Review: Richard E. Sall's Straightjacket
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Norm Goldman, Editor of the book reviewing and author interviewing site bookpleasures.com reviews Dr. Richard E. Sall's Straightjacket.
Author: Richard E. Sall, MD ISBN: 1419630547
Richard E. Sall’s Straightjacket follows thirty days in the life of Dr. Joe Grady, a resident surgeon at Detroit General Hospital, who is obliged to complete ten major surgical cases within this time frame in order to gain his residency certification.
This is the punishment meted out by Dr. Frank Rizzo, also known as “little Hitler” to many of his colleagues, and the hospital’s chief surgeon, as a result of Grady refusing to go along with a request made by the hospital’s chief administrator, Arthur Williams, to give pain medication to a patient who was a known drug seeker. Apparently, one of Gray’s colleagues had initially refused to prescribe medication after discovering during a statewide pharmacy research that the patient had 3600 hydrocodone tablets filled within a three-month period.
The patient threatened to expose his alleged ill-treatment to the press and this ruffles Williams’ feathers for fear of the bad publicity this may engender. Consequently, Williams summoned Grady to his office and requested that he participate in bending the rules and giving the patient what he wants or as he explains to him, “the hospital is like McDonalds-whatever the patient wants, you give it to him.” However, as we discover, Williams ulterior motive was not exactly for humanitarian reasons, for the bad press could harm his hospital’s fund raising campaign.
Straightjacket presents a candid depiction of life in a big city hospital that will surely resonate with any reader who may have spent some time as either a patient or doctor in a hospital. We also receive a poignant picture of the exhausting medical training physicians endure often extending over a period of seven to twelve years of post-bachelor-degree training.
Sall’s writing style is occasionally jarring as we are given front row seats to the surgical procedures that Gray must perform during his remaining thirty days of residency. Romantic tension is thrown into the mix when Grady falls in love with the beautiful Nurse Linda Marie Jablonski, whose mother suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. To further complicate matters, Linda’s mother threatens to hire a member of the mob to knock him off if he does not stay away from her daughter. The cast of characters are easy to relate to and the insertion of black humor is at times hilarious, particularly with some of Grady’s dialogue and musings.
The challenge a physician or any member of the liberal professions face when writing a work of fiction is to avoid the trap of “déformation professionelle.” This can be loosely translated as when the craft of one’s profession thwarts decision making. In this case, Sall, who is a practicing physician, doesn’t quite strike the right balance between accuracy and comprehensibility, between too much and too little information. As a result, his overuse of medical jargon slows down the pace and flow of the story.
Nonetheless, Straightjacket succeeds as a good read enhanced by a frank look at the deficiencies of the American health system. In other words, although it may be a work of fiction, this book has a great deal more than it seems to be.
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