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Summary: Making the best of a bad situation
Review: As I finish my last year of medical school (meaning while I still have time) I have picked up my tattered copy of House of God to read it yet again. I have recommended this book to my colleagues, most of which have not read it (which is understandable, given that most of these same people have little, if any, sense of humor). I read the book in college, and for some mysterious reason decided to do the medicine thing for a career. The rules puzzled me a little bit then, but now they are crystal clear (as a matter of fact, we DO occasionally use the Lasix dosing rule). The ones who don't like this book either don't want to believe the harsh realities of medicine, or are the Fish and Leggo writing under pseudonyms!
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Summary: Advisable literature
Review: This book should be read before starting to think of a career in the medical world...Believe me: the truth is worse than Dr. Shem has written down!
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Summary: Closelty portrays the frustrations of medicine.
Review: Dr. Shem has brilliantly captured the pure fatigue and frustrations which residents go through. I am currently near the end of my medical school years, about to become an intern myself, and reading this book has not made me look forward to it. Before starting my training in medicine, I would have said that this book was pure fiction, but after reading this book near the end of medical school, I know that I will be utilizing some of the "laws of the House of God" and thinking the word "gomer" when I'm admitting some patients. I look forward to rereading this book after my intern year.....
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Summary: It's *humor*
Review: It's a wonderfully funny book, with holdovers into even today's medical practice. I'm not an MD but I do work in a hospital, and every day I hear terms like "buff" and "turf". All you have to do is say "House of God" and you'll get quotes flying right and left. I've read this about once a year since my mother let me, and my mother read it while she was in Nurses training in the early 60's. Remember, Laughter is the best medicine.
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Summary: Purfect. A guide for life.
Review: I read this book several times and each time it's better. Although I'm not a med student, I found it suitable for anyone.
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Summary: This is truly "The medical bible" for every doctor.
Review: I have read the book about 3-4 times. Each time it has a different impact on me. However, it stays my "Medical Bible" and should be mandatory reading for each intern. The most amazing feature of the book: it's all true! I live it, breathe it and need it. The bottom line for all doctors: You're not alone!
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Summary: THE FLAT-OUT FUNNIEST NOVEL I'VE READ IN YEARS
Review: I'm a big Joseph Heller fan, so when I read the review on the back cover describing THE HOUSE OF GOD as "CATCH-22 with stethoscopes" I snapped it up. Normally the cover reviews are (to say the least) overstatements, but this time they were dead on target. This is, without a doubt, the sickest, most hilarious black comedy I've read in many, many years. Having worked as an EMT and part-time E.R.-tech I can say that, while the book is quite an exaggeration, it is based in a fundamental and disturbing truth about modern medicine -- it has little to do with healing and everything to do with money, money, money.
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Summary: Medical Student found solace, depravity in House of God
Review: I am rereading the H.O.G. on the eve of my internship, having first read it on the eve of starting medical school four years ago. I must say that I am getting both more and less out of it than I did the first time. On the one hand, it is working out to be the story of my life, and is an all-too-accurate portrayal of the warped world that is modern academic medicine. On the other hand, the gratuitous sex and sappy melodramatic stuff reveal it as a sophomoric fantasy, and not a serious attempt at meaningful satire. The facts that Bergman (Shem) is not a particularly compelling speaker and has failed to produce much more than "Fine" and the current "Mount Misery" since 1978 indicate that he may not have so much to say after all. There oughta be more books like the venerated granddaddy of them all, the House of God. The culture of medicine is dangerously isolated from that of the mainstream, and it's books like these that help bring it back to reality.
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Summary: Only Physicians Love it- A Classic
Review: I read the reviews of the amazon critics and noticed that almost every physician gave the book a rave review and the lay people thought it was terrible. I would have thought that people would have become more sophisticated by now after years of hearing that the gallows humor in M.A.S.H.was only an attempt to maintain some sanity in a crazy world. The book is now a classic and I usually ask new residents if they have read the book and most say yes or at least know about the book. I always say that it is the truest book ever written about medicine and probably the most honest. I have even brought one of my 3 copies in to glance through on that one in a million quiet night. It is refreshing to see that the same crazy things were happening at that rather plush hospital 20 years ago -just like they happen now-Misery always feels better when you have company. The book really is a celebration of man's ability to get the job done no matter how trying the circumstances. I have always noted that medicine is in many ways very much like the military with its doctrine of responsabilaty, working under highly adverse conditions and the mission always come first .-The military has shown that people under great stress function better when they engage in gallows humor. It is the only way to keep the proper perspective when you have to what you are able to do -not what is the absolutely best thing for the patient.You do this because there is only so much time and there are too many patients. I agree with the critic who said that every time that he reads the book, he finds new food for thought. 25 years out of residency ,I still find it a refreshing book that helps us in the trenches to agree with what Oscar Wilde wrote-" At first I was disgusted, Now I am just amused". We all still do an excellent job-this book helps make it somewhat more enjoyable. Note the present tense and I am primarily talking about working in a inner city ER like MBH Not MGH. Incidentally, I hear that the author regularly gets invited to speak at medical school graduations , and just as regularly he gets disinvited by the Deans of those schools.What a shame, but then the dermatologists, allergists,opthalmologists, and cosmetic surgeons wouldn't get much out of the commencement speech. Only the front line -those in the Mud would benefit by his speech.
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Summary: The Rules of the House of God beat out The Washington Manual
Review: There is a dark time from July 1 to June 30th that is called intership. Every doctor that has endured this year values it.... but NEVER, I mean NEVER wants to do it again! The House of God brings many of the feelings to life that plague interns... the good and bad times... The Rules of the House of God. I read the book before and after internship... but the pain was too great living it during internship to read about it...still The Rules apply and I got my UCLA surgery team to operate on the old gomer they were fearful of killing... Gomers don't die! This one went to ground, but never died. The only good admission is a dead admission....with eight ER hits and triage...need I say more... For the unenlightened this is a good book.
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