Solid McPhee. Interesting technique to cover a dozen or so doctors instead of one. A shocking amount of smoking, but then again, it was 1983.

I personally enjoyed the book because of the insights it gave me into family medicine in rural Maine. It did become tedious sometimes, where the author just lists off patient after patient, doctor after doctor without really giving a coherent message or theme. Much like a portrait, it focuses more on atmosphere and function than structure. (Last line paraphrasing a critique of Wong Kar Wai’s Fallen Angels lol.)

Recommend for those who want to know more about family/rural medicine!

The book is rather fragmented, as the author spends one paragraph to up to a few pages about a patient's visit to a GP. Thus it had a rather fragmented structure, so trying to read more than a dozen of pages at a time can get a bit tiring after a while.

However, because you can read a few paragraphs at a time without losing the plot, I think it is good for being used as an English reader for EFL learners. The stories are straightforward, and there are not too many difficult words except for the medical terms.

I am amazed at how well the GPs know their patients given that they have 2000 to 3000 families to care for. I think my class mistresses while I was at secondary school (like the book in the 80s) with a class size under 40, knew so much less about us.

I received this book from a patient and ever so grateful. It offers a beautiful and (almost) timeless lens into the joys, complexities, rewards and struggles of Family Practice. I had to keep glancing at the year it was published. It’s soon to be a staple on my desk to revisit when I need a reminder of why I love what I do in Family Medicine.

At a time when reading the news makes me horrified, and then more horrified, it was a great relief to read this book about doctors choosing to go into "family practice"--to choose to work in rural settings, treat the whole patient, and even make house calls. McPhee is careful not to mythologize these real people--they are not SuperDocs, but they are truly admirable human beings. And, of course, since he's a brilliant writer, McPhee has fun describing doctors and patients and adding the occasional clever spin, or twist, or joke. My favorite is this phrase

...the town's other doctor wears a cross in his lapel and has personally been obstetricated twice.

which sent me to Google in vain before I realized it was the medical equivalent of "born again."

A fun, often humorous, look into the need for family medicine. It follows about 12 doctors and shares why certain patient presentations would best be served by the family doc. I thought all in all it was a little hard to follow, but the topics made for a great book discussion. I think I would actually read it again one day, since it was such a short read and gets your mind thinking, especially if one is considering family Med. Last thought; very impressive how this book was written in the 80’s but the argument fits the current healthcare climate just as well.

You guys, my dad is in this book!

An excerpt of this book appeared in The New Yorker in 1984. That article was very influential for many of us in our early careers in family medicine. The book follows a group of new graduates of a family medicine program in the state of Maine as they engage in rural practice. At the time family medicine had the trappings of a 'movement' in medicine, vestiges of which continue to animate some of us in what is now the 'old guard'.

This book was given to me as a gift by my niece and signed by the author. JM's daughter was/is a friend of my niece. I don't remember reading it or what happened to it as I don't have it any more. Maybe I read some of it. Date read is a guess.

This book was definitely a good read. The writing was a bit gritty at times with back-to-back medical stories surrounding family practice doctors. A good book to gain further perspective into preventative medicine and why we should to care about general practice.

This was EXCELLENT. Extremely engaging, fascinating, and helped to lessen the stigma surrounding family practice physicians. I am not entering the medical field and I found this to be an enjoyable read. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the doctor-patient relationship.

I love books about medicine and doctoring (Gawande's Complications and Better, Groopman), even though I sometimes read them with a tinge of regret at what might have been had I decided to suck up 5 years of med school instead of pursuing the joys of a liberal arts education. In Heris of General Practice, Mc Phee delves into the lives of the men and women who go against conventional wisdom and opt for family medicine, instead of the more glamourous specialities such as cardiology.