I read all three of the books in the "Doctor Cole" trilogy back to back. I loved the first one (5 stars) and liked the next two very much (4 stars). Other reviewers have panned this one, and I admit it was probably the weakest of the three. However, it kept me engrossed, and I cared a lot about the protagonist, Dr. Roberta J. Cole. Some of the content portrayed the pro-choice vs. pro-life battles taking place in society and showed both sides, eventually reluctantly coming down on the pro-choice side. Being a male. I cannot say whether Gordon captures the female persona or not - it seemed fine to me.

The final book in the cole family trilogy was a little dissapointing for me only because I really did love the others. Also it felt unfinished like the author just decided to stop writing one day. I did like the story just had higher expectations

Not nearly as good as the first two in the series, the book suffered from a setting contemporary to its writing and all the problems of a man writing a female main character. I understand that a woman as a doctor shows progression of the profession through time, but the intimate thoughts and personal story fell into cliché far too often. It really disappoints me because I think "Physician" is probably in my top 20 books I've ever read, and "Shaman" manages the unusual viewpoint of a deaf narrator very well.
The first main issue is the lack of distance from the period being written about since it was contemporary when Gordon wrote it in the mid-1990s. The perspective of history, with space and time to analyze the major conflicts of the period, in this series focused on religion and medical practice, it noticeably lacking in this book as opposed to the first two. With distance comes a clearer understanding of all aspects major social conflicts, allowing a fuller narrative.
Gordon handled well the health care debate and the touchy (to understate) issue of abortion. But as I said, it suffers from lack of distance from the issues. Reading "Matters of Choice" just two decades after it was written and set it comes across as myopic and dated, which neither of the earlier books did despite being 1000 and 150 years ago. It could be my or any current reader's first hand experience of the time, but I think it's mostly because the social issues of the third book hadn't yet and still haven't been resolved in any sense. The author manages to make the characters in the first and second books fully involved in and affected by the conflicts and problems of their day, but the advantage of knowing the outcome becomes obvious on reading this last book.
The second main issue is the often-seen problem of a man writing a woman's perspective. There are certain thing universal to all humans, and some men can write women characters well, but the female elements of this main character's identity are most often clichéd, "I am woman hear me roar" archetypal feminist descriptions, or as in the case of her sexuality just conveniently ignored. This aspect of the book reinforces the adage of "write what you know," though I understand some of the absurdity in that statement when I enjoy so much his writing about a character in the early 1000s. Maybe a better way to put it is that the author excels at researching and bringing the reader into another time, but lacks the research or understanding to relate as deeply to another gender.
It's an interesting book, with a mid-90s perspective on the health care and abortion debates, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first two books. However, unlike the first two in the trilogy, I would never recommend it on its own merits.

Ich habe so ein Buch noch nie mit so einer ungeahnten Geschwindigkeit gelesen.Obwohl ich das Buch << Der Schamane >> noch nicht gelesen habe,bin ich noch immer beeindruckt vom Ende der Trilogie.(In einigen Passagen des Buches habe ich Facetten meiner eigenen Persönlichkeit erkannt,aber das nur am Rande.)Als Deutsche, mit ostdeutschen Wurzeln,war es für mich ein erschreckender Einblick in das amerikanische Gesundheitswesen.R.J.Cole , die Heldin des Buches und ihre Menschlichkeit im Umgang mit ihren Patienten und ihr Engagement haben mich begeistert.Es ist zwar nicht das neuste Buch mehr,aber dennoch zu empfehlen.Wer mit den politischen einschlägen des Autors nicht zurecht kommt,sollte einmal bedenken das Literatur schon immer ein Spiegel der Gesellschaft war.

Encerrou essa trilogia com chave de ouro, embora, ironicamente, não tenha um final tão "fechadinho" assim. Definitivamente, não é o melhor dos três livros - o primeiro é de longe meu preferido - mas, ainda sim, uma leitura bem gostosa.
Essa trilogia está super indicada para todos os leitores que tem interesse na parte histórica da evolução da medicina e seus diversos impactos na sociedade.

Digo final para la Trilogía del Médico, para mí, la mejor novela histórica del mundo. Me ha parecido un relato muy agradable, con el punto de vista de una mujer en las montañas de Massachusetts, sin caer en ñoñerias o idealizaciones pero manteniendo ese estilo de contador de historias que siempre tiene el autor.

I really enjoyed "The Last Jew" so I had high expectations for this Noah Gordon one. Unfortunately, my expectations were a little too high, and I was disappointed by the story in some ways. First, the writing didn't seem as rich as it was in "The Last Jew," and the story line was more predictable than it was unique. FYI -the version that I read was simply called "Choices," rather than "Matters of Choice." Hmmm.

Well, its not bad-bad, but Matters of Choice is nowhere near Shaman and even further from The Physician. It is an easy ready, some historic reference to important issues and (finally!) a story of a woman from Noah Gordon. I do not regret spending time on this book, but I would not come back to it.

AND! Seriously, what is up with an open ending? I was so looking forward for some kind of closure at least in one of the story. Well, I should have seen the nervous yelling "Whaaat? What happened? Come on, what does she do? How would her life change? Is it a happy end or not?" coming...

Written in the same way as the first two in the Cole series, quite a strong driving narrative. Just missing what the first two had which was a strong plot to go along with it. The books in the series get progressively worse. The first book in the series is head and shoulders above the next two.

Because I am accustomed to the richness of a Noah Gordon book and this one being the last of a trilogy, I wanted to love the story as much as the first two novels. Sadly, "Matters of Choice" was very run-of-mill and not at all up to Mr. Gordon proven talent of story-telling. Sorry, just wasn't there for me.

er schreibt halt dreimal dasselbe buch so oft wiederholen sich die selben elemente

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Mismos elementos en la tercera parte de la Saga del Médico.
El escritor norteamericano nos presenta en la última parte de la saga los mismos elementos de las anteriores obras, pero curiosamente no resultan ni aburridos ni predecibles pues logra involucrarlos de forma entretenida y orgánica dentro de la historia relatada. Sigue tratando los temas de religión, política, economía y por supuesto, medicina, en un relato de crecimiento y autoayuda cimentado en el conocimiento y la vocación médica involucrando viajes de aventura, intercambio cultural, hechos históricos importantes, criticas a la discriminación y dilemas médicos.
Espero sus comentarios