Summary
New books guide - Bibliography
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Literary.
FICTION
EXCELLENT Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures Stories By Vincent Lam Group portrait of the medical profession. Bloodletting, which won Canada's Giller Prize, strips away the romance from the medical profession as it follows four young Toronto physicians' training from med school to the ER. In 12 connected stories, Lam, a Toronto ER physician, reveals the contradictions and dilemmas that characterize their lives. Fitz develops a drinking problem to cope with stress; Ming, driven by her immigrant parents, treats her patients coldly and analytically; Chen marries Ming after her short-lived romance with Fitz; and Sri, an overly sensitive doctor, is diagnosed with cancer. Their stories culminate in the 2003 SARS virus, which puts an all-too-human face on their own fragile lives. Weinstein Books. 362 pages. $23.95. ISBN: 1602860009 Cleveland Plain Dealer EXCELLENT "The book reads like inside information, as if Lam is telling us what other doctors wish he wouldn't. ... In the pages that follow, we see both art and science." Steven Hayward Ottawa Citizen EXCELLENT "There's a glossary of medical terms at the back of the book, but Lam is at his best when he explores more recondite territory: the private doubts and aspirations of his cast of four young, mainly inexperienced doctors. ... In this impressive first book, by all appearances, Lam's concern for his flawed characters and their difficult choices comes naturally." JOEL YANOFSKY Seattle Times EXCELLENT "[The book] lets us peek behind those swinging doors at the end of a hospital's echoing hallway; we overhear conversations, gaze at patient charts, let out our breath at the end of a failed resuscitation. Lam's writing is both minimalist and elegant, like a taut line of stitches perfectly placed." MOIRA MACDONALD Tampa Tribune EXCELLENT "While each chapter stands on its own, thus justifying the label 'short story,' collectively the characters and incidents intertwine with the comprehensiveness of a novel. ... Lam's prose is as specific and unsentimental as a medical chart, but it works." KATHY L. GREENBERG Toronto Star EXCELLENT "Lam opens a door into the world of successful, assimilated young Chinese-Canadian professionals and he does so with the authority of an insider. We have not heard much about people like Chen and Ming and their friend Sri, nor Ming's rejected non-Chinese lover Fitz in Canadian fiction before." JUDY STOFMAN Globe and Mail [Toronto] EXCELLENT "The inward-looking world of fiction, too often a creative-writing class not quite brought to life, needs this kind of practitioner and not just for the energizing vocabulary he brings to the language of the heart: atrial electricity, crash cart, rhythm strip, mitral regurgitation. Lam has new stories to tell, and while TV series such as House and ER have prepared the way for the medical slice-of-life, the focus ...See the full content of this document
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