A knowing and detailed diagnosis of some of the institutional ills of U.S. medicine.
Kowey presents a collection of case studies illustrating the failures of the U.S. healthcare system.
The author, a physician with decades of experience, here issues a stern warning about his profession, which, he asserts, has been “torn down and thoroughly disrespected by people who have no idea what being a doctor really means” and is consequently in danger of “falling from its lofty place in our society to a job on the assembly line, widgets replaced by patients.” Kowey illustrates these failings with a series of stories about the problems encountered by patients experiencing the whole range of medical treatment, from unexpected ER visits to extended care for prolonged conditions. Each history is presented in great detail, followed by a “Case Explanation” and a “Conclusion” in which the author pinpoints the cause of the problems and offers some potential solutions. Readers learn about a Mrs. Lynch, for instance, who began experiencing an irregular, racing heartbeat and underwent an ablation to cauterize the arrhythmic area. But her atrial fibrillation continued, perhaps prolonged by the ablation itself, and Kowey contends that, given her otherwise young and healthy state, the ablation was “inappropriate.” In the case of 75-year-old Mrs. Lopez, the issues are more interpersonal than medical: The hospital staff is coldly indifferent, her discharge is likely early, and the hospital’s “patient experience specialist” seems more concerned with a good rating than anything else. “It is maddening,” the author writes, “that hospital leaders have chosen to spend money foolishly on administrative salaries, worthless marketing, failed initiatives, and ancillary services that bring little value to the routine care of hospitalized patients.” As the percentage of the U.S. population that can afford health care of any kind rapidly shrinks, readers will find these stories of miscommunication and administrative bloat recognizable, and the author’s professional experience gives them extra heft.
A knowing and detailed diagnosis of some of the institutional ills of U.S. medicine.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781956474695
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Heliotrope Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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