Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary Journey with a Young Physician
Review: Singular Intimacies, Danielle Ofri's first non-technical book, is a brilliant addition to the memoirs of physicians and other health care workers. In it, Ofri chronicles her transition from medical student to internist at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. She is humble, funny, smart, sophisticated, vulnerable, and blessed with rare insight. In addition, she has the gift for lucid, direct prose. This book will appeal to physicians, other health care workers, the general public; and especially to those young persons considering a career in medicine. For this latter group and for medical students it is a "must read."
Occasionally, when reading a book I feel like Keats did when he first opened Chapman's "Homer." "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken." Singular Intimacies imparted this welcome and always surprising feeling to me. It should enjoy a great success and help to inspire and humanize many future (and some practicing) physicians.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Writing and Great Stories
Review: Singular IntimaciesIf you have ever wondered what medical training is like, if you have ever fantasized about becoming a doctor, or if you just love strong writing and great stories, this is a book for you. Singular Intimacies takes us inside the emotional and intellectual heart of a doctor as she makes her journey from medical student to resident physician during her training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. As a physician and poet who learned to practice medicine at similar inner-city hospitals, I can assure any reader that Dr. Ofri's descriptions of the clinical situations she encounters (including the array of patients, diagnostic dilemmas, clinical conversations, and moments of genuine love and exhilaration), all ring true for me: patients recover unexpectedly from what seem to be fatal illnesses; they die without warning and without having an accurate diagnosis; and they laugh, bleed, masturbate, cooperate, and act up in every imaginable (and unimaginable) way. Through all these experiences, Dr. Ofri shares her own personal responses which vary from her sense of pride when she begins to experience a sense of mastery, to moments of intense anxiety and despair. I found myself re-experiencing my own excitement, fear, and sleep-deprivation, only this time with a compassionate guide, one who is strong enough to let herself laugh at gallows humor, and also be vulnerable enough to cry in the arms of a priest as the patient's family watches. And I celebrated when Dr. Ofri finally finished her training , bruised and calloused, but with the compassionate heart and voice of a healer.
Rating:
Summary: Singular Intimacies
Review: The beauty and clarity of Danielle Ofri's writing convey the immediacy of her experiences during her clinical training in medicine at Bellevue Hospital in NYC. In the complex, somewhat chaotic environment of a large city teaching hospital not necessarily conducive to reflective compassionate care, she values the innate resilient sensitivity and compassion within herself that complement the technical proficiencies she is developing. Her responsiveness to the interpersonal side of medicine enriches for her her professional role, and the patients under her care are beneficiaries. A rich perspective and wit enhance this wondrous rendering of the interpersonal nature of doctor-patient relationships.
Rating:
Summary: Great book ... fast read
Review: This book could be subtitled "No day is normal at Bellevue." The enthusiastic young doctor keeps trying to find meaning, do the right thing, be the best doctor, and smell the roses in a chaotic, surreal world, where everything is fast-paced and unexpected and where it would be easy to become tired and cynical. It reads very fast.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply moving
Review: This book is truly a must read. Danielle Ofri is a talented writer and gifted physician. How lucky her patients, to have such a compassionate presence for a doctor. Through her writings I felt the warmth and caring she brings to every interaction. I would hope that this book would be a primer for all doctors-in-training, so that they might be inspired to keep their humanity and be willing to be vulnerable when they become doctors. This book and this woman are an inspiration. I am richer for having read the book and grateful that Danielle Ofri shared in this way.
Rating: 
Summary: Singular view of the march through medical school and beyond
Review: This is an interesting book and it certainly held my attention. But it was not especially enjoyable to read; at the time it came into my hands, a friend who was seriously ill was being treated at a teaching hospital. Those who prefer not to know too much about the white coats and their training (which is certainly being conducted on patients at teaching hospitals) may want to avoid this book. That said, some of the stories about patients are pretty eye opening, as well. The human personality is remarkably fixed; a dirty old man who has probably made women miserable all his life will persist, even at death's portal. Some of these stories demonstrate the sad human drama caused by bone-deep denial; others show the amazing aspect of the creative, healing interaction between patient and physician.
Rating:
Summary: From the heart and from the mind
Review: This is not a book to take lightly. This is a book about real people, with real problems. This is a book written by a doctor who takes nothing about what she does lightly.
Dr. Ofri takes the sacred--a person and his/her life--and offers us a glimpse into the patient's world and the doctor's world in a poetic, gorgeous book that offers us both rare insight about ourselves and insight about human beings in general.
Each essay describes a moment in time, a look at Dr. Ofri's residency at Bellevue Hospital, a glimpse of one or more of her patients, and a glance toward the human condition and how it can be both transformational and devasting.
Dr. Ofri takes the mundane--an alcoholic arriving in the ER from too much imbibing--and transforms the story into one that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
I am not a doctor, I am not a scientist. I am an ordinary person who will never again look ordinarily at any person whether I see them in a hospital bed or posted as a missing person on a flyer.
Perhaps what sets Dr. Ofri apart is that she is a doctor, a wife, a mother. But I hope not. I hope that every doctor could aspire to having access to both sides of his/her brain, to show emotion and to offer solace in a way that Dr. Ofri has.
This is a must read for anyone in the medical field and a must read for anyone who aspires to have a deeper connection in any relationship with any person.
Rating:
Summary: From the heart and from the mind
Review: This is not a book to take lightly. This is a book about real people, with real problems. This is a book written by a doctor who takes nothing about what she does lightly.
Dr. Ofri takes the sacred--a person and his/her life--and offers us a glimpse into the patient's world and the doctor's world in a poetic, gorgeous book that offers us both rare insight about ourselves and insight about human beings in general.
Each essay describes a moment in time, a look at Dr. Ofri's residency at Bellevue Hospital, a glimpse of one or more of her patients, and a glance toward the human condition and how it can be both transformational and devasting.
Dr. Ofri takes the mundane--an alcoholic arriving in the ER from too much imbibing--and transforms the story into one that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
I am not a doctor, I am not a scientist. I am an ordinary person who will never again look ordinarily at any person whether I see them in a hospital bed or posted as a missing person on a flyer.
Perhaps what sets Dr. Ofri apart is that she is a doctor, a wife, a mother. But I hope not. I hope that every doctor could aspire to having access to both sides of his/her brain, to show emotion and to offer solace in a way that Dr. Ofri has.
This is a must read for anyone in the medical field and a must read for anyone who aspires to have a deeper connection in any relationship with any person.
Rating:
Summary: Memoirs from a physician in training . . .
Review: This is wonderful writing! I started reading it at bedtime and ended up finishing it at 3 a.m.! The images are very evocative and I found my mind going back to the stories again and again the next day. I recommend this for anyone who wants to know what people in medicine go through, both physically and emotionally as they complete their training.
Rating:
Summary: Singular Intimacies
Review: This was a well written, compasssionate book. It was easy to feel the pain and emotion of the writer who communicated her feelings well. Each chapter dealt with a very real situation that can happen to a young doctor in the emergency room of a NYC hospital. Miss Ofri made me feel as if I was right next to her as we agonized over crucial decisions about her patients as she grew to be an extremely competent doctor.
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