A well-crafted remembrance that may be of most interest to those in the medical field.
A debut memoir of a physician grappling with a malpractice lawsuit.
Anyone who enjoys reading a gripping medical or legal thriller will find all the elements of a such a novel in these pages—compelling characters, a protagonist in peril, and dramatic suspense. However, this book tells the true story of a pathologist in private practice in a Dallas suburb who became a defendant in a $10 million malpractice lawsuit. It involved a 36-year-old woman who died of cancer after her Pap smear was misread. Spenser’s lab reviewed the slides, but he didn’t examine them personally, he says; he attributed the misdiagnosis to a physician assistant in another doctor’s office, whose error delayed a diagnosis of malignant cervical cancer. Three years of litigation ensued, and as the title promises, the author documents and records the agonizing, protracted litigation as it unwound, just as one would in the pages of a personal journal. Readers witness the toll that it takes on his family, his relationships with his colleagues, and his reputation in the medical community. He also effectively shows how he tried to define and make peace with himself during and after the lawsuit; in the happiest part of the memoir, he walks away from the medical profession, enrolls in film school, and begins a new career as a screenwriter—although he did eventually return to medicine. Throughout the book, the author displays considerable empathy for the patient but shows no sympathy for his own lawyer, or for the legal system in general; indeed, his oft-repeated “first rule of lawsuits” is: “No one knows anything.” The closing pages intriguingly call to mind the formulaic TV police drama, Dragnet, which regularly concluded with an epilogue showing what happened to all the people involved in the case at hand.
A well-crafted remembrance that may be of most interest to those in the medical field.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-64606-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Board Certified Press
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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