Physical: An American Checkup

By James McManus

Book Overview

Physical is the story of a hard-living, happily married, middle-aged American (the author) who gets a three-day executive checkup at the Mayo Clinic and is thereby forced to confront his mortality, not to mention glove-wearing doctors and the pair of dominatrix-esque technicians who supervise his stress test quite strictly. James McManus must understand his revised actuarial odds in the light of his not-so-long-lived forebears and the fact that his youngest children are only six and five years old. He has to survive his own cardiovascular system, inherited habits, and genetic handicaps long enough to see Bea and Grace into adulthood. But with so much at stake, and in spite of his terror of death, he may not have the willpower to follow the Mayo clinicians' advice. On a related health front, McManus's twenty-nine-year-old daughter, Bridget, has lived with juvenile diabetes since she was four, and the Bush Administration's opposition to the stem cell research that could save her life makes him feel like he might have to do something rash. Meanwhile, should he have a vasectomy? Or try for another child, having lost his only son? How much longer will he be able to perform such manly feats without Viagra? Is his grateful wife sleeping with the brilliant ophthalmological surgeon who saved their daughter's vision? Physical negotiates the political and medical forks in the labyrinth of our health care system and calls for sanity and enlightenment in the stem cell research wars. It's a no-holds-barred, wrenching, but often hilarious portrait of the looming mortality of a privileged generation that can't believe the party's winding down, if not over.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374232024
• ISBN13: 9780374232023
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

crazy funny

The first part of this book is the best. It catalogs the author's complete physical at the Mayo Center. Sad, funny, ironic, you'll both wish for a visit and be glad you never have to submit to the "Executive Physical". Later in the book, the author discusses stem cell research and singles out the South Korean research. Apparently though, this book went to press prior to the revelation that that research was not properly done and thus doesn't offer any hope for disease cure and prevention. Perhaps the author will revise his book accordingly.

Bonus Interview/Strong Reading!

James McManus' PHYSICAL: AN AMERICAN CHECKUP (1593978731, $29.95) tells of an American who gets a checkup at the Mayo Clinic and confronts both modern preventative medicine and his own mortality, as a result. A bonus interview with the author accompanies a strong reading by Patrick Frederic as it tells of facing mortality - with humor.

Physical-An American Checkup by McManus

The author navigates the realities of the medical system to come up with the story of a man who gets an $8000. checkup at the Mayo Clinic to find out that he drinks too much and is too sedentary. Shortly afterward, the man confronts his cardio health and genetic handicaps. Modern medicine can prolong life up to a decade or more provided that we cooperate with life style changes. The authors ask that we eat fruits and veggies, reduce carbs, drink more water, reduce alcohol and limit protein portions to no more than a deck of cards volumetrically. In addition, physicians should spend more time educating and treating patients instead of working on paperwork. There is a brief discussion on the benefits of somatic nuclear transfer without cloning. This work will help craft a long-term plan for better health. As such, it is worth the price charged. A strength of the work is its description of how to interface with your personal physician. i.e. the questions to pose, monitoring/follow up, nutritional planning This work will assist you in transcending the paperwork of the medical encounter in favor of an intensive discussion and follow-up on treatment-related issues. The work emphasizes areas of a medical examination which patients rarely question and physicians may overlook due to the pressure to reduce patient waiting queues.

Hilarious and thought-provoking sequel to Positively Fifth Street

I don't think I'm spoiling anything by revealing Jenny gets her revenge for the lap dance and the World Series of Poker winnings did not cause fundamental changes in the McManus household (most of the book appears to have been written before he discovered how successful PFS would be). In this installment, McManus is sent to cover his super-physical at the Mayo Clinic (by Harper's) and stem cell research politics in Washington (by Esquire); in place of the WSOP and Binion Murder Trial of PSF. This book, like the last, is illuminated with his massive common sense, exceeded only by his human ability to ignore that sense. At first, the title and subtitle refer to his Mayo examination, but the book rapidly transcends that to mean both the uncomfortable awareness of our bodies as physical entities, meat puppets, and the state of medical care as a checkup on the social health of America. Despite the always-amusing tone, McManus pulls no punches, discussing the suicide of his son, the horrors of juvenile diabetes in one daughter and the dramatic eye injury of another; along with many unpleasant deaths of friends and strangers. He unflinchingly details invasive procedures and unpopular body fluids. But even when terrified, enraged, grossed out or lecturing, the author remains unshakably, deeply, humbly, human. PFS certainly did not create the poker boom, but it came along at the inflection point and instantly became the thinking man's guide to the modern tournament poker world. Five years later as the steepening of the mortality curve becomes noticeable to boomers, good cholesterol and blood pressure readings become better than royal flushes. Questions about the economics and ethics of health care are rising to the top of the political agenda. The book is astonishingly well-written, filled with poetic riffs on decidedly difficult topics for poetry. It is painfully honest, without being at all painful to read. Some of the lines will resonate in your head for days, from the sheer beauty of the language; but they never get in the way of the storytelling. This is a great book, as fun to read as Positively Fifth Street, but on a topic that will do you more good, or, if not, show you how to be happy while ignoring your own good.

GIVES US LOTS TO THINK ABOUT

Our own mortality isn't a subject that most of us like to think about. Oh, of course we're human, and we know intellectually that we're going to die some day. But when confronted with the idea of making that final journey, most of us quickly subscribe to a prevalent school of thought, "Me? No, no, not now. Later, sometime in the very distant future." New York Times columnist James McManus was forced to take a close-up, clear-eyed view of his life prospects when he signed on for a three-day, $8,000 executive physical at the Mayo Clinic. McManus is a happy middle-aged fellow who has spent a lot of hours sitting on his posterior playing poker, indulging his appetite for rich foods, bellying up to the bar (so to speak), and lighting a cigarette. All of this despite a family history that plainly reads "Don't smoke, don't drink, get plenty of exercise." We've all heard the old saw about leaving no stone unturned, well, the physical that McManus underwent left no part of him unprobed, untested, uninvaded or uninspected. After this he was given good advice, all of which involved rather dramatic changes in his lifestyle. There are many reasons why he should take better care of himself - two children five and six years old that he'd like to accompany into adulthood. He's happily married, enjoys his career, and relishes life. But, does he have the determination to do it? "Physical" isn't all waiting rooms and lab results, McManus also offers much to laugh about as he drolly describes the doctors he met and the other technicians with whom he came in contact. Stage and television actor Patrick Frederic delivers an able reading, easily reflecting the author's humor and giving serious voice to McManus's take on America's health care system. - Gail Cooke