Richard Selzer
Tony Miksanek
Abstract
Mingling memoir, fact, and fiction, Richard Selzer writes ferociously and tenderly about those things that matter most to him: the experience of being a doctor, the sanctity and complexity of the physician–patient relationship, surgery, flesh and wounds, and how disease sometimes elevates, even beatifies, the sick. For Selzer, truth and imagination are not necessarily in opposition to one another. His writing world stretches beyond the hospital, operating room, and interior of the body to include diverse and strange settings: a slaughterhouse, a European monastery, the pampas of Argentina, and a landfill. The doctors he portrays are mostly benevolent and earnest, but on occasion some can be ill-tempered, sleazy, and downright cruel. Patients can present with mundane health problems or life-threatening situations, but not uncommonly Selzer manages to inject something “extra” into the ordinary patient encounter. Three of Selzer’s stories are spotlighted here: “The Consultation,” “Brute,” and “Imelda.” These cautionary tales are provocative, featuring physicians who act oddly or poorly. The image of the good doctor who is a virtuous human being is broken, but remorse or redemption remain a possibility. One thing is certain, in Selzer’s stories, and in much of the practice of clinical medicine, never count out the unexpected.