1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910824146903321

Autore

Watts H. David

Titolo

The orange wire problem and other tales from the doctor's office / / David Watts

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Iowa City, : University of Iowa Press, c2009

ISBN

1-58729-849-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (207 p.)

Disciplina

610.69/6

610.696

Soggetti

Physician and patient

Medicine

Physicians

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Preface: what you might expect to find here -- Facts and lies -- The orange wire problem -- Brain damage -- Let eagles come -- The chart in the window -- Thank you Mr. Nicholson -- Talking about Christmas -- Silence knows the right questions -- One cancer cell -- Anathema -- Telling the truth in the realm of truth -- Ghosts in the machine -- Blood butterfly -- Is something wrong with your prostate? -- The soft animal of the body -- Aspirin and beauty -- Notes from the center of a perpetual breakdown -- Ready for anything -- A critical distance -- The way we know what we know -- Third opinion -- Hanna's volvulus -- The case of the missing molecule -- The pill on the shelf -- Mother Teresa and the problem of care -- The doctor's pill -- Afterword: brilliance.

Sommario/riassunto

Western literature has had a long tradition of physician-writers. From Mikhail Bulgakov to William Carlos Williams to Richard Selzer to Ethan Canin, exposure to human beings at their most vulnerable has inspired fine writing. In his own inimitable and unpretentious style, David Watts is also a master storyteller. Whether recounting the decline and death of a dear friend or poking holes in the faulty logic of an insurance company underling, The Orange Wire Problem lays bare the nobility and weakness, generosity and churlishness of human nature.  With



disarming candor and the audacity to admit t