List Price: $23.95

Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Professionals & Academics, Medical,

Book Description:
Noted pathologist, award-winning essayist, and author of six highly praised works of natural history, F. Gonzalez-Crussi for the first time turns his inimitably refined sensibilities inward to create an autobiographical portrait that depicts the journey from child to physician. "His learning, his diligence, his lively curiosity," John Banville wrote of Dr. Crussi in The New York Times Book Review, "together make a formidable lens that he brings to bear upon the enigma of what we are and how we cease to be." Dr. Crussi brings a baroque, courtly style and unabashed erudition to this depiction of the doctor's life, from his youth in an impoverished barrio of Mexico City to the commencement of his practice in the United States. Within the span of a few pages, a curious historical footnote about the dissection of the emperor Nero's mother segues effortlessly into an account of his own mother's arrival in Mexico City at the turn of the century. Allusions to masterpieces of art and literature decorate the stories drawn from his underprivileged childhood and his medical training. Dr. Crussi's abundant knowledge, compassion, and wit inspire in his readers an avid appreciation for the eloquent translation of his vocation into literature.