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Second Opinion: A Doctor's Notes from the Inner City [Hardcover]

Theodore Dalrymple
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 10, 2009
No-one has travelled further into the dark and fascinating heart of Britain’s underclass than the brilliant Theodore Dalrymple.

A hospital consultant and prison doctor in the inner city, he is also a writer of world renown. In Second Opinion, he lays bare a secret, brutal world hidden to most of us.

Drug addicts and desperate drunks, battered wives and suicidal burglars, elderly Alzheimer's sufferers and teenage stabbing victims. They all pass through his surgery.

It’s the tragic world of ‘Baby P’ and Shannon Matthews – a place where the merest perceived insult leads to murder, where jealous men beat and strangle their women and where ‘anyone will do anything for ten bags of brown’.

In unflinchingly honest prose, shot through with insight, feeling and bleak humour, Dalrymple exposes the unseen horror of our modern slums as never before.

‘Dalrymple’s clarity of thought, precision of expression and constant, terrible disappointment give his dispatches from the frontline a tone and a quality entirely their own… their rarity makes you sit up and take notice’ – Marcus Berkmann, The Spectator

‘Dalrymple is a modern master’ – Steven Poole, The Guardian

'I promise you'll enjoy his books' - Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 326 pages
  • Publisher: Monday Books (August 10, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1906308128
  • ISBN-13: 978-1906308124
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 8.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,233,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
(8)
4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Antidote By Anecdote June 3, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
At the end of the day I look forward to sitting in my armchair with my feet up on the ottoman, pouring myself a stiff Diet Pepsi, and inhaling several pages of Dalrymple at his driest. Second Opinion, imported from England, is chock-full of amusing tales of life among the savages. I know what you'll say - Dalrymple lacks compassion! And that's what makes him so delectable, so - so transgressive! In this era where we censor ourselves before thinking, Dalrymple dares to announce what we know is true but dare not say publicly or privately. His experience working in British prisons has given him a wealth of anecdote, but his genius is in the telling. Briticisms abound. I constantly flew to the Oxford English Dictionary to translate his language to American. (I learned that supererogatory does not mean unnecessary, as I had believed, but excess. That "instantiation" is not related to "instantaneous".) There were many phrases that were so Brit that I have no idea what they mean. Nonetheless, I got the gist and enjoyed the process. Second Opinion is superbly amusing and goes down painlessly, especially taken with a double dose of Schadenfreude. I want to add that the book contains unexpected grace notes of wisdom, observations about finding meaning in life, as well as the sudden leap of empathy toward the rare patient who embodies a quiet heroism. His encounter with the young man who speaks of Othello with recognition and applies it to his own jealousy is poignant.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Tragically true. January 28, 2011
By C. O.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Upon reading "Second Opinion," one would hope that the author has grossly exaggerated the stories in order to sell his book. Sadly, this is not the case, as the introduction makes plain. Then too, one might hope that the doctor works in some strange city where the goings on he describes are unique to his urban landscape. Failing that, one hopes that perhaps the situations occur only in England. Unfortunately, none of these is the case. Having worked in mental health for 14 years, I can assure you that the incidents described in this book are becoming increasingly common right here in America. In fact, if the publisher were to release an American edition of the book they might consider changing the title to "Coming Soon to America!" or "Behold the Destruction Wrought by the Therapeutic Nanny State". This book offers a glimpse into a dark present and prophetic hint of a darker future. Take and read!
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read February 11, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a riveting look at the problems we will soon be faced with here in the US. Witty and erudite. You laugh out loud as important points sink in.
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