Captain Newman, M. D.

by Leo Rosten

Book Overview

An intense tale of PTSD, from a time before it was understood. Source for movie of the same name. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B002E25ZJ8
• Release Date: January 1961
• Publisher: Harper
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I Give It To Everyone -- Read It -- You'll See Why!!!

CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D. is a book about the effect of war on its soldiers, and about the love and healing offered by one remarkable man -- a maverick doctor at odds with the United States Army. Divided into chapters about various patients who undergo psychoanalysis with him during WWII, it is alternately funny, tragic, uplifting, and ironic, with a sterling cast of characters so alive they seem to jump off the page at you. It's clear from the first few pages why this was a bestseller -- and why Hollywood grabbed to make it a movie (screenplay by Henry & Phoebe Ephron, parents of the redoubtable Nora), with stars such as Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis and Robert Duvall. Captain Newman offers his ward full of sick men what he judges that they need --and he is himself not always sure he's right -- but the hand he reaches out to them often saves their sanity, in the horrors they have experienced and perhaps for many, the worst horror of all: Coming face to face with their own shortcomings. There is Little Jim, the brave man who ran away from a plane explosion and left a buddy to die -- and who can never forget it, despite the chest full of medals he's won; there's Paul, the aristocratic captain who hid in a cellar in France for two years and can't bear the thought that others took care of him at the risk of their lives, while he buried himself in a library full of beautiful books and forgot the war; there are the goofy orderlies who work with Captain Newman, who will barter, trade or steal anything (including a Christmas tree!) they feel `their' patients need; there is the beautiful Francie, who comforts Newman himself when he is at the end of his rope and his sanity. They are alive; they are real; and they have never been out of my library since the first time I read the book at least 30 years ago. Experience the joy, love and humor of CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D. The journey is well worth it.