Helpful Score: 2
This is a great book, not only does it tell you a fictional story about a group of doctors, but gives you a good history lesson about what was happening in the 60's and 70's and what that meant for different groups of people. I have enjoyed three of Erich Segal's stories and I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys a long story about lifetime friends and their situations throughout growing up.
Helpful Score: 1
A well written book by Erich Segal. Young interns going through Harvard Med. School meet all of life's problems balanced with their own studies and maturity. Written in 1988, it was new to me and very good.
a heartbreak of a medical novel
Segal's tale of the lives, education, and careers of young doctors gets off to a slow start but has enough rewards along the way to keep the reader's interest.
Traces careers of several doctors from medical school through mature careers. I found it had a somewhat slow start, but ended up thoroughly enjoying it.
Probably one of my favorite books, one I have reread many times.
a moving and compelling novel of Doctors and their fears - how they confront them or are confounded by them.
[from Publishers' Weekly via AMAZon ] In his most skillfully written novel to date, Segal ( Love Story , The Class ) tackles a timeworn but engrossing theme: the grueling education of doctors, and the toll exacted by their careers. As Segal sees it, many physicians are "wounded healers" who know that "to care is to crack" in this brutally competitive, sometimes poorly self-policed profession. When childhood friends Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano enter Harvard Medical School in 1958, they are soon physically and emotionally overwhelmed by mountains of demanding coursework, a classmate's suicide and the vivisection of clumsily anesthetized dogs. Later, Barney, a Manhattan psychiatrist, witnesses the heartwrenching suffering of mental patients at Bellevue Hospital, including his tragically misdiagnosed former basketball coach. Pediatrician Laura is harshly penalized by tyrannical superiors who resent her complaints about their conduct. A medical-school classmate, brilliant black surgeon Bennett Landsmann, encounters racism within and beyond the medical establishment. Seth Lazarus, another class member, faces murder charges for a mercy killing. With his usual facility, Segal spins a highly readable story that addresses the gravest, most pressing issues facing doctors today.
Publishers Weekly In his most skillfully written novel to date, Segal ( Love Story , The Class ) tackles a timeworn but engrossing theme: the grueling education of doctors, and the toll exacted by their careers. As Segal sees it, many physicians are "wounded healers" who know that "to care is to crack" in this brutally competitive, sometimes poorly self-policed profession. When childhood friends Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano enter Harvard Medical School in 1958, they are soon physically and emotionally overwhelmed by mountains of demanding coursework, a classmate"s suicide and the vivisection of clumsily anesthetized dogs. Later, Barney, a Manhattan psychiatrist, witnesses the heartwrenching suffering of mental patients at Bellevue Hospital, including his tragically misdiagnosed former basketball coach. Pediatrician Laura is harshly penalized by tyrannical superiors who resent her complaints about their conduct. A medical-school classmate, brilliant black surgeon Bennett.
older book but in good condition
