This Won’t Hurt a Bit (and other White Lies) by Dr. Michelle Au

14Jul11

This Won’t Hurt a Bit, by Dr. Michelle Au, MD, was a long-awaited read for the followers of this Columbia-trained anesthesiologist’s witty blog, http://theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com/ . Au originally created the blog early in her medical training to illustrate and make light of the good, bad, and ugly of medical training. A former humor columnist at her alma mater, Wellesley College, Au has a gift for comics and intelligent, yet accessible writing (my favorite: “The 12 Types of Medical Students” – google it sometime). I suppose the blog provided a way for her to continue sharing this wit with the medical community and simultaneously keep her sanity amidst focused schooling.

As the tagline suggests, this book is a medical memoir of sorts, where Au details her journey through medical training (premedical to real job) and the “highs and lows” of attempting a work/life balance therein. From the ridiculous to grotesque, hilarious to sobering, Au capably takes the reader through this story.

The book is extremely enjoyable, especially for the one going through this onerous, amazing, sometimes sadistic process of becoming a physician. Though written more like a doc and less like a Pulitzer, Au is a great story-teller and has an impressive vocabulary that occasionally required a dictionary (well done, Wellesley scholar).

I highly recommend for anyone in medicine and for those who are traveling the journey with a medically-inclined loved one. For everyone else, it is a fun, accessible rea d that will keep you laughing.

4/5 Stars (posted by Jordan)