bookshelf

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Name: BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
Author: Steve Giegerich
ISBN: 0-684-86207-7

ONE SEMESTER OF GROSS ANATOMY, THE GATEWAY TO BECOMING A DOCTOR

by Steve Giegerich ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2001

A fine addition to the genre: Giegerich has worked hard researching the subject, and he writes without cynicism.

bookshelf

Accounts following students through medical school appear regularly, but this one limits itself to a single course: first-year anatomy. It turns out to be a good idea.

Giegerich takes a journalist’s approach, emphasizing the human interest of his story. Choosing one cadaver, he researches its life and writes the biography of the man from birth through education, marriage, career, illness, and death. He tells the life story of the mortician at the New Jersey medical school who prepares the body for dissection, of the instructors who teach, and of a researcher who studies how students deal with the stress of anatomy class. Finally, the author focuses on four medical students, who make an appealing collection of aspiring doctors, and adds their life stories to that of the man they dissect. To meet and cut into a dead human marks the baptism by fire for every medical student. The author describes the reaction of each of the four, then follows them for three-and-a-half months as they reduce the cadaver to shreds. We see them struggle, then succeed in absorbing a massive amount of information and grow increasingly confident in their ability to make it through four years. Readers will be pleased to learn that the experience does not harden the students, but increases their respect for the human body and their commitment to their profession. The narrative rings true despite the usual tendency of lay writers to emphasize the bad smells and gruesome sights of anatomy lab, as well as the often-horrified reactions, internal struggles, and philosophizing of the students. In reality, such introspection takes up little of a medical student’s time.

A fine addition to the genre: Giegerich has worked hard researching the subject, and he writes without cynicism.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-684-86207-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.