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House Of God (Black Swan)
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Product Description
Book Description
The House of God is a wild and raunchily irreverent novel that teaches you the not-so-gentle arts of healing, and tells you what your doctor never wanted you to know.It is the best medicine since M*A*S*H, and does for the doctor's art what Catch-22 did for the art of war.e year award, or Molly, the nurse with the crash helmet.
Product Description
As in all hospitals, the medical hierarchy of The House of God was a pyramid - a lot at the bottom and one at the top.Put another way it was like an ice-cream cone...you had to lick your way up!
Roy Basch, the 'red-hot' Rhodes Scholar, thought differently - but then he hadn't met Hyper Hooper, out to win the most post-mortems of the year award, nor Molly, the nurse with the crash helmet.He hadn't even met any of the Gomers ('Get Out of My Emergency Room!'), the no-hopers who wanted to die but who were worth more alive!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Have you ever wondered what's going on behind the impassive, professional countenance of a hospital doctor? Have you ever considered those early years in their careers that they spend on wards? How it is that on the day they graduate from medical school they suddenly have all the answers? Well, they don't.
"House of God" is Samuel Shem's account of his year as an intern, the first year after medical school (in the UK they're called House Officers).
He captures the intensity of the experience perfectly, and the humour that helped him survive makes this book one of the funniest I have ever read.
Behind the laughter is a serious account of how he came close to the edge mentally during that first year. The limits of medicine are also revealed, disturbingly for the lay-patient with a naive belief that modern doctors can cure anyone who reaches hospital alive, and there are some sobering conclusions about how we treat the elderly for those who wish to draw them.
But I wouldn't want to mislead you - this is above all a hilarious account of a year in the life of a junior doctor in those carefree 70s when alcohol and sex were still recreations and not merely pathologies. The hard edge beneath makes that humour all the more effective, and the occasional tragic event makes the laughter as necessary for the reader's emotional well being as it was for the author.
Buy it, read it, and wonder why you had never come across this masterpiece before.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A book of wry wit and black humour which rightly deserves its cult status amongst doctors. I suspect that much of its off-beat message will miss a non-medical reader, and that which is understood may not enhance the reputation of the the followers of Hippocrates.
The total lack of support from management and bosses, black humour as a coping mechanism and the sad toll on the morale, altruism and wellbeing of doctors is all too vividly brought home.
The "Laws of the House of God" are remembered by those doctors who read this book long after the professorial lectures on pathology and pharmacology have sunk into (blissful) oblivion.
Buy it, read it, and enjoy.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There's a difference between being a competent technician capable of diagnosing and treating cases and being a good doctor. This book is a cautionary tale of ill-prepared junior medical staff falling into the trap of becoming technicians when faced with the enormity of suffering that disease inflicts upon us. It is superficially quite funny (I remember chuckling over it in my last year of medical school) with its tales of GOMERs and the means by which to 'turf' patients (ie no longer have responsibility for them). But at its core it's a dark and tragic tale of Bergman's near-breakdown at the end of his internship year. Focus on the humour and you're not only missing the point, you run the risk of falling into the same trap.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Best thing i've read for ages
Very interesting book! Picked this up for some relief whilst studying for my medicine exams and it was so absorbing and interesting to read. Definitely recommended.
Published 1 month ago by Benjamin Sandy
An oldie but a classic
This is a must read for any one contemplating medicine and certainly all medical students.
Despite being rather long in the tooth now many of the terms such as "gomer"... Read more
Despite being rather long in the tooth now many of the terms such as "gomer"... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Birmingham Nick
a good read for any junior doctor and everyone else
a great book, humorous and makes you think about how to practice and how not to practice medicine. a work of fiction yes but plenty of parallels to real life and medicine stay... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. M. R. Williams
A must-read for anyone interested in medicine
This is a cynical, but accurate, view of hospitals from the inside. It's like Scrubs and Gray's Anatomy without the hype, and is well-written, compelling, and moving.
Published 17 months ago by John Keats
classic must have.
a must-buy gift for your favorite med student.
amazon delivered international in less than a week!
thanks amazon uk!!
amazon delivered international in less than a week!
thanks amazon uk!!
Published 22 months ago by reader99
How not to train a doctor
A lively and bawdy account of medical training in the USA 40 years ago, based on the author's experience, which became a classic plea for humanity in the treatment of patients. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2010 by J. Littler
Black humour, full of humanity
Essential reading for all medical students and doctors of all ages - black humour steeped in humanity - when you are in hospital as a patient, hope for "The Fat Man" who relies on... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2009 by Dr. G. Caldwell
Prospective medical students must read
A sadistic yet hilarious take on life as a doctor. it made me want to study medicine even more!!!
Published on 30 May 2008 by A. Bhujwalla
please please please buy!
A fantastic read for any doctors out there who remember what it was like being a house officer/intern. Surprisingly close to real life in the UK too!! Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2008 by H. Sarna
An Account of Discovering The Meaning of Doctorhood
Samuel Shem's take on the first year of being a Doctor, the internship, is an excellent account of the destruction of the ideology of Medicine and the gradual erosion of innocence... Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2007 by Talc Demon
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