reviews
Dec 11, 2007
Cecelia
rated it: 
I felt I should read this book, described as the "Catch-22 of medicine" before graduating from med school. It was scary how accurate most of it is, right down to the 'Laws' of the House of God quoted throughout. Remember, Age + BUN = Lasix dose. But well written and a good read, although I don't know how funny it will be to those outside the medical profession (probably still so to spouses).
Aug 01, 2008
Julianne
rated it: 
As I tell people: I liked the morals, not the story.
The message on why "the boys" didn't like the chief, how doing nothing is good medicine, and the difference between gomers and old folks are very pertinent to me and how I practice in healthcare. My favorite Laws include:
3. At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse.
4. The patient is the one with the disease
10. If you dont take a temperature you can't find a fever.
13. T More...
The message on why "the boys" didn't like the chief, how doing nothing is good medicine, and the difference between gomers and old folks are very pertinent to me and how I practice in healthcare. My favorite Laws include:
3. At a cardiac arrest, the first procedure is to take your own pulse.
4. The patient is the one with the disease
10. If you dont take a temperature you can't find a fever.
13. T More...
Oct 24, 2007
Elizabeth
rated it:
Spoiler alert (esp. 3rd paragraph) Also, this book has some very *explicit* parts.
This novel follows an intern, Roy G. Basch, for his internship year at a prestigious hospital nicknamed the “House of God.” Roy must deal with sickness of the elderly, the death of the young, the competition of his peers, the lack of an outside life, and the tension with his superiors. Roy discovers providing medical care is nothing like what he was taught in medical school. Each of these stresses m More...
This novel follows an intern, Roy G. Basch, for his internship year at a prestigious hospital nicknamed the “House of God.” Roy must deal with sickness of the elderly, the death of the young, the competition of his peers, the lack of an outside life, and the tension with his superiors. Roy discovers providing medical care is nothing like what he was taught in medical school. Each of these stresses m More...
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Sep 08, 2007
Patrick
rated it: 
I read this in college, then again my first year of medical school, then again my last year of medical school, then again during my internship, and I'm reading it once more now as a senior resident. Along with the television show Scrubs, it's the most accurate portrayal of American medicine that I'm familiar with. I gave it to my father and he called me saying that he wanted to go medical school. I gave it to my mother and she called me crying, asking if my job really is as bad as Shem makes
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Jun 14, 2007
Hetal
rated it:
This book paints such an caustic view of life as an intern, it's almost addictive. Like an episode of Jerry Springer, you sit, entranced by the character's downward spiral, unable to stop him, but knowing full well he is headed for a hard landing.
The character starts off a somewhat wide-eyed and innocent intern on his first day, a bit sarcastic, but otherwise a good person with a great girlfriend and normal and rational thoughts. As the book goes on, Shem paints such a detailed and More...
The character starts off a somewhat wide-eyed and innocent intern on his first day, a bit sarcastic, but otherwise a good person with a great girlfriend and normal and rational thoughts. As the book goes on, Shem paints such a detailed and More...
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Sep 26, 2009
Emily
rated it:
I read this during the first weeks of residency and couldn't have picked a better time to do so. What an excellent depiction of all that medical training is but shouldn't be.
Few thoughts:
1) Some of my Family Med colleagues thought House of God was abhorrent. I thought long and hard about this--and even about why it wasn't shocking to me. It's satire y'all! All I can say is that if the anecdotes make you so uncomfortable, commit yourself to improving health care and medical educa More...
Few thoughts:
1) Some of my Family Med colleagues thought House of God was abhorrent. I thought long and hard about this--and even about why it wasn't shocking to me. It's satire y'all! All I can say is that if the anecdotes make you so uncomfortable, commit yourself to improving health care and medical educa More...
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Jul 14, 2009
George
rated it:
The House of God is a novel that follows the internship year of Dr. Roy Basch. Dr. Basch works in a hospital called the House of God and is mentored by his attending, affectionately known as The Fat Man. Samuel Shem, M.D., writes the novel and much of the slang jargon thrown around in hospitals today comes from this very book. Shem does a fantastic job of drawing the reader into the chaotic life of an intern weather you have some experience in this setting or none at all. He also illustrates we
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Jun 18, 2009
Audreesh
rated it:
I read this book back in high school and I read it a second time after finishing residency and fellowship. It's definitely dated but still as good a memoir of internship I have read. Even though it is quite sexist and not incredibly well written, it still somehow manages to capture the essence of that intern year, the overwork, fatigue and emotional strain, how it can change an idealistic medical school grad who wants to treat and help patients into a burned out cynic. It also shows the momen
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Jan 01, 2012
McGooglykins
rated it:
When I was a nursing student, I was sitting at the nurses station and writing a rough draft of my patients notes for my supervising RN to read through before I put them in the file. One of the medical interns sat down next to me and asked me if I'd read The House of God. I thought he might have been trying to convince me to join some obscure religion. I hadn't, I warily told him so, and he threw his hands up in the air and said "You have to, you need to read it, it's real life put down on p
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Sep 03, 2011
Nicole
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I first read this years and years ago and have subsequently re-read it many times. My first encounter was way before my own entry into medical school and forays onto the hospital wards. I still find portions of it hilarious and right on the money though there are elements that are a bit dated, as I reflect on it in the 21st century. But the essentials still ring true - medicine is a hard field to be in day in and day out and you struggle to do what is right for your patients while not complet
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Oct 30, 2009
Andina
rated it:
You would ask yourself, if it's trully the reality of the modern medicine? Idealists would suffer..
The helper-souls don't have any place anymore in this modern capitalist machine-like medicine world.
I didn't really notice, that this book is "the classical" of anglo-american residents and medical students. Till I got to the clinic, and mostly some of ambitious residents would ask me, "Did you read House of God?"
I began reading it with no expecta More...
The helper-souls don't have any place anymore in this modern capitalist machine-like medicine world.
I didn't really notice, that this book is "the classical" of anglo-american residents and medical students. Till I got to the clinic, and mostly some of ambitious residents would ask me, "Did you read House of God?"
I began reading it with no expecta More...
Jul 30, 2011
Ross
rated it:
I teach this book in the Fourth Year Medical Humanities seminar. It's full of surprising insights about how medical training dehumanizes physicians, so I can use it as a cautionary tale. It's also representative of an era in medical care that is passing swiftly, but I can use the story as an illustration of the background training of the physicians who are currently my students' teachers. My generation went through the gauntlet of residency described in the House of God (although sex life in p
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Oct 22, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it:
Disclaimer: I was did my internship and residency at the other hospital, "MBH," in Shem's classic novel about medical training, at the same time that he was busy observing his fellow house officers and higher ups at the House of God. So my take on this book is colored by immersion in the culture he parodies, and by the fact that one of his main characters bears a storng resemblance to a medical school classmate who interned in Boston at Shem's hospital.
Fresh out of five years More...
Fresh out of five years More...
Oct 11, 2009
Wendy
rated it:
"...the one truly great American Medical Invention: the creation of a foolproof system that took sincere energetic guys and with little effort turned them into dull, grandiose docs who could live with the horror of disease and the deceit of "cure", who could "go with" the public's fantasy of the right to perfect health devoid of even the deterioration of age..." Thus writes Roy Basch, MD, our narrator, upon concluding his internship at one of American's top hospital
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Mar 10, 2009
Steph
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If you are currently headed off to medical school while reading this book, be prepared for one hell of a trip down the first intern year and for some serious re-consideration into why you have chosen the path that you have. Having read previous reviews on other sites, I would wholeheartedly agree that this book will come across to the reader in different forms if read before medical school, during clinical rotations, and during the intern year. While reading the novel, I noticed myself starting
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Feb 11, 2010
Michael
rated it:
I read this the first time when I was in college - for whatever reason, it is the kind of book that I happily read again every couple of years. Shem wrote several other books, but I stopped with Mt. Misery, the follow-up to House of God, which was a much more ponderous book to read.
Apparently in more recent years, House of God has been given as required reading for some medical schools since it is considered an accurate portrayal of some aspects of medical education (if overdone in More...
Apparently in more recent years, House of God has been given as required reading for some medical schools since it is considered an accurate portrayal of some aspects of medical education (if overdone in More...
Dec 21, 2009
Mark
rated it:
I enjoyed this peak behind the curtain of the life of a medical doctor intern. It is at once hilarious and completely disturbing. The characters explode many myths about who doctors are and what goes on in a hospital, though in doing so I found even greater empathy and respect for them as human beings. The writing is generally quite good. Certain passages are particularly elegant and poignant, while a few veer unnecessarily into unreadable stream of consciousness. The book includes a strong crit
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Jan 23, 2012
Nancy
rated it:
It is the first of July, and Roy Basch, an intern at the House of God hospital is scared. It's his, and his colleagues' (The Runt, Potts, Chuck, and Hooper) first day of work as doctors. The book follows all of these doctors, and the nurses, patients, and assorted other characters that they come into contact with for the next year. Author Samuel Shem writes in the afterword that the book is vaguely autobiographical, and I don't doubt it. I liked this book and found it interesting, although I
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Jan 25, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
Book club selection for January. Mixed feelings about this one.
There are some outdated references since the book is 30 years old, and I'm definitely curious to know how things have changed since the 70s since there is talk in the postscript about how med students are treated more humanely now.
The sex is gratuitous and a little unbelievable. I was willing to overlook it because hey, it was the 70s. (Plus it calms down about halfway through the book.)
There we More...
There are some outdated references since the book is 30 years old, and I'm definitely curious to know how things have changed since the 70s since there is talk in the postscript about how med students are treated more humanely now.
The sex is gratuitous and a little unbelievable. I was willing to overlook it because hey, it was the 70s. (Plus it calms down about halfway through the book.)
There we More...
Mar 12, 2011
Mel
rated it:
I read this book on the recommendation of the woman who is my ideal of an ER nurse and who I strive to emulate.
I read it when I had absolutely zero intention of ever crossing into the medical side of hospitals from my cushy business office position.
But, I think that the wit and wisdom of the fat man may be responsible for my eventual discovery that being an ER nurse was what I never knew I was always meant to be.
I always remember to keep my patients in t More...
I read it when I had absolutely zero intention of ever crossing into the medical side of hospitals from my cushy business office position.
But, I think that the wit and wisdom of the fat man may be responsible for my eventual discovery that being an ER nurse was what I never knew I was always meant to be.
I always remember to keep my patients in t More...
Jun 28, 2009
David
rated it:
This book has been recommended and cited to me countless times during medical school, so I finally took the plunge and read it. On the whole, I'd say that the book was generally enjoyable -- granted, it's hard to empathize (empathize?) with someone who ridicules his patients and mocks his superiors, but the book always rang true to my experiences in the hospital. I'll also say that, although the book rarely made me laugh or indeed emote at all, it was thoroughly engrossing, and I somehow stayed
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Feb 03, 2009
Salem
rated it:
"Catch-22 for doctors," this book is meant to be the definitive word on medical education in the United States. However, it was written in the late 1970s, when admittedly most of the would-be doctors were men, so the experience in the definitive word on *male* medical education in the United States. The story and character development are fascinating, but I yearned for a authentic female perspective. Women in the book -- save for one workaholic resident, the exception that proves the r
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Jan 19, 2009
Maya
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I was captivated by this book, and related to it in many ways. Until the last quarter, I even sort of hated how much of it really really rings true. But, it's beautifully written and, honestly, it's the afterward, written 25 years after its original publication, that made me love it. This is the author's eloquent argument against a bizarre medical education system. I love that someone has said Something. A shout against the wind?
It's been a while since I stayed up late reading More...
It's been a while since I stayed up late reading More...
Dec 15, 2009
Don
rated it:
Of all the medical texts I read while in school, this one gave me more insight into the real medical world. I memorized the 13 "Laws" of the House of God and have seen them applied more than once during my 28 year career. Irreverent?...yes. Tongue in cheek?...yes. More fact than fiction?...YES! This should be mandatory reading for every medical student during their first year. There are some very poignant moments that become useful later in life. I have this book with yellowing
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Feb 03, 2009
Ji
rated it: 
Even though many find this book to be appealing and an expose of physicians/ medical care, as a pre-med, I found it to be very disappointing. Yes, it does depict human psyche, the difficulties of facing the diseased and death, and possibly many facets of current medicine. However, I've met and heard from many doctors who truly care about patients. They work at free clinics or do research on getting access to care for the uninsured. The House of God is a book to have few laughs from, but it reall
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Aug 31, 2010
Seleucid
rated it: 
Medicine is an illusion society needs, it helps them to know that no matter what happens, there's a guild of masters dedicating their lives to the creed of making them whole and powerful. No matter what it takes. This popular image can get into the head of the med student, and he can fall into one of the several traps illustrated in this book.
The perfect time to read this book would be fourth or fifth year. Memorize the catchphrases, and it will make you bypass the shock easily. Know w More...
The perfect time to read this book would be fourth or fifth year. Memorize the catchphrases, and it will make you bypass the shock easily. Know w More...
Dec 13, 2011
Havva
rated it:
Borrowed this book from the library. I'm thinking of buying my own copy. I would carry it around with me all the time and hand it to everyone who asks why I'm not studying to be a "real" doctor.
The sad thing is that this dehumanization (of self as well as others) does happen to far too many people, and not just in the medical profession. And most don't have the luck to have it pointed out to them forcibly enough not just that it's happening, but that it's a bad thing.
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The sad thing is that this dehumanization (of self as well as others) does happen to far too many people, and not just in the medical profession. And most don't have the luck to have it pointed out to them forcibly enough not just that it's happening, but that it's a bad thing.
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Aug 22, 2011
Olivia
rated it:
I'm borrowing this from another Goodreads member, Patrick Henderson who says it far better than I could:
"I read this in college, then again my first year of medical school, then again my last year of medical school, then again during my internship, and I'm reading it once more now as a senior resident. Along with the television show Scrubs, it's the most accurate portrayal of American medicine that I'm familiar with. I gave it to my father and he called me saying that he wanted to More...
"I read this in college, then again my first year of medical school, then again my last year of medical school, then again during my internship, and I'm reading it once more now as a senior resident. Along with the television show Scrubs, it's the most accurate portrayal of American medicine that I'm familiar with. I gave it to my father and he called me saying that he wanted to More...
Apr 18, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it:
Ok, first of all, I'm not a med student so I won't pretend to know anything there is to know about how a hospital is run, or what life is like as a 1st year intern. But I think I have a rough idea, even before I started reading The House of God, about what life must be like for new doctors. This novel has a bawdy, humorously dark way of portraying what the American health system was like in the 1970s. Think Scrubs, only a whole lot naughtier.
To be very honest, I'm torn between lovin More...
To be very honest, I'm torn between lovin More...
Dec 13, 2009
I happened upon this book on Catherine's bookshelf, a site of many previous great book finds. It was old and cheaply bound and stained by remnants of coffee and oil. Which is kind of the state I imagine I'll find myself in after a year of internship. This book is the 'classic' story of intern year, set at Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. I had heard about the book from fellow med students and a few residents over the past year and was curious to see how I liked it.
Imme More...
Imme More...
