An artful blend of medical history and family memoir. Psychiatrist and writer Hellerstein (Beth Israel Hospital/New York; Battles of Life and Death, 1986; Loving Touches, 1987) traces his family's links with medicine through five generations, beginning with his great-great-grandfather's brother, Marcus Rossenwasser, whose parents sent him from Cleveland back to Prague for his medical education and who practiced in Cleveland from the 1870's to 1910. One of Hellerstein's resources here was a remarkable and revealing log titled ``Obstetric Notes'' that Rossenwasser kept from 1875 to 1893. In the next generation, Hellerstein's maternal grandfather's stepfather (there's a neatly done family tree that sorts all this out), Gustave Feil, was a physician in Denver, although Hellerstein is unable to discover much about him except that he had tuberculosis and killed himself in early middle age. Next, the author traces the career of his maternal grandfather, Harold Feil, a cardiologist who exemplified a new trend in medicine by becoming a clinician-scientist—that is, combining private practice with teaching and research. Hellerstein's father took the trend a step further, becoming a full-time faculty member at Western Reserve, deeply involved in cardiology research. If there is one dominant figure in this book it is he, and there are wonderful scenes of him dragging his children around the hospital with him. Hellerstein's mother, also a physician, unfortunately remains a shadowy figure, perhaps because her doctoring was so often interrupted by mothering. In the current generation, four of the six Hellerstein offspring are physicians—a psychiatrist, a urologist, a pediatrician, and an obstetrician. Hellerstein does a fine job of contrasting the cultural with the medical milieu of each generation, and his descriptions of each period's dilemmas and opportunities indicate not only what medicine has gained but what it has lost in the past century. Rewarding reading—and a good gift for the would-be medical student.
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8090-4405-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1994
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
