Mount Misery [Import] [Paperback]

Samuel Shem (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 570 pages
• Publisher: Black Swan; Original Paperback e. edition (January 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552998133
• ISBN-13: 978-0552998130
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,499,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Samuel Shem (pen name of Stephen Bergman) is a novelist, playwright, and, for three decades, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. His novels include The House of God, Fine, and Mount Misery. He is coauthor with his wife, Janet Surrey, of the hit Off-Broadway play Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the story of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (winner of the 2007 Performing Arts Award of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence), and We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues between Women and Men. Editors Carol Donley and Martin Kohn are cofounders of the Center for Literature, Medicine, and Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College. Since 1990 the Center has brought humanities and the health care professions together in mutually enriching interactions, including interdisciplinary courses, summer symposia, and the Literature and Medicine book series from The Kent State University Press. The first three anthologies in the series grew out of courses in the Biomedical Humanities program at Hiram. Then the series expanded to include original writing and edited collections by physicians, nurses, humanities scholars, and artists. The books in the series are designed to serve as resources and texts for health care education as well as for the general public.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, Amusing, philosophical and thought provoking, September 9, 2003

By 

"dnadavs" (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mount Misery: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

In sharp contrast to this books older and more famous brother "The house of God" this one is much less hilarious and much more thought provoking and disturbing. Dr Baschs catastrophic and nearly fatal first year of residency in a prestigious psychiatric institute is depicted in all its gloomy details. The characters in this book are quite extreme each in its own positive or negative way and shems witty and clever description of them (even for the better ones) is merciless. a word of warning - don't get to attached to any of the characters, Shem has a tendency to eliminate some of them in various stages of the book. I am a medical student, and I first read this book In my first year after reading the "House of God" - it was mildly amusing. However, I reread it this year (my fifth) after doing my rotation in a psychiatric hospital and this book is right on target. It made me think very hard about the patients, the doctors and all that's in between. A must book for everyone who is interested in medicine, psychiatry or just plain human nature.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A formulaic attempt at capturing the magic of the original, December 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Mount Misery (Hardcover)

I eagerly anticipated this sequel. Unfortunately it is merely a formulaic attempt to duplicate the original in a different setting. Roy Bash is to goes through the same ups and downs, corrupting cynical attitudes, and, finally, redemtion. The "mentor" figure is a duplicate of the HOG's "fatman". It is as if Roy didn't learn anything at the HOG, thus we are sentenced to watch him live through the exact same story again. When will the cycle end? I stopped reading this book when it became clear that it was going to harm my relationship with the original. Good-twin vs bad-twin syndrome?

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very critical view of todays medical/psychiatric US-system, March 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Mount Misery (Hardcover)

Shem's new book is not what I expected. What I basically thought I'd get was a mere follow up to "The House of God", his 15 year old outstanding novel about medicine and internships. Mount Misery describes one year of residency training in a psychiatric hospital. While not remotely as funny as "House of God" this piece of work is more mature and goes much deeper. Shem doesn't leave too much good on psychoanalysis and Freud. This book really got to me and will keep me thinking for a while. Another masterpiece of medical novels