On the HahaFiction shelf
The House of God
by Samuel Shem
Healing Quartet · Book 1 · 1978
Roy Basch begins his hospital internship with a medical education and very little preparation for the strain ahead. He and his fellow interns face long shifts, suffering patients and decisions they barely feel equipped to make. A senior resident called the Fat Man offers rules for surviving the institution.
From the publisher’s blurb
“all its terror, exhaustion and black comedy”Read the full description at Penguin Random House publisher description
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What makes it funny?
One of the Fat Man's rules makes the doctor's own panic the first problem in a cardiac arrest. Before attending to anyone else, he should check his own pulse. Elsewhere, the interns discover that doing less can be better for a patient than the busywork their supervisors expect.
The comedy at work
Hospital authority looks different from the end of an exhausting shift. Shem draws on interns' shared jokes and grievances to expose rules that reward activity without helping patients. The Fat Man's practical advice gives the institutional satire a concern for people on either side of the bed.
Try this if…
The professional setting makes this especially relevant to readers interested in medical training, but its target is recognizable in other workplaces: an institution whose demands can push people away from the purpose of their work.
Good to know
The sexual material and dehumanizing hospital slang can be abrasive. Death and suffering remain central; the jokes accompany a painful account of trying to stay humane under pressure.
A few distinguishing details
- An intern's education in hospital survival
More funny contemporary & literary
Sources & further reading
- Publisher
Publisher
- Harvard Magazine author interview
Author commentary
- Author essay
Author commentary
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