Customer Reviews

Judith's Pavilion: The Haunting Memories of a Neurosurgeon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a surgeon who enjoys the writings of other physicians, I was disappointed with Judith's Pavilion. His metaphors and analogies are frequently a bit far fetched. The writing lacks coherence while his stream of consciousness makes the prose difficult to read. The author rarely points to anything profound or intriguing, though he does write with conviction. There are plenty of other reflective books about medicine that would be better to sample than Judith's Pavilion. If this genre interests you, try something by one of these physicians: Paul Brand (The Gift of Pain, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made), Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings), Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell, The Youngest Science), Richard Selzer (Mortal Lessons, Letters to a Young Doctor), David Graham (Thoughts Along the Way), Harold Klawans (Toscanini's Fumble, Newton's Madness), or Sherwin Nuland (The Wisdom of the Body).

Combining science and humanities is a fascinating undertaking - I'm finding more and more examples of it; his is one of the best.

I tried not to let my disappointment in the book's contents be reflected in my rating of it.

This book is about life and death, mistakes, regrets, transience, and a milieu of philosophical issues. The fact that the author is a specialist in neurosurgery has little to do with the book itself, except perhaps as evidence that scientists can be poetic writers as well. Admittedly I was hoping more for a book dealing with the issues and details of neurosurgical patients and their outcomes.

The prose was lovely and poetic, though fraught with metaphors. It was hard to follow at times, seeming more like a recording of a stream of consciousness. The book was not particularly mesmerizing reading, but it did hold my interest at a moderate pace.

The practice of medicine holds special fascination for me, a longtime practitioner myself. This work reveals a depth of feeling and a revelation of the human soul that is often overlooked in such an important profession as neurosurgery; still, Dr. Flitter's writing at times is difficult to stay with, and he sometimes wanders unneccessarily. However, writing from the heart as he does is honest and difficult, and for that I applaud his work. I would recommend his book to others in the healthcare field.

I love to read books on medicine/surgery, etc. But I don't think that I have ever read a book that, after finishing a chapter (or even a particular sentence), has made me put the book in my lap and sit back and marvel at the author's use of language. Many times, since I was reading it at work on break, I had to fight to hold back tears. Some of the stories are so heart-breaking. One that I will always remember told of a young boy that had to undergo 2 brain surgeries and a tough fight with life-threatening infection. But he made it through ! He would live a normal life afterall ! But a short while later when playing with his siblings, a balloon he was blowing up popped and the boy fell to the ground unable to breathe. An autopsy revealed that a small piece of balloon had become stuck in the windpipe. He had survived 2 very dangerous operations only to fall victim to a balloon !! I highly recommend this beautifully written memoir for all readers that enjoy being entranced by the skillful and astounding use of words.

Medical stories relate both poignant and marvelous anecdotes about physician ingenuity and human resiliency. In the 19 chapters making up the fabric of this book, the author - a neurosurgeon - exposes both his pain and humanity in the stories of failed brains. Recounts of his patients, friends, hospital encounters, and relatives include only those where death ultimately wins and gloom infects this human who wielded the scalpel or embraced his fellow in friendship. The stories almost read as a therapeutic exercise that prescribes exorcism for the emotional traumas that plague this professional. Doctors are supposed to maintain a personal distance from their patients, here is one example of a medic who suffers the tortures of hell at the sufferings of his supplicants. Let us hope that Dr. Flitter will share with readers some of the successes that he has also experienced and some of the joy that he can see in the sunshine. Life may be nothing more than a crap game, and too frequently death holds the winning hand. Those of us who survive must grow from the experiences, otherwise we also lose our affect and perspective. Hopefully, this writing served as the catharsis that this very empathetic and feeling person needs. The reader shares his pain and his sense of helplessness, but also respects and admires his compassion and empathy