Mount Misery

[jjbmsiv]

Has anybody else here bothered to read Samuel Shem's Mount Misery? I picked up a copy last year after having devoured House of God in mere hours, and was slightly underwhelmed. But, now, it's been awhile and I'm wondering whether it's worth drudging through these four hundred pages again. I'm fond of black humor, which is why I can reread House of God over and over (that plus the fact that much of it still rings true, though I feel the sex was rather excessive and not terribly cohesive to the plot in the end), but MM was a different tone entirely. What did you guys think?

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[zen76]

The writing isn't nearly as good as the House of God, a good read, but if you look at the copyright, Shem wrote it in '96 or '97, decades after his residency, so it doesn't have the edge or freshness of HOG. Another similar autobiography with quite a bit of black humor would be David A Viscott's "The Making of a Psychiatrist." I just wikipedia'ed him, and while his life ended early and a bit dismally, the book is a good read. Written in '78 about a residency in the late 60's or early 70's, it is a bit dated, and before the psychopharm revolution, focuses more on psychotherapy, T groups, and group therapy. An interesting snapshot of training at that time though, even if you don't like the humor.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Has anybody else here bothered to read Samuel Shem's Mount Misery? I picked up a copy last year after having devoured House of God in mere hours, and was slightly underwhelmed. But, now, it's been awhile and I'm wondering whether it's worth drudging through these four hundred pages again. I'm fond of black humor, which is why I can reread House of God over and over (that plus the fact that much of it still rings true, though I feel the sex was rather excessive and not terribly cohesive to the plot in the end), but MM was a different tone entirely. What did you guys think?

Read this as an M3--might deserve another look now that I'm through with residency...

 

[jjbmsiv]

Well, I decided to plow on through anyway, for lack of anything better to read. It's not quite as ham-fisted as I remembered (for whatever reason), though only two LOL's in 100 pages as opposed to, say, 100/100 in HOG makes me sad. But they aren't meant to be quite the same book, I know, I know.