Them; Final Exam
Jan. 15th, 2008 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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50books_poc28. Nathan McCall, Them
"Gentrification" of Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward (Martin Luther King, Jr.'s old neighborhood, and the site of his grave), from the perspective of residents who didn't want to be gentrified. I've been talking about this book a lot---it does a really nice job of illustrating the cultural divides and power differences between them (a neighborhood's black long-time residents) and them (the affluent white newcomers). Plus, it's a good read. (Or rather, a good listen---I caught this one on audio.)
McCall is coming to town this week to do a reading, and I'll definitely be going. Portland's Albina district (our single historically black neighborhood) has been gentrifying, and I'm very curious to see who will and won't show up for this reading, and what they will say...
29. Pauline W. Chen, Final Exam
I found this one through a book review by Atul Gawande, and there are a lot of similarities in style -- more-or-less discrete essays that employ a mix of personal reflections and historical context, each rooted in the experience of being a surgeon and yet still of broad societal interest. Unlike Gawande's books, however, Chen's book has a strong theme: dealing with death.
Chen details her first encounter with death as a medical student dissecting a cadaver in anatomy lab, then progresses through her first official pronouncement of death, her inculturation as a resident to ignore dying patients, the first patient she killed through error, the sense of false immortality that she developed as a transplant surgeon, her creeping sense of sometimes doing harm by trying too hard to prevent a patient's death, and eventually culminating in learning a little of how to be helpful when a patient and his family is facing the patient's impending death.
It's an emotionally honest and compelling read. It would be a lie to say that parts of the book aren't upsetting---death isn't a particularly pleasant subject anyhow, and she's cringingly honest about her reactions. Yet, there is something that can be comforting about looking at death head-on, and that comes through clearly here.
"Gentrification" of Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward (Martin Luther King, Jr.'s old neighborhood, and the site of his grave), from the perspective of residents who didn't want to be gentrified. I've been talking about this book a lot---it does a really nice job of illustrating the cultural divides and power differences between them (a neighborhood's black long-time residents) and them (the affluent white newcomers). Plus, it's a good read. (Or rather, a good listen---I caught this one on audio.)
McCall is coming to town this week to do a reading, and I'll definitely be going. Portland's Albina district (our single historically black neighborhood) has been gentrifying, and I'm very curious to see who will and won't show up for this reading, and what they will say...
29. Pauline W. Chen, Final Exam
I found this one through a book review by Atul Gawande, and there are a lot of similarities in style -- more-or-less discrete essays that employ a mix of personal reflections and historical context, each rooted in the experience of being a surgeon and yet still of broad societal interest. Unlike Gawande's books, however, Chen's book has a strong theme: dealing with death.
Chen details her first encounter with death as a medical student dissecting a cadaver in anatomy lab, then progresses through her first official pronouncement of death, her inculturation as a resident to ignore dying patients, the first patient she killed through error, the sense of false immortality that she developed as a transplant surgeon, her creeping sense of sometimes doing harm by trying too hard to prevent a patient's death, and eventually culminating in learning a little of how to be helpful when a patient and his family is facing the patient's impending death.
It's an emotionally honest and compelling read. It would be a lie to say that parts of the book aren't upsetting---death isn't a particularly pleasant subject anyhow, and she's cringingly honest about her reactions. Yet, there is something that can be comforting about looking at death head-on, and that comes through clearly here.
