Love and Modern Medicine: Stories

By Perri Klass

Book Overview

The New York Times has described Perri Klass's short stories as subtly astonishing and very funny. Klass writes stories that sound true. She's a medical school graduate, a passionate traveler, a mother, a writer. Her preoccupations come forth in her stories. She has plenty to say about love in a science-drunk world, how the brain works, and the heart. And how the sparks fly when the two collide. Sparks fly again in her new collection, LOVE AND MODERN MEDICINE, a literary tapesty of the beauties and terrors of contemporary domesticity.
Instantly recognizable, the appealing characters in these stories are the able sort who can cope with any crisis at work but are often undone by the complexities of life at home. They are parents, doctors, patients, friends, and lovers, who encounter one another in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, in a world in which professional expertise -- even the finest medical expertise -- cannot always ward off threats to everyday happiness.
In Freedom Fighter, a pregnant obstetrician steals a getaway weekend with an old friend among the outlet malls of northern New England. A fruit-fly geneticist in The Trouble with Sophie struggles to contend with her daughter's jargon-spouting kindergarten teacher. In Intimacy, a high school biology teacher, exhausted by new motherhood, listens bleary-eyed to the details of her coworker's intimacy counseling with her latest boyfriend. And in Necessary Risks, an anesthesiologist balks at spending two weeks alone with her energetic and precocious four-year-old. Including three O. Henry Award -- winning stories, LOVE AND MODERN MEDICINE is full of small wonders and large satisfactions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618109609
• ISBN13: 9780618109609
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Superb Short Story Collection from Perri Klass

Pediatrician and writer Perri Klass is among a rare breed of doctors who can write with ample conviction and grace about their profession. She's also among our finest literary stylists and a great teller of tales too, as her short story collection "Love and Modern Medicine" so amply illustrates. These are tales infused with ample doses of realism, warmth, and humor, even under the most difficult situations. "Love and Modern Medicine" is a pithy book of less than 200 pages and 11 stories, but included are three award-winning stories which earned the O. Henry Award. One of my favorite tales is "Freedom Fighter", a joyful recounting of a pregnant obstetrician's getaway weekend with an old college friend, approximately a week before she enters the 9th month of her second pregnancy. Yet another is "Intimacy" in which a new mother, a high school biology teacher, must listen to the romantic misadventures of one of her colleagues. "Necessary Risks" is yet another, and is a captivating tale which will delight anyone who has been alone with a precocious four year-old for a long time. Last, but not least, the title story is an engrossing tale about sibling relationships, as seen through the eyes of a doctor, an older half-sister to a younger woman who has lost her child. Anyone who wishes to understand what is like to live and to work as a doctor, will garner some understanding of medicine after reading Klass' terse, but realistic, tales here in "Love and Modern Medicine".

Stories that stay with you

Every one of Perry Klass's stories has a point - not subtle or obtuse, but also not hackneyed or expected. Her stories reflect the realities of life as a doctor, mother, and human being. The writing is not 'beautiful', nor will it win prizes for poetic imagery. Rather, it is clear, direct, and sticks to your bones like a good solid meal. It's a great airplane book - that is, it keeps your interest, is worth spending time on, but is not so challenging as to require one's entire intellectual attention.

Perfect for parents

From the first of all of these amazing short stories, Ms. Klass captures the heart of parents everywhere. As a mother, I found myself laughing, crying, worrying and joyous at many moments during the reading of these stories. From childbirth to the death of a child, these stories are full of love and depth. Wonderful!

Best book in ages

An excellent book of short stories. Amusing and touching stories about being a woman, a creative writer, a professional and a mother. Perri Klass manages to be insightful about everyday life without being pompous. I recognise myself and my friends in her stories.