"The House of God will make you think twice about the model used to train doctors. It may even make you think twice about getting sick and having to go to the hospital. Samuel Shem brilliantly interweaves dark humor with vivid prose to convey the paradoxical world of The House, a hospital where empathy is as damning as disease, and interns work tirelessly simply to retain their human dignity. Thought-provoking and downright funny, this book will have you laughing out loud and sometimes, you'll feel guilty about it."
Publisher Berkley Trade
Publication Date 2010-09-07
Section Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Greg G. / Vanessa M.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780425238097
By turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and utterly human, The House of God is a mesmerizing and provocative journey that takes us into the lives of Roy Basch and five of his fellow interns at the most renowned teaching hospital in the country. Young Dr. Basch and his irreverant confident, known only as the Fat Man, will learn not only how to be fine doctors but, eventually, good human beings. Samuel Shem has done what few in American medicine have dared to do-create an unvarnished, unglorified, and amazingly forthright portrait revealing the depth of caring, pain, pathos, and tragedy felt by all who spend their lives treating patients and stand at the crossroads between science and humanity.
With over two million copies sold worldwide, The House of God has been hailed as one of the most important medical novels of the twentieth century and compared to Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith for its poignant portrayal of the education of American doctors.
