A History of the Present Illness: Stories

A History of the Present Illness: Stories by Aronson, Louise. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781620400074.

A History of the Present Illness takes readers into overlooked lives in the neighborhoods, hospitals, and nursing homes of San Francisco, offering a deeply humane and incisive portrait of health and illness in America today. An elderly Chinese immigrant sacrifices his demented wifes well-being to his sons authority. A busy Latina physicians eldest daughters need for more attention has disastrous consequences. A young veterans injuries become a metaphor for the rest of his life. A gay doctor learns very different lessons about family from his life and his work. And a psychiatrist who advocates for the underserved may herself be crazy. Together, these honest and compassionate stories introduce a striking new literary voice and provide a view of what it means to be a doctor and a patient unlike anything weve read before. In the tradition of Oliver Sacks and Abraham Verghese, Aronsons writing is based on personal experience and addresses topics of current social relevance. Masterfully told, A History of the Present Illness explores the role of stories in medicine and creates a world pulsating with life, speaking truths about what makes us human.