Doctor
by Andrew Bomback
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Pub Date 20 Sep 2018 | Archive Date 24 Sep 2018
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Description
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
A 3-year-old asks her physician father about his job, and his inability to provide a succinct and accurate answer inspires a critical look at the profession of modern medicine.
In sorting through how patients, insurance companies, advertising agencies, filmmakers, and comedians misconstrue a doctor's role, Andrew Bomback, M.D., realizes that even doctors struggle to define their profession. As the author attempts to unravel how much of doctoring is role-playing, artifice, and bluffing, he examines the career of his father, a legendary pediatrician on the verge of retirement, and the health of his infant son, who is suffering from a vague assortment of gastrointestinal symptoms.
At turns serious, comedic, analytical, and confessional, Doctor offers an unflinching look at what it means to be a physician today.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Advance Praise
“With intelligence and humor, Andrew Bomback shows how human beings cope with issues of power and vulnerability. Doctor is an insightful read for anyone who's been on either end of the stethoscope.” – Amy Fusselman, author of Idiophone (2018) and The Pharmacist's Mate (2001)
“A disarming, candid, precise meditation on the inescapable role that 'complication' or 'luck'-otherwise known as 'fate'-plays in the life of any doctor or patient or, indeed, any human.” – David Shields, author of The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (2008)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781501338175 |
| PRICE | US$14.95 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Mary K, Media/Journalist
I thoroughly enjoyed this inside look at the life of a doctor and the stresses and strains of modern medicine. Besides being "healers," modern doctors have to deal with financial interests, insurance companies, Big Pharma and more. The author contrast his own life with that of his father, an "old school" doctor, and the comparison is quite interesting. Both men are devoted to their patients. The author is not only a doctor, but is married to a doctor and I'm glad he introduced some elements of his home life into the book. A wonderful, compelling read that I would highly recommend
Yashwina C, Book Trade Professional
This little book blew me away. I wasn't sure what I went in expecting - probably something light, something twee, a skim across the surface of the medical profession, and a tidy, wholesome, bland conclusion. Instead, I got the best nonfiction I've read in years. Dr Bomback makes it look easy - he moves between memoir, biography, journalistic survey, and cultural comment effortlessly - and over the course of these couple hundred pages he takes readers not just over but through the state of modern medicine both generally and personally. His perspectives as a doctor himself are balanced by his experiences as the parent of small children, effectively turning the doctor into a patient, and by his perspective on his father's own medical practice. He turns the medical profession inside-out, diagnosing its weaknesses and highlighting its strengths, and it's a joy to read. His tone is approachable but knowledgeable, wise and wise-cracking, witty but capable of turning on a dime into profound sincerity. This book was a delight. Wow.
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