White Life

by Michael Stein

Book Overview

The narrator, an internist in his thirties, reflects on his medical career and his shift in vision as a result of his relationship with a special and unforgettable patient, all the while attempting to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579620256
• ISBN13: 9781579620257
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Permanent Press (NY)
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Important & compelling

This is an important and compelling book. Dramatic tension triggered a suprising array of intense but conflicting feelings as I read of Stein's "noncompliant patient" from the medical establishment's point of view. His doctor's search for compassion is perhaps uncommon in our managed care era where physicians are trained to look at patients as potential lawsuits, but not trained to deal with the reality of their dying. The struggle depicted led me to question where the role of choice is in the process. It lead me to examine my own anger at my aunt who smoked throughout her mastectomy, chemo and radiation, only to die of lung cancer. To examine my feelings about another loved one's refusal to take his Rx, another's refusal to wear a hearing aid. We're all past and future caregivers and patients, some of us closer to this reality than we imagine. What choices might label me "noncompliant"? (The very term presumes that someone else determines the patient's "shoulds.")

Excellent

Dr. Stein writes in a unique way from the perspective of a physician, its almost in a Camus style, even the first paragraph grabs hold of you and doesn't let go

A gem

This is a beautifully-written and startling look at the inner life of one doctor. Filled with meditation and insight, humor and pathos, The White Life is an original and fresh novel not to be missed.