by Neil Kurtzman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 6, 2012
Kurtzman’s debut novel traces the evolution of a wary first-year medical student who becomes chief resident at a busy city hospital.
Many may believe the making of a doctor to be a tedious endeavor, but this notion will be quickly dispelled when readers become acquainted with Richard Grollman, an eccentric doctor-to-be with an affinity for opera. With wit and dark humor, Kurtzman’s descriptive dose of the day-to-day life of a medical student in the late 1950s details the challenges and rewards of the entire process. As Grollman progresses through his eight years of training, he experiences a number of trials and tribulations while surrounded by a cast of crazy surgeons and bumbling interns, before eventually discovering that he’s learned more than procedure and bedside manner. In his final act as chief medical resident, Grollman expounds upon his epiphany with his trademark cynicism: “Medicine is an elaborate masquerade in which the doctors pretend to cure while the patients pretend to get better.... Surgery is no more complicated than automobile repair and requires no more talent or ability. Knowing what to do and when to do it, or more importantly, when not to do it, is what counts.” By the novel’s conclusion, Kurtzman has presented readers with a thorough examination of the art of medicine and more than a few may be left pondering whether sometimes doing nothing may in fact be the best remedy. Although a familiarity with the medical field will engender a stronger connection to Kurztman’s work, it is not required. The book could benefit from another round of editing for brevity and excessively flowery language without detracting from its strengths: a zany point of view and black humor. Holds its own alongside Samuel Shem’s The House of God, a highly regarded take on the life and times of medical students.
Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1461096535
Page Count: 708
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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