Dottoressa

An American Doctor in Rome

By: Susan Levenstein

Narrated by: Susan Levenstein

After completing her medical training in New York, Susan Levenstein set off for a one-year adventure in Rome. Forty years later, she is still practicing medicine in the eternal city.

In Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome, Levenstein writes, with love and exasperation, about navigating her career through the renowned Italian tangle of brilliance and ineptitude, sexism and tolerance, rigidity and chaos. Part memoir starting with her epic quest for an Italian medical license and part portrait of Italy from a unique point of view, Dottoressa is packed with vignettes that illuminate the national differences in character, lifestyle, health, and health care between her two countries. Levenstein covers everything from hookup culture to neighborhood madmen, Italian hands-off medical training, bidets, the ironies of expatriation, and why Italians always pay their doctor’s bills.

©2019 Susan Levenstein (P)2021 Susan Levenstein

What it means to become a doctor

I really enjoyed Dr. Levenstein's narration. She conveys a passionate interest in her work that is palpable and inspiring. Her sincerity and skill with metaphors and images really engages the listener like a natural storyteller. She takes us on a trip through the challenges of learning medicine, becoming a doctor, and developing a comfortable identity as a mature and skillful physician. As I see how well she connects with her patients, her considerable empathy and wisdom, and as I listen to her saga, it makes me wish she were my own doctor. I really enjoyed listening to her and thought hearing it from the person who experienced it outweighed the polished storytelling one gets from a professional narrator.

Other reviewers have summarized the work, so I will focus on my experience listening to it. She is a wonderful narrator whose stories are sensitive accounts of meaningful encounters, peppered with humor and wit, poetic metaphors, pathos, and empathy. I think Dr. Levenstein has captured better than any other clinician, the experience and significance of what it means to be someone's doctor. She sets a standard for young clinicians in training to emulate as they strive to become the great doctor that they could become.

In the 1970s, I trained with Dr. Stephen Bergman (aka Samuel Shem), the author of the classic, The House of God -- a book read by most American medical students and house officers during their training. Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome, adds additional dimensions due to Dr. Levenstein's ability to contrast and compare how medicine is practiced in Italy and in the US and the impact that it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Understanding these differences is an important introduction, viewed through one doctor's personal experience and her analysis of the two very different health care systems, to understanding how different cultures and attitudes affect the care of the patient.

As a former director of medical student training in psychiatry at a Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospital, I think that Dottoressa is an excellent follow-on book or a companion to the House of God, to be read by doctors in training who wish to deepen their clinical skills and become the outstanding doctor that they yearn to be. I believe that this can be achieved, even in the face of the many challenges threatening medical practice in the current crisis in US healthcare. Anyone who wishes to understand the experience of what it means to be a doctor will enjoy this book and find it an entertaining and worthwhile read.

Enjoyed the author's insights in her own voice

Witty and insightful book narrated by the author. She has a unique insight into Italian medicine and the Italian culture.

good story..ruined by narration

Authors...if you aren't a professional voice don't read your book. This one?? Just grating. Smarter move would've been to engage a professional reader.