Bryson City Tales: Stories Of A Doctor's First Year Of Practice In The Smoky Mountains (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
Just okay. I always like stories told from doctors' or veterinarians' perspectives, because I've always been interested in the odder side of medicine.But James Herriot he ain't. I'm sure he's a very good doctor and I think he's a very nice guy, but the book felt "made for Reader's Digest" or "made for Hallmark Channel" to me. The real people of Bryson City as Larimore presents them seem like stock southern country characters, kind of corny and self-consciously folksy. Maybe it's just that he isn't very good at remembering/writing dialogue, but I just can't imagine real people talking the way some of his BC friends and neighbors do.I also can't quite believe he thought it was cute and funny when he and his wife registered as Independent and somebody at the courthouse or wherever they went to register spread it all over town and somebody in charge changed their affiliation to Republican. All right, so probably his and his wife's views are largely Republican, but really, if they had wanted to register as Republican they would have done that in the first place. What this person did was not cute or funny and was surely not legal or ethical; in fact it smacks of exactly the kind of "nanny state" Republicans are always squealing about. Your vote is supposed to be private, end of statement.Still, I did enjoy the book and it went fast. I'm filing away the snippet about the old lady who found that estrogen cream relieved her wintertime nosebleeds for future reference.
Dr. Larimore has written an enjoyable and highly readable book about his first year in medical practice in a sparsely populated county in the Great Smoky Mountains. He relates stories about his patients, and I can confidently say he encountered many situations in his first year of practice that a big city doctor would never see in a hundred years!Much of his book is about relationships within the contexts of family, colleagues, and community. The doctor is a man of faith, too, and he describes how prayer became a vital part of his work as a doctor.
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