Christine Montross

This is one of those books I started reading just because I have it, not knowing what I was getting into, not expecting much. But, akin to The Shack, I was very pleasantly surprised and massively enjoyed this book. It really tells a story, enough so that you almost feel as if you are there, experiencing the same experiences, feeling the same feelings. But at the same time you are putting yourself in the authors shoes, wondering how you would react in the same situations. Obviously I’ll never know, but reading this book put me just a bit closer, and am sure glad that I did.… (mer)

BODY OF WORK is, I suppose, pretty much what its subtitle, MEDITATIONS ON MORTALITY FROM THE HUMAN ANATOMY LAB, promises it will be. I think I wanted it to be more memoir than it was, but then that's just me, not the author's fault. I found it to be, overall, only mildly interesting. The sections which dwelled on the history of medicine and medical training seemed to slow the flow of the narrative, and I found myself skimming over these parts.

It was only when Montross let herself get personal, when she reflected on the woman whose body she was systematically dismembering and studying, wondering who she might have been, what her life was like, that I found myself caught up. There is certainly much here that does cause one to pause and consider the very thin line between life and death.

But to my mind Montross's writing is at its very best when she allows herself to talk about her family. Her childhood, spent happily at Higgins Lake, in northern Michigan. And, most of all, those several pages she gives us about her grandparents. That glimpse into their lives when they were very young and in love, their hurried wartime wedding and the long and loving marriage that ensued, and, finally, their declining health. Those pages moved me deeply, perhaps because I am now closer to her grandparents' age than I am to hers. Montross, who studied creative writing and is, besides being a doctor, a poet, is without question a fine writer. I will recommend this book, particularly to anyone who is interested in medicine and its practice.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (mer)