books called “ Unrequired Reading” (2006) which is about books
“purely for relaxation.” Novels constitute the core of this compilation including “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, “The French Lieutenant’s
Woman” by John Fowles and classics such as “ A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway, “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens,
“Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain and many others.
“Reciting Robert Frost in ICU” is divided into many sections
including Biography, Nonfiction, Poetry/Drama and Fiction, with
appropriate commentaries by the author preceding each section.
No matter what their genre or how they are packaged, they are
“basically stories of a life, of a disease or of something having to
do with medicine.” Fascination with other people’s lives is a basic
human instinct and “our species is coded to enjoy hearing stories,
particularly life stories.” The first biography reviewed is that of a
17th century European physician by the name of Sir Theodore de
Mayerne, a Renaissance man of prodigious talent, a Swiss native,
medical graduate of Montpellier, Royal court physician of King
Henri 1V in Paris and subsequently King James 1 of England, who
was a “ physician, chemist, courtier, diplomatist and entrepreneur.”
“The Knife Man” by Wendy Moore deals with the famous 18th
century English surgeon, John Hunter, whose sudden death was
predicted by himself in his famous saying that “my life is in the
hands of any rascal who chooses to annoy and tease me.” This
self-fulfilling prophecy came true indeed after a heated discussion
in a meeting and his autopsy confirmed severe atherosclerosis of
coronary arteries. Hunter’s self inoculation with gonorrhea and
syphilis organisms is stuff of legends. He and his brother William
Hunter were accomplished anatomists and teachers. Two books
about Florence Nightingale are reviewed in a very perceptive essay. She was a committed social reformer and a revolutionary who
represented the highest ideals for the service of ailing humanity
and pioneered the nursing profession in England in the late 18th
century. Two books about the inimitable Sir William Osler, one
by Harvey Cushing (a mammoth 2-volume biography that won
him a Pulitzer Prize in 1926) and the second by Michael Bliss
(Professor of History at the University of Toronto) published
close to 75 years later, do justice to the life of this great teacher,
“English-speaking medicine’s most inspirational father-figure,
mentor and role model.”
physician published in 1926. It reminded me of a beautifully
written book by James Thomas Flexner titled “Doctors on Horse
Back” published in 1939 detailing the impressive and innovative
work done by Drs. Ephraim McDowell, Daniel Drake and William
Beaumont among many others.
Albert Schweitzer, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, was
a French-German physician, musician and theologian/pastor. He
opened a hospital in Lambarene, Africa to serve the health problems of the natives, and is the subject of a chapter that discusses
two biographies and his autobiography.
In the nonfiction section, I enjoyed every entry, including the
essay about three books written by Lewis Thomas: Lives of a
Cell, The Medusa and the Snail, and the Youngest Science. All are
compilations of his essays published in the New England Journal
of Medicine under the section “Notes of a Biology watcher” in
the early 1970s when he was president of the Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center in New York. The rest of the book contains incisive
and informative essays about books written by Oliver Sacks, a
neurologist (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat and other
Clinical Tales 1970 and Awakenings 1997), all three books of Atul
Gawande,(Complications, Better, and The Checklist Manifesto),
John M. Berry’s The Great Influenza, and many others.
Reciting Robert Frost in ICU is a remarkable anthology of book
reviews and essays compiled by an avid reader, a perceptive literary
critic and a consummate bibliophile. I have my work cut out for
me since I have several more compilations of Dr. Taylor Prewitt’s
book reviews to read. Some of these books will deserve individual
reviews, although he has cautioned me to be selective. LM
Note: Dr. Seyal practices Cardiovascular Diseases with Floyd Memorial Medical Group-River Cities Cardiology.
Harvey Cushing, who has been called the father of neurosurgery,
was a pioneering physician at Johns Hopkins, and Dr. Prewitt
has put together some salient points about this towering figure,
culled from Cushing’s autobiography and two other biographies,
one written by John Fulton in 1946 and the second by Michael
Bliss in 2007.
I particularly liked the review of “The Horse and Buggy Doctor” by Arthur Hertzler, an autobiographical account of a country
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