Why did I love this book?
THOG (yes, we called it by its acronym) was released around the time I entered medical school, and was widely referenced during my training.
Fortunately I was far too occupied to read it at the time, as its revelations, however parodied and overblown, would likely have caused me to leave medicine before earning my license to practice. Encountering it years later, when the whole experience could be reviewed through a humorous retrospective lens, I found the book to be wonderfully entertaining, and spot on in many of its particulars.
Shem’s masterpiece of revelatory satire is the safest, silliest way for anyone to experience medical training, and a proper warning for anyone wishing to enter the field.
5 authors picked The House of God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
By turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and utterly human, The House of God is a mesmerizing and provocative novel about what it really takes to become a doctor.
"The raunchy, troubling, and hilarious novel that turned into a cult phenomenon. Singularly compelling...brutally honest."-The New York Times
Struggling with grueling hours and sudden life-and-death responsibilities, Basch and his colleagues, under the leadership of their rule-breaking senior resident known only as the Fat Man, must learn not only how to be fine doctors but, eventually, good human beings.
A phenomenon ever since it was published, The House of God was the first unvarnished, unglorified,…