A new novel by the national bestselling author of The House of God Samuel Shem's classic novel about medical internship, The House of God, is required reading in medical schools throughout the world and is celebrated for its authentic description of medical training and practice, for its Rabelaisian comedy, and for its humanism and vision. His new novel, and most ambitious work yet, The Spirit of the Place, tells the story of an expatriate doctor called home to Columbia, New York, in the early 1980s to face his ...
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A new novel by the national bestselling author of The House of God Samuel Shem's classic novel about medical internship, The House of God, is required reading in medical schools throughout the world and is celebrated for its authentic description of medical training and practice, for its Rabelaisian comedy, and for its humanism and vision. His new novel, and most ambitious work yet, The Spirit of the Place, tells the story of an expatriate doctor called home to Columbia, New York, in the early 1980s to face his own history and that of the place. It is a novel of love and death, mothers and sons, ghosts and bullies, doctors and patients, illness and healing. Settled into a passionate relationship with an Italian yoga instructor and happily working in a European spa, Dr. Orville Rose's newfound peace is shattered by a telegram informing him of his mother's death. On his return to Columbia, a Hudson River town of quirky people and "plagued by breakage," he learns that his mother has willed him a large sum of money, her 1981 Chrysler, and her Victorian house in the center of town. But there's a catch: he must live in her house continuously for a year and thirteen days. As he struggles with his decision--whether to stay and meet the terms of the will or return to his love and life in Italy--Orville reconnects with Bill Starbuck, the town doctor who mentored a young Orville and who practices a long-ago kind of medicine that treats the working poor, people neglected and forgotten by the medical and insurance industries. Now in his seventies, and in need of help with the practice, Bill convinces Orville to stay. During the course of his year and thirteen days, Orville reacquaints himself with Columbia and Columbians. He reunites with his sister and niece and comes to terms with old rivals and bitter memories. And he doctors a community in desperate need of care. He also meets Miranda Braak, a remarkable young single mother who aspires to be the town historian. Her knowledge of and reverence for the past challenges Orville to examine his own history, and her courage, integrity, and love challenge him to grow. In this story filled with wit, pointed insight, and drama, Orville learns what it means to be a healer, and to be healed. The Spirit of the Place is Shem at his finest--compassionate, capacious, funny, full of big ideas and memorable personalities. It offers an authentic, unvarnished portrait of the medical profession and underscores the crucial link between the health of individuals and the health of communities.
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
(This review is for the Advanced Reading Copy) A 40-year old doctor returns to his hometown at his mother's death and finds that the terms of the will require him to stay there for a year and thirteen days in order to inherit. While there, he helps out as a doctor for the town, tries to work out his love life, and contends with letters and appearances from his dead mother.
I have to give this book a mixed review. On the one hand, I did want to know what happened, I liked the appearances of the doctor's flying ghost of a mother, and the town that specialized in bad decisions. There were some memorable descriptions and ideas in here. By the time I finished the book, I was thinking about the choices we can make in our lives that lessen us, and felt encouraged to try to do better.
On the other hand, if I hadn't wanted to finish the book in order to write a fair review, I might have stopped partway. I could have done without the many graphic descriptions of broken and wounded people the doctor had to take care of. There were quite a few plot cliches that, especially when described out loud to my fiance, caused eye-rolling. I can 't be more specific without being a spoiler, so I'll just say that they are the "and it actually turns out that..." type.
I found myself wanting to know if this town was real (it appears to be based on Hudson, NY), and if the town history had any accuracy (it does). The author did his homework. But there is a glaring piece of urban mythology that is brought into the plot, and I'm still scratching my head about how it got into a real book. It was one of the accidents the doctor has to contend with - the classic "men drive onto the lake to ice fish, throw dynamite to make a hole, loyal dog retrieves the stick, returns, boom!" story (it's all over the internet). I was so startled to find this in a novel, that it knocked me out of the flow of the book.
Would I recommend the book? I wish it had been better. I guess I wouldn't tell someone not to read it, but I might not press it into their hands.
