The Doctor Stories
Description
The Doctor Stories collects thirteen of Williams's stories (direct accounts of his experiences as a doctor), six related poems, and a chapter from his autobiography that connects the world of medicine and writing, as well as a new preface by Atul Gawande, an introduction by Robert Coles (who put the book together), and a final note by Williams's son (also a doctor), about his famous father. The writings are remarkably direct and freshly true. As Atul Gawande notes, "Reading these tales, you find yourself in a conversation with Williams about who people really are--who you really are. Williams recognized that, caring for the people of his city, he had a front-row seat to the human condition. His writing makes us see it and hear it and grapple with it in all its complexities. That is his lasting gift."Product Details
Price
$14.95
$13.90
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
October 25, 2018
Pages
160
Dimensions
5.3 X 7.9 X 0.4 inches | 0.4 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811228176
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
About the Author
Besides being a practicing physician, William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was a poet, short-story writer, novelist, translator, playwright, and essayist whose contribution to the development of modern American poetry grew out of his commitment to recording the "local" experience of Rutherford, New Jersey, and its environs.
Atul Gawande is the author of several bestselling books: Complications, a finalist for the National Book Award; Better; The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. He is also a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, a MacArthur Fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards. In his work in public health, he is Founder and Chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. He is also chair of Haven, where he was CEO from 2018-2020. He and his wife have three children and live in Newton, Massachusetts.
Reviews
This is powerful but not comfortable reading, in the prose of a poet and the vision of a healer. I wish all doctors would read it.
Stories written with the swift, concise, unsentimental exactitude of a great diagnostician who also happened to be a great poet.--Philip Gourevitch
A stunning combination of ease and urgency.
Williams' shockingly vivid portraits of bigotry and bias ultimately serve to expose the normally opaque medical practitioner, examining the examiner where his flaws are most flagrant...The collection moves like a surgeon: It makes you uncomfortable and looks at you naked. Then, it changes you.-- (09/25/2018)
The Doctor Stories are clinical vignettes at their best and most engaging: dramatic, lively, full of the heroism it takes to be human.
Stories written with the swift, concise, unsentimental exactitude of a great diagnostician who also happened to be a great poet.--Philip Gourevitch
A stunning combination of ease and urgency.
Williams' shockingly vivid portraits of bigotry and bias ultimately serve to expose the normally opaque medical practitioner, examining the examiner where his flaws are most flagrant...The collection moves like a surgeon: It makes you uncomfortable and looks at you naked. Then, it changes you.-- (09/25/2018)
The Doctor Stories are clinical vignettes at their best and most engaging: dramatic, lively, full of the heroism it takes to be human.
