The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
• Published by: Dell July 1, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0385337388
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0385337380
• Book Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 12.8 ounces

Product Review
"Brilliant !" -- Chicago  Tribune.

"Bawdy blistering this is  Catch-22 with stethoscopes."  --Cosmopolitan.

"Does  for the practice of medicine what  Catch-22 and M*A *S *H did  for the practice of warfare." -- The  Newark Star-Ledger

"Wildly funny  frightening outrageous, moving a story of  modern medicine rarely, if, ever told." --  The Houston Chronicle


From the Paperback edition.

Product Review
"Brilliant !" -- Chicago  Tribune.

"Bawdy blistering this is  Catch-22 with stethoscopes."  --Cosmopolitan.

"Does  for the practice of medicine what  Catch-22 and M*A *S *H did  for the practice of warfare." -- The  Newark Star-Ledger

"Wildly funny  frightening outrageous, moving a story of  modern medicine rarely, if, ever told." --  The Houston Chronicle


From the Paperback edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital (Mass Market Paperback) There are all kinds of things I hate about this book. I hate remembering how long I would go without sleep and the psychic torture that an internship inflicts on you. I hated the depersonalization of patients. I hated the sexual escapades. Most of all, I hated having in print the real feelings of an intern who has been up for three days - praying on the way to the ER that that Nursing Home Gomer with twenty fatal diagnoses would have the decency to croak before you got there so you could get an extra five minutes of sleep or a stale doughnut before the cafeteria closed again. Shem portrays masterfully the jumble of emotions of a typical intern. There is a superficial level of glossy brown-nosing that got you into med school in the first place. Buzz words like compassion, continuity of care and empathy are used with the teaching physicians and in meetings. Then there is a deeper level of survival where you would kill your mother for 5 minutes of sleep or being able to crap without the code blue pager going off. This level is usually not discussed or written about in many of the typical intern coming-of-age books out there. Not because it isn't true, but because it's uncomfortable and offensive to non-physicians. Shem is the master of this level of medical thinking. No one else even comes close. Shem approaches but doesn't quite get to an even more primal level - that of duty. This level is what keeps an intern from punching his residency directors or the arrogant surgeon who asks him "What is the difference between a sh*thead and a brown-noser" and then tells you the answer is depth perception.(True story) It's what makes you do your best when you know the patient is hopeless or even abusive as you try your best to save them from themselves or some disease. The humor is black as night and the sex is soft-core porn, according to my nephew in medical school to whom I sent a copy of this book. House of God has two profound themes. The first is a detailed description of medicine and medical training. This theme is presented with black humor, and some (but not as much as you think) exaggeration. I have read nothing that does this better. The second theme of the book is universal, however. It is the theme of Man vs. World and the World wins, but the Man is too maimed to know it. The book still disturbs and haunts me because Shem puts in print graphically and eloquently some of the thoughts and occurences that we don't even admit to ourselves. Comments (3) | | (Report this)