Review Tuesday: 'Not your ordinary doctor'

Today’s ‘Review Tuesday’. A fortnight ago I reviewed The Pen & the Stethoscope – a collection of short stories all written by doctors [1]. As chance – or perhaps grand design – would have it, of the several library books I had on order, the one that arrived next for me was on a somewhat related topic. Not your ordinary doctor is a 346-page 2010 non-fiction book about doctors who’ve also pursued non-medical fields of endeavour [2, 3]. In most cases their non-medical fame (or notoriety) exceeded their medical repute; in other cases vice versa. Author Dr Jim Leavesley tells the stories of sixty ‘medical truants’ comprising doctors to royalty and national leaders; doctors in the arts; doctors who’ve been adventurers, inventors, athletes or politicians; and doctors who’ve been criminals. Several of their names are well known – including Aristotle, Keats, Maugham, Roget, Borodin, Conan Doyle, Chekhov, Gatling, Bass, Livingstone, Grace, Bannister, Montessori, Crippen – and some not. Only a few are Australians. Only a few are women. And only a few are contemporary. This is the eleventh book written by Dr Leavesley (who since 1986 has been an accomplished and loved ABC broadcaster) [4]. He writes nicely. But all too often excessive factual detail distracts from his main theme. Yet overall this is book’s fascinating. And its 16 cm square format’s refreshingly different. Though the cover photograph relevance escapes me. Ho hum.

Review Tuesday: 'The Pen & the Stethoscope'

Today’s ‘Review Tuesday’. Synchronicity. Wikipedia says it’s a concept first described by Carl Jung, i.e. the experience of two or more events apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner [1]. Its meaningfulness distinguishes it from mere simultaneity. Last Thursday my cyberfriend Wordsmith [2] sent me an email titled: ‘Something fine to read’. That ‘something’ is an essay by a favourite writer of his – William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) [3] – on being a physician and a writer [4]. Williams’s essential premise is that doctors, being keen observers of all aspects of the human condition, are disposed to being writers and poets. The synchronicity? I received Wordsmith’s email as I was finishing The Pen & the Stethoscope. Published in 2010, it’s a 211-page collection of 15 short stories written by 15 doctors – including four Australians. Its nine non-fiction and six fiction stories vary in topic and writing quality – and thus their ability to attract and hold my interest. My picks are those by the three best-known medical writers: Atul Gawande, Peter Goldsworthy and Oliver Sacks. I don’t doubt doctors, at least good ones, are skillful observers of humans. But I don’t know if, as Williams suggests, doctors’ vocational skills give them the front-running in the writing stakes. For it’s one thing to collect material to write about, and quite another to craft it into beautiful writing. For all this, on balance I’m pleased I read The Pen & the Stethoscope.