Singular Intimacies

By: Danielle Ofri

Narrated by: Ann M. Richardson

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Singular Intimacies is the story of becoming a doctor by immersion at New York's Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country. When Danielle Ofri first enters the doors as a medical student, she is immediately plunged into the teeming world of urban medicine. It is here that Dr. Ofri develops a profound instinct for healing and, above all, learns to navigate the tangled vulnerabilities of doctor and patient.

©2003 Danielle Ofri (P)2018 Beacon Press

Critic Reviews

"Danielle Ofri is a finely gifted writer, a born storyteller as well as a born physician, and through these fifteen brilliantly written episodes covering the years from studenthood to the end of her medical residency, we get not only a deep sense of the high drama of life and death, which must face anyone working in a great hospital, but also a feeling for the making of a physician's mind and soul." (Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat)

"What is it like to become a doctor? Danielle Ofri answers with candor and humility and pride. This book should be required reading by anyone contemplating a life in medicine." (Richard Selzer, surgeon and author of Letters to a Young Doctor)

"Any reader, physician or not, will find in Singular Intimacies the essence of becoming and being a doctor." (Robert S. Schwartz, MD, New England Journal of Medicine)

A bit too much self absorption

The process of medical training was interesting, as were many of the patient stories, but I tired of the constant stream of insecurities the author shared. The fear of being inexperienced in a high pressure environment was clearly understood and could have used up less space in an otherwise nice read.

Wonderful

Danielle Ofri returns with a book focused on the start of her career at Bellevue.

Through a large number of cases she leaves the reader/listener on edge and gasping at the existential physical, mental and emotional demands of caring for patients - including some on verge of death; and one crass, racist, misogynistic patient - Mr. Good indeed.

The content is well-thought out, and like her previous writings establishes Ofri in the same category as Gawande, Mukherjee etc.

Ann Richardson again provides a top quality performance of an Ofri text, it’s a fantastic partnership and I hope to enjoy more in future.

Finally, Ofri is unique in her writings amongst her contemporaries due to displaying the vulnerability and emotionalism that being a doctor incurs.

Bloody brilliant.