The Wisdom of the Body

Rating:
Summary: Uneven and lacking sufficient illustrations
Review: I yield to no one in my admiration for Dr. Nuland's story telling, writing skills, or speaking eloquence. However, THE WISDOM OF THE BODY is not a successfully made book. It mixes together fascinating clinical stories with monotonous, drawn out descriptions of the body's functions. Nuland does not always succeed in conveying the body's anatomy and physiology to the reader, and the result is often a restless boredom. This book has only 8 or 9 illustrations, and should have used ten times that many if readers are to understand the complex concepts Nuland discusses. As a fellow surgeon, I enjoyed reading Nuland's personal case histories, but there are much better books to consult for educating one's self on the wisdom of the body. (A few examples: Tortora and Agnostakos TEXTBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY, Frank Netter's CIBA illustrations, or Dr. Paul Brand's FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE.)

Rating:
Summary: Not this gifted writer's best book
Review: Last year, I read and greatly enjoyed Sherwin B. Nuland's How We Die. It was therefore with great excitement that I checked out from our library Nuland's recent The Wisdom of The Body (in softcover, the book is titled How We Live).

I was disappointed. Nuland, a surgeon and professor of surgery at Yale, is at his best in describing medical events and systems in the context of case histories. The few times he does this in Wisdom make for both compelling story-telling and instruction. Unfortunately, much of Wisdom reads like an introductory primer in human medical systems. This is a worthy goal for a book, and Nuland does it well, but it was not what I expected. His basic thesis, that the "wisdom" of the body consists of complex, adaptable systems which by their very variability sustain homeostasis, is persuasively argued. However, Nuland showed in his earlier book that a serious medical argument could be (and was) successfully made both through anecdotal case history and exposition of the broader principles involved.

Nuland misplaced the fulcrum in the balance of his most recent book, with unfortunate results. He is, however, such a fine and humane writer that I eagerly await his next work (as I do his new column in The American Scholar).

Rating:
Summary: A detailed easy to read description of the body.
Review: This is by far one of the best books I have read in a long time. I borrowed this book from the library and decided I needed my own copy because it was so interesting and informative. This book is for anyone who has ever wondered how certain processes take place in the body.

Rating:
Summary: Like an adventure novel
Review: This was the first of Nuland's books that I have read and it will definitely not be the last. I found it extremely fascinating to read, both from the perspective of the scientific and humanities aspects to medicine. He tells about the body's inner workings through unique case studies over the course of his career. The physiology is very descriptive, but not in a boring text-book type of way. The pages flow from one to the next as he explores the various aspectes that living organisms, especially humans, go through in the process of life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine or biology. There are better books that focus on only the science or personal aspect of medicine, but this is a rare and fabulously written combination of the two. Nuland's command of the English language is a joy to read and will be extremely informative and entertaining to the novice or expert reader.

Rating:
Summary: Heavy on science, but extremely well-written overall.
Review: This was the first of Nuland's books that I have read and it will definitely not be the last. I found it extremely fascinating to read, both from the perspective of the scientific and humanities aspects to medicine. He tells about the body's inner workings through unique case studies over the course of his career. The physiology is very descriptive, but not in a boring text-book type of way. The pages flow from one to the next as he explores the various aspectes that living organisms, especially humans, go through in the process of life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine or biology. There are better books that focus on only the science or personal aspect of medicine, but this is a rare and fabulously written combination of the two. Nuland's command of the English language is a joy to read and will be extremely informative and entertaining to the novice or expert reader.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Overview
Review: We start with an overview of the body as a working, smoothly functioning system. Dr. Nuland tells us that a stable system is not a static one, but one that is constantly changing and adapting. The paradox is stability means instability. Although his background is medical science, he has the courage to admit that medicine is an art. Going back to his system's paridigm, he says we are greater than the sum of our biological parts. From that statement he makes an inference, saying by our own choices, we can enhance what we've been given physically.

He returns to this healing theme later in the book by noting, "All growth and all healing depend on the ability of cells to divide and thereby reproduce themselves."

While the book presents fascinating insight on the body's physical functions, it totally misses the mark spiritually. When he comments on those matters, rather frequently in the margins my comments are "bogus" and "spiritually blind." He knows the external functions, but he is woefully lacking on the unseen part.