Doctor at Large

by Richard Gordon

This third installment of Ostlere's Doctor series (I don't have the second volume) follows young Dr. Gordon soon after qualifying. Searching hopelessly for a good job. Filling in as assistant for different general practices- varying widely in quality and all which turn out to be intolerable circumstances. Or just don't last. So he ends up back at St. Swithin's hospital, working as assistant to the house surgeon, trying to polish his skills and keeping an eye out for a better position. There's flirtations with nurses, dealings with unscrupulous hiring agencies, to-and-fro with his friends and rivals. Lots of laugh-out-loud moments. Some puzzlement from this reader at bygone practices- I don't quite know enough to be sure, but every time the young doctor groaned that a practice didn't have the most up-to-date instruments and equipment, I felt sure that the items he mentioned would nowadays be found in a museum! And I did wonder at how many surgeries involved removing the stomach. It seemed to be a certain surgeon's favorite procedure. Did that really cure the ailments they were hoping to? All in all, a good fun read.

Rating: 3/5      208 pages, 1955

more opinions:
Retrospace