"Intern" by Sandeep Jauhar

Also recently finished the book “Intern”, by Sandeep Jauhar. It’s a memoir of his 3 years in residency, and how, though his first year was hell and he had doubts about the profession, he eventually comes to realize that there could be humanism in modern medicine.

He went to graduate school in physics at Berkeley; his decision was an understandable act of rebellion against his parents who wanted him to go to medical school for the prestige, money, and power. He then decided to go medical school partially because he had a girlfriend that had lupus, and he wanted to "do" something. As he write, "I wanted to become a man."

He then completed medical school at WashU, followed by his internship at New York Hospital. The memoir is centered around this time. He constantly mentions the points that I would argue make a lot of modern medicine seem like a big waste. 1.) Nearly all of the patients he treats could have prevented their condition by taking care of themselves better. 2.) Many of the patients are quite old (80+) or have intractable diseases that he can’t do anything about in the first place. 3.) He knows quite little about his patients. 4.) Medicine isn’t all that interesting or challenging. He gripes and bemoans his position for the first 180 pages and talks about the pain and doubt he is going through.

However, he does quite little overturn these views on medicien. For example, he devotes one (!) paragraph to his seeing the humanity in medicine by becoming a patient. Couldn’t we have learnt more about this?!

Also, I was expected some change that would cause him to change his perspective, but nothing happened to do so. He even writes: “In the end, I’m not sure what convinced me to stick with residency, just as I’m not sure exactly what propelled me into the medical profession in the first place.” This ambivalence about what caused him to turn the corner is extremely frustrating, given how much time he devotes to his ambivalence about medicine earlier in the book.

Ultimately, he stays in medicine and even chooses his specialty based on the wishes of his parents! His confusion and indecision and uncertainty about what to do in life is the main theme of the book, and each time he could elaborate he frustratingly does not. While I enjoyed the setup of the book, the follow through left me hanging.

I mention his indecision about life, and, unintentionally, this guy reveals himself to be ultimate ABCD. He rebels against his parents, then gives in. He marries another Gujarati-American girl who is in medical school, because he is pushed by the girl and his parents. Basically, it seems like all the decisions he makes are solely determined by others. Maybe Jhumpa was right in making Gogol an empty, forceless character.

291 pages.