Rating: 
Summary: Must Read
Review: I have just finished reading "The Physician". I started reading it and although it is a 600+ page book I could not stop. Mr. Gordon writing style makes the reader walk on the hero's shoes. The descriprion of the places, the people, the habits, the foods is very real. It is impossible to forget : the travelling with Barber, the journey to Ispahan, the encounter with Mary, the contacts with the Shah and all it is implications. Cultures and beliefs being analyzed through different perspectives. A must read for everyone and in particular for those who are willing to become a Doctor.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: I felt an almost automatic urge to come here to give my complements to the author. My very first and up to now only novel read by Noah Gordon does indeed tell me I have to read more of his. Now I know that the Rob J. trilogy is complete, I know at least I have two other books I MUST read. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, unflagging, great story-telling!
Review: Noah Gordon's book, The Physician, catches your interest and holds it from the first few pages. Set in the 11th century, Rob J. travels from boyhood to manhood starting in England and traveling throughout the middle east. Along the way a poor, orphaned child becomes a magician, juggler, snake-oil salesman, barber-surgeon, and finally a physician. The characters are rich and complex enough to be believable. I recommend this book highly!
Rating:
Summary: Free-trip to the 11th century
Review: Every body I talked to about this book said that it was wonderful, so I bought it and started to read it. In few pages I couls see the great, great work done by Gordon. Even if the historical facts are not very accurate, it doesen't matter, for it's such a wonderful story that you just keep reading it until your ayes are tired. The book is about a young english boy named Rob J., that sees himself in poverty and lost in big London when his parents die. Adopted by a barber-surgeon, he learns how to heal people, but his skills are not developed enough to him. So, he becomes a jew and goes to far Persia so he can study the art of medicine. I haven't read other books from Gordon, but now I'm gonna start looking for them
Rating:
Summary: Story of dreams, tolerance, traveling, love, adventure...
Review: The Phisician is a wonderful story of dreams, traveling, tolerance, love, adventure, culture and history. Noah Gordon does an incredible job transporting us to the 11th century, making us feeling how life was lived then and making us understand that people, nine centuries before us, was not so different from now days. The protagonist follow his dream and accomplish it, thing that many of us will like to do. From a point of view of a historian and a person who enjois reading good literature, I was really impress of the contents of this book, I hardly recomend it
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: What a great book!
I don't know if this book is fiction or based on a true story. It certainly has lots of historical basis and I am sure Noah Gordon did a long research in writing this book. It is very amusing.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful story with an unsatisfactory ending
Review: I agree with most of the reviewers here that this was a fascinating novel. It showed that the cultural and religious differences back in the 11th century set the stage for the strife between these same groups today. It showed a resourceful and very lucky Rob Cole transcending one adversity after another until finally his goal of becoming a world class physician is realzed. It was unfortunate that due to his Jewish/Muslim training and background, he could not practice in London. However, instead of doing something significacant with his training, he retires to live with a group of rustic sheep herders in the Scottish boonies. I expected more from him than becoming the Cullen clan's private physician and veterinarian.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the read
Review: If you like big, bold, broad and brash sagas, you'll love this book. Keep FIRMLY in mind that this is a work of fiction, not a history book, and that will permit you to travel with wonder and curiousity with Rob J. Cole and his horses and his friends across the continents and the decades. The book is full of interesting adventures and interesting characters. It will transport you to a different time and place and will even give you some things to think about in these modern times of strife between and among 3 of the world's largest religions. Not everything in it may be historically accurate... who cares? It's a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Ludicrously over-rated
Review: I'll give Noah Gordon one star for being able to write - not beautifully, but he can weave a story. As for his history - pah! Get this: an 11th century Anglo-Saxon named Rob J Cole. ONLY Americans use middle initials like this; Anglo Saxons certainly didn't. They didn't have surnames, unless it was something descriptive like 'The Short' or 'The Drunk', and they didn't use the Norman name Robert, let alone its very modern short form, Rob. They were called Wilfred and Alfred and Ethelbert and Oswry. So the background research is revealed as atrocious right from our first introduction to the hero. Some people may not mind this, but I am a historian and this grotesque parody of the 11th century makes me wants to chuck the book into the fireplace in disgust. Combine this with the totally improbable, snigger-worthy plot and you have a piece of anachronistic rubbish. I read this book many years ago but it lingers in my mind as one of the worst books I have ever read - and I've read some tripe in my time. There are good historical novels out there, soundly researched, well-written, empathetic to the period in which they are set. Buy those novels: support those authors. Not this one.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story
Review: Noah Gordon takes the reader back to the 11th. century and recounts the story of Rob Cole who, as a young boy, sees the life slip away from both his parents. As a result he and his younger siblings are separated and he has to take care of himself at a very early age. He is apprenticed to a barber, who in those days served as a combination entertainer/barber/surgeon. Barber's knowledge is scant but he shares it with the young boy. Rob discovers that he has an uncanny gift to take a patient's hand and discern if he is to live or die. This gift burns within him and motivates him to become a real physician. He hears that the best place to learn the practice of medicine is in Persia, but religious differences and sheer distance make it seem like an impossible dream to study there. Through a variety of circumstances, he is able to travel to Persia and petition to become a student. Gordon's tale continues through Rob's life and gives a fascinating background into the religious and political life of the times as well as the infant science of medicine. This is a wonderful book and is certainly recommended reading.
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