly fisherman and NOT a lake fisherman was particularly entertaining...and his experience with the couple that had just suffered a miscarriage deeply touches the soul.
For those that enjoyed Herriot, these tales will fit right in - except that the subjects are people (well, most of the time!). I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
Book Description
This third book in a series chronicling a young doctor in rural mountain practice immerses us once again in the lives of Dr. Walt Larimore and his family as an unexpected turn of events compels them to leave Bryson City.
Customer Reviews:
Not as Good as the First Two.......2007-05-16
I did not enjoy this book as much as the first two that Dr. Larimore wrote, possibly because much of it was material from the first two books. His insight as a Christian is wonderful though, and his response to problems faced by us all was uplifting and insightful. The book just seemed to be somewhat of a let down with regard to the story line.
Bryson City Secrets.......2006-11-06
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I had previously read the first 2 books of Dr. Larimore, Bryson City Tales and Bryson City Seasons, and I enjoyed this book.
Bryson City Secrets:Even More Tales of a Small-Town Doctor in the Smoky Mountains.......2006-08-13
I have read all of his books and they were most enjoyable. I have visited in that area many times and feel I knew places he was talking about. I also have enjoyed Deep Creek with my family. He is an excellent writer. I couldn't put the book down, couldn't wait to see what would happen next. Many sad things took place, but ended with a good satisfying ending, knowing all those involved would come through in being honest.
The darker side of Bryson City.......2006-07-07
This is the third book of a trilogy by Dr. Walt Larimore who writes about his memories as a young husband, father, and doctor in the small town of Bryson City in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. As in the first two books, this one contains a lot of self-deprecating humor, such as when Dr. Larimore is coerced into being a bridesmaid in a "womanless wedding", a local fundraiser. There are humorous moments when Walt is called on to be a vet rather than a doctor, touching times of treating a blind man and his seeing-eye dog, and amazing incidents such as the first birth of triplets in the county. At the end, the story turns darker and the Larimores are faced with a difficult decision which they make through prayer and good advice from friends. This book and the other ones in the series are highly recommended reading.
Both enjoyable and inspirational.......2006-06-01
If you've followed the story of Dr. Walt Larimore's medical practice in the Smoky Mountains from BRYSON CITY TALES to BRYSON CITY SEASONS, you won't want to miss BRYSON CITY SECRETS. This latest installment continues Larimore's enjoyable stories of small-town rural medical practice, and explains why he and his family mysteriously left the small town they loved to move to another state.
In BRYSON CITY SEASONS, we left the Larimore family as they made the decision to leave the Smoky Mountains for a practice in Florida. Here, Larimore sets up his book well by leading off with a phone call from his 24-year-old daughter Kate, who has remembered a terrible incident from her past and wants to be reassured it was just a bad dream. There is just enough information for the reader to guess at what happened --- and what will be revealed in the coming chapters --- without giving it away until the end of the book. This keeps the pages turning, as the book opens with some of the usual Bryson tales.
And they are vintage Larimore: earthy, nostalgic, and often funny. The first three chapters find the doctor called to a murder scene, where a woman is suspected of brutally killing her husband with a butcher knife. Larimore, however, has his doubts when he examines the corpse and then the woman, who is hospitalized and unable to communicate. As the short story comes to its conclusion, he reflects on the darkness of all human hearts and the forgiveness available to everyone through Christ.
He's not Pollyannaish, however, but honest. "Frankly, even though I had prayed for the handyman the night of the crime, part of me didn't want to accept the premise that the Creator of the universe would and could love a murderer as much as he would love anyone else. Why wouldn't God want this man to suffer for the suffering he had inflicted and the life he had taken? Isn't there a certain amount of evil that cannot be forgiven -- that should not be forgiven?" This is a nice foreshadowing of the bigger event to come --- one that will challenge Larimore to forgive beyond what he may find possible.
There's plenty going on in Bryson City besides the occasional murder. Seven-year-old Tommy Shoap shows up in the emergency room near death, but his parents are reluctant to have much medical treatment given. They rely on herbal medicine and backwoods remedies, and don't put much stock in modern doctoring. Blind Dan McGill makes an appointment to see the doctor, but it turns out it's for his guide dog Samson, a golden retriever. He's hoping Larimore will give his pooch a checkup.
One thing that's enjoyable about the series is that Larimore is not afraid to be specific about some of the personal aspects of his cases. One humorous chapter deals with an 18-year-old who is married, pregnant and has a yeast infection. She tells him that she usually treats it with a backwoods remedy, yogurt douches, which work perfectly. However, when Larimore suggests the remedy to another female patient, she uses strawberry yogurt instead of plain yogurt, with interesting results. "One of the reasons they call my profession 'the practice of medicine' is that a doctor's education never ends," writes Larimore.
Although, as Larimore says, "death, despair, and disappointment are the unwelcome callers that come with every physician's battle with disorder and disease," what differentiates this book from his previous installments in the series is the dark backdrop of occult activity going on around Bryson City. The reader will feel the tension unfolding throughout the book right up until the climax, where we discover the "secret" that led Larimore to leave his practice. Readers may have differing opinions about how the difficult situation upon which the story turns was handled, but there's no doubt that Larimore is engagingly vulnerable about sharing what happened to his family with his readers. His willingness to share his family's "secret" may help some readers be more open about their own past "secrets" and find healing.
Just as in the previous books, the stories Larimore spins usually have a devotional-style ending, where a spiritual point is made. The way he sets up his chapters (usually each with its own short story, sometimes spread across a few short readings) makes this book easy to pick up and read short bits at a time. If you haven't read the first two Bryson City books, it's best to do so in order. You'll want to read all three.
--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby. Contact Cindy at phrelanzer@aol.com.
Customer Reviews:
upallnight.......2007-09-24
Once I started reading I could not stop. I thought I might be getting myself into a book that, although I felt compelled to read it I was afraid I would cry throughout. Not so. This book told the real story and revealed how moronic the entire situation became, day by day, hour by hour. I could only chuckly at how rediculous the situation became. If I didn't know better by personal experience I would think it was a satirical comedy that someone made up after a bad dream. Sadly it was all true. I agree with one of the other reviews, this is a must read for anyone that could potentially face any type of disaster, expected, unexpected, natural or manmade.
Thank you Dr.D for taking the time to chronical everything. Especially, considering that post-K there isn't much time for the luxury of such things. It is amazing your mind and memory could focus on this project.
Thank you.
Excellent book!.......2007-09-13
We lived in New Orleans for nine years and during that time used several doctors at Memorial Hospital. Dr. Deichmann was our Internal Medicine physician. Later we moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and lost everything in Katrina, so we have a special interest and bond with those who experienced it. I remember Dr. Deichmann as a kind, quiet, professional physician and to picture him in these horrific circumstances is almost unbelievable. This book contains everything - sadness, frustration, courage, and even humor in the most dismal moments. I read it in one sitting, and will recommend it to all my fellow friends and survivors.
Good Creditable Read.......2007-08-04
This account by a professional is an easy to read, yet fascinating, portrait of the scene and happenings within the hospital during the Katrina episode. It is not overly dramatic or accusing, but a straightforward and creditable observation. I really appreciate the first-hand knowledge from a respected source. It was a while before we locals could deal with too much knowledge on too many happenings or were capable of facing and digesting how and what transpired. This is a study of dedication and courage of the staff at Memorial Hospital and is uplifting and healing because of those qualities that the staff displayed for all of us out here... It gives us hope and offers redemptive healing for the sins of the community because of their sacrifices and willingness to do the same in the future. I am grateful for that and this book.
Wonderful Detail of a Horrifying Story.......2007-07-15
As the son of a man who experienced much of the same bedlam in the hosptial Dr. Deichmann writes about, I can safely say that this book accurately describes the events that unfolded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. You will be hard pressed to find a more honest book about the storm, especially from a doctor's standpoint on trying to evacuate a hosital when the authorities have all but ignored your call for help.
I spoke to my Dad twice while many of the events in this book were occuring before his very eyes. There's a sad truth about our city and our country that lies in the pages of these books. If you want a truthful, gritty story told through normal eyes, this book will fulfill that desire.
From and other excempt person during Katrina - a tourist,.......2007-05-22
Great Book!!!! I read the entire book in one long lunch setting as I was devouring the story along with my Cajun lunch.
Have you always wondered what was going on inside the hospitals in NOLA during and after Katrina? Here is the book for you.
Dr. Deichmann does an excellent job in describing the horrific conditions he, the patients and staff had to endure until they finally realized "they were on their own" for evacuations.
Even the timing of the hurricane coorelated with an interesting time in the author's life as he was taking one daughter to college when they realized Hurricane Katrina was a threat to his beloved city. Dr. Deichmann did what not too many in charge on the local and state levels (as well as a hard core hospital bureaucrat well described in the book) he showed "initiative".
My husband and I were on vacation when Delta canceled our flight and we could not get out before the hurricane. The tourists as well as people inside the hosptials in New Orleans were "excempt" from mandatory evacuation. The author shows just how terrible being in this special group could acutally be and how he, along with fellow staff members, did their best to care for patients in the ever growing unsafe city.
A MUST read for every healthcare professional as you never know when you may be caught in something of this magnitude, and the types of skills needed to handle the issues at hand quickly aren't part of your clinical training.
[...]
Book Description
When Chechen rebels took Moscow theatergoers hostage in October 2002, it tragically highlighted the ongoing conflict between Russia and its breakaway republic, Chechnya—a war that has claimed an estimated 200,000 Chechen lives in the past decade. Yet the true nature of the debacle lies behind the headlines. In The Oath, a heroic Chechen doctor relates his harrowing experiences in the line of fire to bear witness to this international calamity, and illuminates his remarkable people and their culture.
In 1994, when fighting threatened to break out in Chechnya, Baiev left his promising career in Russia to aid his countrymen. First, he worked in a Grozny hospital until it was destroyed by Russian shelling. Returning to his hometown of Alkhan Kala, he and his fellow villagers restored a clinic with his own funds, and he soon found himself the only doctor for 80,000 residents in six villages and 5,000 refugees. During the next six years, he worked without gas, electricity, or running water, with only local anesthetics, and at one point dressed wounds with sour cream or egg yolks when supplies ran out. He often donated his own blood for surgeries, and on one occasion performed sixty-seven amputations in forty-eight hours.
Although he mainly treated civilians, Baiev also cared for Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters alike, never allowing politics to interfere with his commitment to the Hippocratic oath. He harbored Russian deserters and Chechen rebels at great personal risk and single-handedly rescued a Russian doctor who was scheduled to be executed. For this, Baiev was nearly killed by both the Russian special forces and Chechen extremists. Only when the Russian Army ordered him arrested for treating a wounded rebel warlord did Baiev finally flee Chechnya.
Echoing through his memoir is the history of Chechnya, a Muslim nation the size of Connecticut with a population of one million. Baiev explains the roots of the Chechen- Russian conflict, dating back 400 years, and he brings to life his once-beautiful ancestral home of Makazhoi where his family clan goes back generations, steeped in ancient traditions that are an intriguing blend of mountain folklore—including blood vendettas, arranged marriages, the authority of village elders—and Muslim religious rituals. And he writes frankly about the challenges of assimilating into western culture and about the post-traumatic stress disorder that has debilitated him since the war began.
The Oath is an important eyewitness account of the reality of the Chechen-Russian conflict, in which countless atrocities have been committed against average Chechens in stark contrast to the Kremlin’s portrayal of the conflict. It is also a searing, unforgettable memoir that is certain to become a classic in the literature of war.
Customer Reviews:
A compelling read, deeply inspiring and heartwrenching.......2006-11-26
This book is far more than a memoir -- it is a page-turning narrative of the wonderful and terrible drama of life and war in a region about which we think little and know even less, written by a man of exceptional bravery and humanity. I met Dr. Baiev shortly after his arrival in Washington, DC, where my girlfriend (working for Physicians for Human Rights at the time) coordinated PHR's assistance to Dr. Baiev in Washington. At the time I had little appreciation for just what this man had been through, although it was obvious he had survived a harrowing ordeal. To read now the full story behind the brief weeks in which his life intersected ours has been both fascinating and deeply moving. His account of living as a Caucasus youth in the Soviet Union, his struggle to become a doctor, and his extraordinary dedication to his profession, his people and and his faith through two protracted and brutal wars is by turns fascinating, inspiring and heartwrenching. You will not find a more intimate account of the conflict in Chechnya, nor a better illustration of the way that such conflicts have become simultaneously global and local. If you care about peace, if you care about the prospects for a free and prosperous world, you cannot afford not to care about the gross violations of human rights that accompany conflicts increasingly economic, sectarian and cultural all at once. Dr. Baiev's gripping account puts a profoundly human face on the complexity and the urgency of coming to grips with the destructive conflicts that need not and should not continue into the twenty-first century.
Thrilling, heartbreaking must read primer on the human toll of war.......2006-06-03
If you are interested in war, modern politics, news, or human rights, you need to read this book. It shows what warfare is really like, what happens to people after governments make decisions. And it is heartbreaking, but you cannot put it down.
The conflict in Chechnya is mostly forgotten and then often miscontrued topic for most of the world. Dr. Khassan Baiev's memoir sheds a light on the horrors of life in Chechnya since 1994, what this ghastly, genocidal war means for the common people and Russian grunts. Baiev is a surgeon with a big heart, and never turned anyone away. He explains casualties from the rather disturbing anatomical perspective of a surgeon, illustrating how fragile bodies and how much pain people can suffer.
The book starts with his life before the war: of the ancient and beautiful Chechen traditions, of the extreme and often brutal Russian racism. As you read the book, the cultural differences between the ancient highlander Chechens and the rest of the Western world seem dwarfed by how lovely their life was, and how, as you read it, you can see yourself in their world. What stays with you is that once you empathize on this level, the eruption of war and desolation is utterly heartbreaking. Because Baiev lived it we see an intimate world being shattered, not a headline.
Baiev (narrowly) survives years of war until both the Russians and Chechen guerillas are out for his head because his clientele includes everyone (and mostly civilians) so he has to escape to America, and eventually moved to Boston. His observants description of coming to America, seeing how peaceful it is here, how people of many races coexist, and how a town in Vermont took care of his family, gives you a deeper appreciation for what we have in this country and that many take for granted.
I've never read anything that captures so vividly and personally the heartbreakingly human face of war. I think everyone should read it just to be educated on something that is going on at this moment, but that many people do not know about or simply don't understand. It speaks of overwhelming swaths of cruelty and evil, but also transcendent moments of grace and joy, humanity between enemies. Baiev treated anyone who needed help, so we see souls, not sides.
What steals the breath from you, what made me rather emotional, is how war is revealed here as so useless, so tragic, so profoundly evil because we are all people, and war destroys and perverts this sacred life that we all share in.
an excellent book.......2006-04-24
If you plan on investing your time in reading one book this year make it this one. It is a remarkable tale of an honourable man trying to survive in barbaric times under the tyranny of Putin's Russia. Hassan Biev states that one in every five chechens has been killed as a result of the conflict. However after all this carnage the war stills continues and the state still exits in the hearts of men like Dr. Biev. Perhaps the actions of people like him will ultimately lead to peace in that most violent of places.
A very interesting book........2005-07-30
Let me begin by saying that if everything in this book is true Dr. Baiev has my total respect and admiration. It's inspiring to realize that people of his caliber do exist.
There are, however, one or two disquieting features of this book that I feel compelled to mention. After having read the initial reviews I had expected not only a compelling story of human strength amidst tragedy, but a book of high literary accomplishment. That has not come to pass. Whatever Dr. Baiev's own writing style, it has been submerged in the journalistic style of Nicholas and Ruth Daniloff. Nick Daniloff is he of the famous Soviet espionage sting of the 1980's when he was arrested in Moscow in an apparent KGB set-up. Ronald Reagan himself is reported to have been involved in getting Daniloff released. I just wish Dr. Baiev had been able to choose a more literary writer to assist him in developing this book.
Another point I'm almost embarrassed to make is that Dr. Baiev comes across in this book as almost too good to be true. Not only is he an heroic doctor, brave humanitarian, and loyal son, brother, and friend, he is also described a medical entrepreneur, a doctor who not only moonlights as a cosmetic surgereon, but who is also a national martial arts champion! If this book is made into a film I can only imagine Harrison Ford playing the part of Dr. Baiev. It almost seems as if some of Dr. Baiev's financial and sports successes were included in the book just to appeal to the certain segment of the community that might find those aspects of his life as compelling as the humanitarian work of saving lives and limbs amidst war and destruction.
Nevertheless, the book is full of unique tid-bits. While many people reading it will be aware of Russia's halting attempts to convert its military forces from a large army of draftees to a smaller one of professional soldiers this is the first time I'd seen such a negative depiction of these new contract soldiers. I don't think I'd have gotten this insight anywhere but in this book. Likewise, it was also very interesting to read that in addition to the fight between the Russian military and the Chechen rebels there is a criminal, opportunistic element also actively engaged in exploiting the tragedy of Chechnya and which appears to be much more influential than I would have imagined. I think that this insight is very valuable, not only in the context of the Chechenya, but in understanding the influence of criminal opportunists in other conflicts. For me this insight itself was worth the price of the book.
I certainly recommend The Oath, worts and all.
Opened My Eyes.......2005-07-25
This book opened my eyes to the tragedy in Chechnya, and now I want to know more. A compelling, first-hand narrative of the situation in Chechnya that everyone should read.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting..........2006-02-03
This was an interesting book and I feel that I learned a number of things about medical school education. However, I must agree with the other reviewers that Mr. Konner is a bit of a narcissist and a little too pessimistic. If you can ignore his self-aggrandizing tone and slight pessimism, this can be a fairly interesting and informative read. As far as the literature on medical education, I can't say this book really stands out. I recommend reading "Intern Blues" first.
Candid, yet Idealistic.......2004-10-08
Konner's "Becoming A Doctor" chronicles the experiences, perceptions, & problems he had as a third-year medical student. Konner repeatedly remarks that he was much older than most of his peers as well as many of the residents, but what he doesn't explicitly articulate is his different perspective on patient care and, well, his compassion. He seems more idealistic than most of the other characters in his narrative -- I suspect this may be a consequence of his age & life experiences. Nevertheless, I enjoyed and appreciated the experiences he shared, especially since they are told from the perspective of a man in a different phase of life. There are several books that chronicle life as a medical student --- this is just one --- and this book ought to be regarded as one that deserves a peek for what it is: medical school as experienced from a well-educated man on the verge of middle-age.
Interesting, but seriously flawed and dated.......2004-10-07
Although I did enjoy portions of this book, I was also particularly annoyed at his constant misogynistic tone -- women, be they patients or fellow physicians -- are often first described physically, with particular note paid to their attractiveness. It seems that Konner clearly believes he is superior to many of his co-workers, as he repeatedly interrupts the medical narrative to mention his status in the anthropological field. This isn't a terrible book, but it certainly isn't a book I'd recommend to very many people.
Physician, Heal Thyself.......2004-08-02
As someone who's had 2 serious operations in just 6 months, I am now obsessed with all things medical/surgical. I did like this book for its "behind the scenes" look at what a doctor's training is like. However, if I had never had an operation at a great hospital with a great surgeon, with great results, I'd be afraid to go to the hospital, the way some of Konner's peers are described. Obviously, it takes all kinds, but I agree with the reviewers who felt that the more negative personalities received emphasis. But hey, we all have bills to pay, so who am I to argue?
While many people criticized Konner for being arrogant and pompous, I was very surprised that no one noticed something that, to me, was disturbingly obvious; and that was his salacious descriptions of VERY young women. There is a passage in the Pediatrics chapter, I believe, where he describes, with great zeal, how attractive he found a 15 year old girl. You can almost hear him drooling as you read it. There is another spot in the book where he talks about listening to a teenage girl's chest with a stethoscope, and while he does say he feels awkward, you can't also help but sense he was diggin' it. Hope the old boy was able to wipe down the keyboard when he was done writing.
There were some informative things in this book, but I'm glad I had a positive surgical experience BEFORE I read this book. I am a much bigger fan of "Complications" by Atul Gawande.
good for the infor, but bad for his personality........2004-05-12
The author himself has lots of personality problems. You can read his book to get an insight of the 3rd and 4th year. Beyond that, there is nothing that you will learn from him. I certainly hope that you won't learn anything about how he deals and sees the world.
He is very pompous. I am really glad that he didn't chose to actually practice medicine. He will make a bad doctor, and I doubt that he won't have lots of lawsuits piled up against him. With his personality, he won't go far. He can't take criticism.
He likes to say bad things about those people who taught him without positive proves. For example, he wrote "an immigrant physician who happened to be a superb if slightly pompous neurologist." I don't know where he came up with the "pompous" conclusion, because he did not explain further. First of all, everyone should respect his own teaching doctor. Second, even if the doctor was, this is not a book for it. It is simply rude to call someone pompous in a book, which people of generations later can still read.
And he is very self centered. "Hardly anybody I worked with at the hospital even knew I had written a book, much less one that was considered to be quite good." He obviously has an egoistic problem. We all know that anyone has some money can publish a book easily. Why is it necessary that everyone should pay attention to his book nomination, which "would ceremoniously not receive the award in the science category? It is even funny that he wrote, "Ceremoniously not receive." It means that his book was not good at all.
This guy likes to show off, and he doesn't even know it. "It was not usual for me to scoop the residents, or even the other medical students in this type of exercise, so I felt good." I don't see the big deal of giving a correct answer when all others fail. Everyone does that once in a while.I have taken some time to digest the whole book page by page. If you are interested, email me, I will show you.
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- The Functions of the Executive: 30th Anniversary Edition
- Hidden Collective Factors in Speculative Trading: A Study in Analytical Economics
- Wedding Rows
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter (Laurel-Leaf Books)
The Concubine's Children
Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Red Azalea
Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir
