DNF 50ish %

I started reading this solely because a few attendings recommend I read this as I continue my medicine education, however I do not recommend this to any person in medicine. I’m aware the book is satirical and attempts to highlight a caricature of medicine, but it was too intense for me and I found myself dreading picking up the book and feeling disgusted every time I read a passage. I don’t think sitting through this book is worth it just to know why the medical team may use terms such as “turf” and “buff.”

As I read some reviews before posting this, I will say there is positivity with the concept of not practicing medicine for the sake of practicing, but instead practicing only if it benefits the patient (aka don’t do a lab or procedure if it will not benefit the patient as it may make them worse off). Maybe my hope for the future of medicine is too rose-tinted, but I do think we are shifting to practicing this approach of giving the patient autonomy in their medical care / weighing the pros and cons of care with each patient, so I’m not sure the book’s message of this is worth sitting through the other pieces of this story.

It has its bright spots, but this book does not deliver on its promises. Instead of a “timeless novel about life and death in an American hospital,” it is a dated and shallow story that is in desperate need of a modern spiritual successor. While some may dismiss its sexist, privileged, and even racist portrayal of its characters as a remnant of its time, this doesn’t mean that we should not strive for something better than this grim novel. Likewise, the inability of the author to explore the depth of emotion (good and bad) that accompanies patient care in favor of a satirical romp is at best tone deaf and at worst a subtle reassurance of the medical hierarchy these characters strive to fight against. The fact that this is still considered essential reading among training physicians reveals the desperate need for a stronger, more creative medical storytelling community.

I'm not finishing this. I was told this book was full of insight into what life as a resident is like, but those tidbits of wisdom are scarce. It's less of a recollection of the life of a fresh medical school grad and more of a collection of immature and bizarre musings about women's bodies and vivid descriptions of the author's sexual fantasies. I hope the author sought help for his psychosexual dysfunctions :/

Look, I GET IT. I get that this is a long-standing pillar in the medical community - a book that every doctor recommends to incoming students & residents as a historic, slightly fictional telling of what life is like in a hospital...BUT MY GOD. The misogyny, the excessive sex, the objectification of women, the simplification of cheating, the stereotyping!! I get why guys would love it, I truly do. There genuinely were parts of the story that were exciting, fun and entertaining, but everything else was enough to turn me off so I stopped 120 pages in. Maybe I'll finish it one day, but today is not that day.