Book Review - Intern: A Doctor's Initiation By: Dr. Sandeep Jauhar

I know I have mucho to update on real world stuff, but lets talk about books since I've done a lot of reading while out on missions lately. First book review EVER is going to be on

Intern: A Doctor's Initiation By: Dr. Sandeep Jauhar

What I'm going to do with these reviews is explain what interested me in reading/purchasing the book, give initial reactions on the beginning of the book, an overall review and then my recommendation (i.e. whether or not I would recommend it or read it again.)

Interest:

I want to be a doctor. I have heard from people I know in the medical field and read that your first year of residency (when you are known as an intern) is one of the most challenging. I enjoy true-stories and memoirs, so this book seemed like something I would be interested in. When I picked up the paper version in the bookstore, the back cover described the book as being a personal account of one physician's intern year. I then purchased the book on my Nook and read it.

Initial Reaction:

Let me explain this portion of the review a little more. I am big on an author "reeling in" me as a reader. If it doesn't grab my attention and make me want to keep reading, its hard to finish the book. I'm sure most people feel this way, but being an avid reader, I also know some books just don't have that "it" factor at the beginning, you have to read a while to see the pace pick up. I would have missed out on a lot of good books had I not kept on reading through the painful beginnings of them. Anyways! On with the review!

It took a lot for me not to put the book down initially. The author comes across (in my humble opinion) as a little selfish. He discusses that he is from an Indian family, which sound pretty oppressive. His father and mother expect him to be the best of the best and to do a job for prestige as opposed to a personally rewarding job. His brother also is a doctor, not much older than Dr. Jauhar. Dr. Jauhar was a top student at USC-Berkeley and graduated top of his class. When he decided to go into medical school, he had just finished up a PH.D. in Physics. His decision to go into medicine he described as essentially being bored with his current career path and he heard about how much people love medicine. So, he decided to give it a shot because he thought he could "find love" in medicine....ugh. WRONG reason to go into the medical field. It had better be heavy on your heart from the beginning. Anyways, he graduates from medical school, still unsure how he feels about it. He chooses an internal medicine residency, which leaves his options pretty open to specialize in a lot of medical fields. Much of the beginning of the book discusses the pressures that he feels and his pity party about his fight with his love (or lack thereof) for medicine. He meets another Indian girl and is also, unsure about how he feels about her even though he feels pressure from his family to marry only an Indian woman.

Overall Review:

I give it about 2.5 stars on a 5 Star scale. Eventually, Dr. Jauhar pulls himself out of his hole, barely making it through internship. He is on the verge of quitting numerous times throughout the book. His father repeatedly scrutinizes him for having no direction in life and just doing things because they are a change of scenery and they amuse him at the time. Medicine is not a field, in my opinion, where you should take it up because you think it will be something cool to do for a bit. Its a life-long journey. You are responsible for peoples lives. So a day in the office when you want to half-ass something is one thing, a day in the hospital when you want to do that and it could cost you someone's life. He ends up marrying Sonia (the Indian girl) and grows to love her, when he gets engaged to her, it seems a little pushed, he expresses being unsure of himself. The book does cover his 2nd and 3rd years of residency, where he seems to find the light and be less detached from his job. He speaks more with patience and develops a heart, which I like. Overall, the book jumped around too much instead of sticking with the year he was in and didn't have good flow. It also didn't offer closure for me, I never got a warm and fuzzy that he wouldn't trade the world for his job, it just seems like his brain landed him in a career field that he enjoys, but doesn't necessarily have that DRIVE I would want my physician to have.

Recommendation:

I would not purchase the book again, it took me a long time to read because he wasn't engaging, he was whining about how hard his life is/was. I wouldn't even read the book again. It just wasn't what I hoped for. I was looking for a more altruistic heart than what he had and that's what made it bad for me.

Hope you guys liked the review, even though the book wasn't that great :( Let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make the review better and what you think. Thanks for reading!