Product Description

The medical hierarchy of "The House of God" is like a pyramid - a lot at the bottom and one at the top. Roy Basch, a Rhodes scholar, thinks differently, until he meets Hyper Hooper, out to win the most post-mortems of the year award, or Molly, the nurse with the crash helmet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16029 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 397 pages

About the Author
Samuel Shem(Md)
Sameul Shem (Stephen Bergman M.D.) graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and earned a Ph.D in physiology from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He graduated from Harvard Medical School. He is the author of the novels The House of God, Mount Misery and Fine, and seven plays, including, with Janet Surrey, Bill W. and Dr. Bob. He is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the Stone Centre, Wellesley College. He lives near Boston with his wife and daughter.

Customer Reviews

Funny, Moving, and Just a Little Bit Scary
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.

Treat with care
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.

excellently dark but american
this is the original and much imitated "oh no i'm losing the plot and i'm a junior doctor" book. he gets a bit emotional and cheesy sometimes, but its a great collection of the best mess gags.

theres another excellent english junior doctor book by michael foxton called 'bedside stories' which is the angry NHS junior doctor column guy who wrote for the guardian, and thats hilarious and horrible.