Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
Publishers Weekly starred review
Publishers Weekly
June 25, 2007
inner of Canada's Giller Prize, Lam puts all the sex, and death and sleep
deprivation crucial to any hospital drama in his debut story collection
about doctors in the making. Thankfully Lam, an emergency room physician,
looks beyond blood and guts to examine the conflicted hearts and minds of
the four medical students sleepwalking their way through the required tests,
dissections and all-night emergency room shifts. The stories trace an almost
endless stretch of education and service that puts their stamina and skills
to the test: Fitz (short for Fitzgerald) has a not-so-secret drinking
problem, the fallout from which that lands him an unexpected job; Ming, the
main cast's only woman, has a cold scientist's outlook that both aids and
hinders her; Sri's heart breaks for anything that comes near his scalpel-be
it a tattooed cadaver or a rambling psychotic; and dispassionate Chen
struggles, like Sri, to balance compassion with his desire to succeed. The
stories' quiet strength lies not in the doctors' education but in Lam's
portrayal of the flawed humans behind the surgical masks. This collection
made a big splash in Canada, and, as Weinstein Books' first title, is poised
to do the same in the U.S. (Sept.)
© Publishers Weekly 2007