The Book:
Medical School: Stumbling Through with Amnesia (Playing Doctor, #1) by John Lawrence
Published August 24th 2020
Guest review by Patrick Callan
The Characters:
John – memoir
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
John’s medical memoir was born from chaotic, disjointed, funny and frightening late-night letters to friends over email (any recipients of which all those years ago will likely walk away now). Those manic blogs from the hospital wards during under-slept call nights (which left a few friends wondering if he had invaded the hospital pharmacy) were the genesis for this book, Playing Doctor. This is a journey through medical training as interpreted by someone who told their college career advisor that the only thing they did not want to be was a doctor-not that medical schools want you believing their training was interpretive, like a modern dance company’s version of Grey’s Anatomy-and started school with a traumatic brain injury. This entertaining, heartfelt demystification of medical school via the confusion that seemed to litter John’s medical trail, takes readers along the studies and clinical wards that miraculously teach students how to care for patients. The follow-up books cover residency.
The Review:
Pat is back for another guest review! Author John Lawrence was gracious enough to gift us this copy of his debut novel Playing Doctor, and Pat picked it up first so I asked him to write me a review when he was finished. Since Pat is finishing up his last few months of medical school, he’s reading this at the perfect time! The following are his thoughts:
General Thoughts:
Plot pacing: The plot quickly races through Dr. Lawrence’s experiences applying to medical school as well as the 4 years of school. I for one would have enjoyed an even more in depth look at his experiences, but that is really just to compare them to my own. Overall, he does an excellent job at hitting all of the main points on his crazy journey.
Plot: The chapters are essentially broken up between Dr. Lawrence’s pre-med school experiences, his experiences during his pre-clinical years (years one and two of school), and then his clinical years, which are subsequentially broken up by rotation. Breaking it up this way is beneficial to the reader, because as crazy as it sounds, year one of medical school is completely different from year 2, and each clinical rotation brings their own challenges and possibilities for crazy stories.
Writing style, humor, voice: Dr. Lawrence uses the perfect voice to portray his journey through medical school, and comes across incredibly authentic as he shares his story. He also portrays a sense of humor that aligns very closely with myself and my friends in medical school. Which frankly makes sense to me; they say that the only way to make it through with your sanity intact is with humor. However, I believe that everyone will be able to laugh at Dr. Lawrence’s jokes and humorous experiences during his time in school.
Relatability: As a 4th-year medical student, it was very easy for me to relate to many of the stories and experiences portrayed in this book. I laughed many times at the realization that not much has changed in medical education from when Dr. Lawrence was in school. However, I must say that I cannot relate to starting medical school following a traumatic brain injury. Medical school has been the most difficult thing I have ever done, and that was with my memory completely intact. And so I am frankly in awe of what Dr. Lawrence was able to accomplish. But I digress: the stories are also written in a way that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their background. This book is a great, quick read that gives a great insight into the journey that students go through to become physicians.
Would you read a sequel and/or more books by this author? Seeing as I am close to finishing medical school and starting residency, I am very excited to read the sequel to this book, which covers Dr. Lawrence’s intern year.
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