A Not Entirely Benign Procedure - by Perri Klass (Paperback)

About the Book

Surviving Harvard Medical School, Klass offers an unflinchingly honest view of this journey--from the perspective of a woman and mother in a field dominated by men and masculine sensibilities. Like Melvin Konner's Becoming a Doctor: A Not Entirely Benign Procedure, Klass's work has "wit, intelligence, and a great deal of insight" (The New York Times Book Review).

Book Synopsis

"Fascinating... Klass writes with wit, intelligence, and a great deal of insight."--The New York Times Book Review

Acclaimed pediatrician, journalist, and novelist Perri Klass offers a provocative look at the ups and downs of medical school from those first exams to the day she became a doctor. In a direct, candid style, Klass shares what it is like to be a first-time mother while attending med school; the unique lingo of the med student; how to deal with every bodily fluid imaginable; and the humor and heartbreak of working with patients. With this collection of essays, Klass established herself as a go-to voice for a generation of med students and doctors, with her frank and witty perspective. Klass also brings a proven ability to make the medical world accessible to the lay reader, through her extensive literary and journalistic experience.

Review Quotes

"Fascinating... Klass writes with wit, intelligence, and a great deal of insight."--The New York Times Book Review

"Writing personally and candidly, she brings the reader into her orbit, into the experiences of a thoughtful person, in situations that are comic, difficult, puzzling and often tragic. There are moving instances of a doctor's mandated objectivity while involved with the dying and with the bereaved. In lighter moments, Klass twits pompous members of the healing profession and offers insights on the status of women doctors; they are frequently mistaken for nurses; men never are."--Publishers Weekly

"General readers and medical students alike will find this book worth reading."--Library Journal

About the Author

Perri Klass is a pediatrician who writes fiction and non-fiction. She writes about children and families, about medicine, about food and travel, and about knitting. She is the author of a novel, The Mercy Rule, and several works of non-fiction, including Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor, written in the form of letters to her older son as he starts medical school, and A Not Entirely Benign Procedure.

She lives in New York City, where she is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, and she has three children of her own. She is also National Medical Director of Reach Out and Read, a national literacy organization which works through doctors and nurses to promote parents reading aloud to young children.