I really enjoyed this book since I've always been interested in how the body works and all the aspects of being a doctor. Good story showing the struggles of being an intern and alongside the MD. I recommend. ( )

Tries to be both a novel and a book about surgeon's experiences, and fails to do either well. Having read more of the latter written in a much better way (Atul Gawande's books, War doctor, etc) the surgical stuff doesn't hold that much new anymore, leaving a mediocre novel with a lot of asides. ( )

A surgeon’s day and/or night at the hospital. Some stories sad, interesting or sad. ( )

This novel was clearly a story that the author felt passionately about telling, and I wish I could have liked it more. The writing is clumsy, but the story is compelling.

It seemed to me, though, that it was almost as if the author had been laboring hard and for quite some time at the beginning of the book, revising and polishing, and developing detailed portraits of his flawed, struggling main characters. The author crafted his ending with almost as much care--I thought it a bit too pat and trite for fiction, but I suspect that it's based on reality, which can be forgiven for being pedestrian. The author then seemed to struggle mightily to connect the two ends of his novel.

During my reading of the central portion of the story--the heroes both hitting bottom as a result of their respective addictions--I rather wondered if both he and his editor had become heartily sick of the project and just wanted to see it done. There are descriptions of events and backstory that feel almost like notes being transcribed, without the selectivity and artful revision needed to turn real life into fiction. For example, consider the following: "Then an affair with a beautiful medical students destroyed his life. Her suicide brought the two parents back together." Confusing antecedents aside, the tale of the affair and how it ruined Lee W.'s life should be integrated into the narrative somehow and include an explanation of why his second wife Amber (who had just left him in the present timeline due to the latest affair) would have remarried Lee W. after the suicide--or it should be skipped entirely.

As one might have expected, the tale is peppered with medical anecdotes that are gruesome, disgusting, and funny in that weird Darwin Awards sort of way. Not for the squeamish--but a squeamish reader would know better than to medical memoirs, even fictional ones.

I received this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. ( )

When I saw this book's title on the April list of books for early reviewers, the title intrigued me. As a nurse, I knew there would be situations with which I could identify - ill patients, grueling shifts, good and bad patient outcomes, etc. Dr. William Lynes captured me with his narrative and with each chapter, I more deeply entered the labyrinth of his Internship year. You will wonder, you will fear, you will agonize, and you will rejoice with him. A must read and one that I will revisit from time to time. ( )