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Original poster

Novels about doctors or illness

42 replies

funnyperson · 04/12/2011 21:01

What fiction/non fiction/authors have you read which gives a memorable and/or moving account of doctors or people who are ill?

eg Dr Zhivago/Pasternak
AJ Cronin

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Sacagawea · 16/12/2011 16:51

Doctor Ibolit (Russian author K. Chukovsky - for children, inc, cartoon based on this lyrics)

AlexandraMary · 16/12/2011 08:43

The vagabond's breakfast by Richard gwyn

Alcoholism and end stage failure from the patient's perspective.

Terpsichore · 15/12/2011 16:05

Ooh, just remembered a very absorbing Monica Dickens novel - 'The Happy Prisoner'. The title character is confined to bed, I think from war injuries (it's been a long time since I read it), but he arranges things in the lives of his various family members. She's great with descriptions of what it's like to be ill for a long period and the routines that people get into and depend on. Actually that makes me want to dig it out and read it again now Grin

Original poster
funnyperson · 15/12/2011 03:15

'The Bell Jar' always silences me. I have never read it. Though I have it. Its because of the awfulness of what happened to her and their poor son.

'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller is entertaining.

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DuchessofMalfi · 08/12/2011 12:34

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Original poster
funnyperson · 08/12/2011 00:09

Going back to 'Regeneration' I found the original Lancet article by WH Rivers, the psychiatrist who treated Sassoon
net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/rivers.htm

and the original write up by Yealland, the neurologist who used ect in the same hospital
openlibrary.org/works/OL10712094W/Hysterical_disorders_of_warfare

-and its interesting to see how much Pat Barker based her descriptions on fact.
Also, I couldn't help but think how one humane method of listening and talking and compassion gave the world not only a return of men to the front, but arguably some of the finest poetry ever written, whereas the other inhumane treatment caused additional suffering.

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DoctorGilbertson · 07/12/2011 20:54

Isabel Allende Paula
Andrew Greig In Another Light

bagelmonkey · 07/12/2011 20:20

Bodies by Jed Mercurio
The House of God

DoctorGilbertson · 07/12/2011 20:16

Yes to regeneration.

Also, with a neurological theme:

Saturday by Ian McEwan
Awakenings by Oliver Sacks
Toscanini's fumble

alana39 · 07/12/2011 18:43

Also remembered Yann Martel's first novel, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Rocclamatios (sp?) which is about a dying man and friend and the story they make up to pass the time in hospital. The illness takes a minor role but is always there.

alana39 · 07/12/2011 18:39

Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff, a son's view of a father descending into dementia. Read it years ago but it stays with me.

aStarOverMangerways · 07/12/2011 08:19

i also found that scene incredibly upsetting.

TeamDamon · 06/12/2011 22:37

It's horrific, isn't it? What I found very disturbing too was the class discrimination: only officers were treated at Craiglockhart, using psychoanalysis, the common soldiers still underwent the brutal electric shock therapy.

Original poster
funnyperson · 06/12/2011 22:09

teamdamon the accounts of a very primitive ect in that trilogy are terrible to read.

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TeamDamon · 06/12/2011 21:58

Saw the thread title and came on to make sure that Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy got a mention - a fascinating fictionalised account of W.H.R. Rivers who worked with shell-shocked patients (including Siegfried Sassoon) during WWI.

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funnyperson · 06/12/2011 21:54

thanks -I'm intrigued that so much is recent.

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DuchessofMalfi · 06/12/2011 18:25

Two more I've remembered -

Before I Say Goodbye by Ruth Picardie - a diary she kept during her treatment for breast cancer.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (I think that's what it was called - can't remember the author) about the aftermath of a massive stroke which left him unable to speak or move.

elkiedee · 06/12/2011 15:13

I read The Emperor of All Maladies recently, it's a history of cancer treatment in the US but it's a far more interesting read than that makes it sound.

munstersmum · 06/12/2011 12:23

Cancer Ward by Solzhenitzyn (sp?)
So Much For That is good and depressingly probably foretelling for the UK.

The Good Doctor is an interesting one. Our bookclub did it and most disliked it, thinking it slow but I thought OK.

DuchessofMalfi · 06/12/2011 08:14

An easy read, but I found it quite upsetting - My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

KurriKurri · 05/12/2011 23:02

No Laughing Matter by Joseph Heller, - an account of when he had GBS - v. interesting.

Also The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a very interesting book - not a novel as such, but certainly worth reading.

Coldcuppacoffee · 05/12/2011 22:55

So much for that by Lionel Shriver is excellent.

aStarOverMangerways · 05/12/2011 22:39

verysmellyeli that Siddartha Mukerjee book looks amazing, thanks for the tip-off :)

verysmellyeli · 05/12/2011 21:07

Direct Red by Gabriel Weston is excellent (non-fiction)
Anything by Atul Gawande.
There's a newish book out that I'm looking forward to reading - Pulitzer prize winning - by an oncologist called Siddartha Mukerjee - The Emperor of all Maladies.
House of God is about junior doctors in America but is iconic for all junior doctors and the terminology has found it's way everywhere!

Also - John Diamond wrote very movingly on cancer. And Oscar Moore who used to write for the Guardian under the 'PWA' column (person with AIDS) in the 1990's made a lasting impression on me. He died the year that I qualified.

Original poster
funnyperson · 05/12/2011 20:58

These sound really interesting and by no means familiar- thank you!

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