A charming, well-crafted memoir of an Indian doctor.
Shirahatti recounts tales from his career as a Mumbai, India–based surgeon in the mid-1970s in this debut memoir.
When the author showed up on his first day as a surgical house officer at Mumbai’s Sion Hospital, he had no idea what lay in store for him. The personalities among his colleagues were big and numerous: Dr. Praful “the Prof” Joshi, who “chew[ed] iron nails and residents for breakfast”; Sister Georgina Thomas, a nurse who loved patients and hated new residents; the triage-obsessed Dr. Vilas; and the wisecracking resident Prakash. In the surgical ward, members of all classes of Mumbai society cycled in and out in an endless dance of life and death. The author was forced to shed many preconceived notions of what it meant to administer aid while simultaneously opening himself up to the rawness of humanity in its many forms. (The author would quickly be nicknamed “Guru” by his colleagues for his “expert advice.”) Once, he writes, he was nearly stabbed by a gang member for not administering to a dead man; another time, he sewed up a suspected rapist despite the anger of a mob. At one point, he writes, a colleague said that a patient was “waiting for the train to Guntakal”—a euphemism for being on one’s deathbed (“Who would want to go there?” asked Prakash). Throughout this memoir, Shirahatti writes in the formal yet easily readable prose of an experienced raconteur, which highlights the wryness and frequently dark humor of some stories. The lighter moments are offset by moments of probity, and the sincere affection that Shirahatti has for his colleagues is apparent. At fewer than 150 pages, the book makes a quick read. This works in its favor, as does its setting—the Mumbai of an earlier era—which will be unfamiliar to many readers. Although this book is not quite at the level of Richard Hooker (of MASH fame), Shirahatti presents surgery from an appealingly irreverent point of view that calls to mind larger questions about how significant, solid, or indispensable any of us really are.
A charming, well-crafted memoir of an Indian doctor.Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4828-8923-9
Page Count: 162
Publisher: PartridgeIndia
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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