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ksoles
Dec 10, 2014ksoles rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Not just another "life in the ER" doctor memoir, "Internal Medicine" blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction in compiling nine fact-based stories. Having earned an M.F.A. in creative writing and a Ph.D. in English before studying medicine, Terrence Holt wields his unique talent here; as he explains in the introduction, he decided that the best way to capture the essence of his journey through residency without violating patient confidentiality was to write a series of “parables” that drew on his own experiences. Indeed, the collection rings true in both details and spirit, beginning with a doctor’s first night on call as an intern and ending with ethical questions that a physician ponders 40 months post-residency. Each of Holt's accounts compels the reader and provokes thought: the narrator faces a dying woman who needs oxygen but finds the mask claustrophobic; cancer eats away at the mouth and jaw of an artist; a psychiatric patient self-inflicts horrific pain. In a particularly poignant scene, Holt tells a young woman of her imminent death: “I’d like to say that I held her, or said soothing words. But I don’t hold female patients, even when they cry, and I had no soothing words. I knelt there and I watched her, and struggled to comprehend what I saw.” How can a doctor best comfort patients such as these? What exactly is in a physician's job description? How do medical professionals cope with endless dilemmas and a myriad of personalities? Dr. Holt never settles for easy answers. The questions he poses reflect the frequent uncertainties of doctors and patients alike and will leave readers thinking long after they close the book's cover.