From Publishers Weekly
In his most skillfully written novel to date, Segal ( Love Story , The Class ) tackles a timeworn but engrossing theme: the grueling education of doctors, and the toll exacted by their careers. As Segal sees it, many physicians are "wounded healers" who know that "to care is to crack" in this brutally competitive, sometimes poorly self-policed profession. When childhood friends Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano enter Harvard Medical School in 1958, they are soon physically and emotionally overwhelmed by mountains of demanding coursework, a classmate's suicide and the vivisection of clumsily anesthetized dogs. Later, Barney, a Manhattan psychiatrist, witnesses the heartwrenching suffering of mental patients at Bellevue Hospital, including his tragically misdiagnosed former basketball coach. Pediatrician Laura is harshly penalized by tyrannical superiors who resent her complaints about their conduct. A medical-school classmate, brilliant black surgeon Bennett Landsmann, encounters racism within and beyond the medical establishment. Seth Lazarus, another class member, faces murder charges for a mercy killing. With his usual facility, Segal spins a highly readable story that addresses the gravest, most pressing issues facing doctors today. 250,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Ingram
Segal's most successful novel since Love Story returns to Harvard to tell the powerful and moving story of the making of doctors. From the merciless training through the demanding hours of internship and residency, Doctors brings to life the people who seek to heal.#Bantam.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.