In this noteworthy yet somewhat uneven collection, journalist Gutkind assembles a chorus of 19 doctors who voice as many diverse features and phases of being or becoming a doctor. From pediatrician to professor, physician to psychoanalyst, the characteristics of each person’s story are at once unique to the medical profession (e.g., the medical student’s first encounter with dissection) and universal (e.g., an as-yet-undeclared geriatrician’s feelings of helplessness in the face of his grandmother’s illness). The authors hail from every corner of the country, and while all can legitimately claim that writing is at least a serious avocation, several are already published and even award-winning writers. Two things are distinctive here. One is that these insights embody a number of generally unvoiced challenges drawn from incidents within the trenches of the medical profession. The other is that the essay format forces pithy, laser-like exposure of self-analytical and thought-provoking perspectives that are certain to engage prospective medical practitioners as well as medically curious lay readers. --Donna Chavez
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