Rating: 
Summary: A very critical view of todays medical/psychiatric US-system
Review: Shem's new book is not what I expected. What I basically thought I'd get was a mere follow up to "The House of God", his 15 year old outstanding novel about medicine and internships. Mount Misery describes one year of residency training in a psychiatric hospital. While not remotely as funny as "House of God" this piece of work is more mature and goes much deeper. Shem doesn't leave too much good on psychoanalysis and Freud. This book really got to me and will keep me thinking for a while. Another masterpiece of medical novels
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtless drivel
Review: The House of God was a thoughtful, inspired cutting and usually dark satire of the medical world.
Mount Misery is a good description of trying to read this book. It has the feel of one of those [inexpensive] knock-off movies or television shows where one person comes up with a brilliant concept and someone tries to duplicate it, fails and ultimately makes it much much worse.
It scares me that such a misanthropic person is a psychiatrist and that he can see the world so myopically as to think that a book like this would create anything but fodder for bad reviews.
... if you are interested in writing about psychiatry read Kay Redfield Jameson or patient perspective books--Sylvia Plath, even Kaysen. ...
Rating:
Summary: MISERY LOVES COMPANY
Review: The legalized practice of psyciatry requires a license, and the writing of fiction provides one to the author. Each writing 'license-holder' has huge leeway while using this license: tremendous fidelity to 'accuracy' and 'reality' can be observed throughout--- or fanciful, well woven 'licenses' can be taken in order to hold the overall plot and substance together. MOUNT MISERY's author has done both. His fictional 'licenses', where reality is stretched , do add up, and do not ruin the integrity and thoughtfulness of this very well written and deeply troubling novel. The utter, complex evil of a Schlomo Dove, and the medical management types typified by the aptly named Loyal Von Not, etc., are as believable as any work of well-annotated non-fiction. Shem's characters, by and large, sing out in their realism and multi-dimensional humanity. In the spirit of Dickens and other satirists, Shem gives pun-laden names and somewhat elongated stereotypes to the characters that he has drawn. There is enough truth in this somewhat satirical renderings to make these people incredibly believable, and accurately grounded so as to make this story as vital and moving as it is. Who is to say that a Malik could not 'be' in the 'real' psyciatric world, or an automaton with a high dollop of greed and insensitivity as a Winthrop, for that matter? The ridiculous are real, and the real are often ridicuolous. As we all have learned from both the triumph of 'Managed Care' and the tragicomic missues of Psyciatry, the seemingly 'unbelievable' and ridiculous do indeed turn out to be very real, actual, and common. Shem captures the patois and 'gestalt' not only of a facility such as a Mount Misery, but of the cadences, thought processes, behaviors, reactions and methods of the super-Freudian elite. At the end of this rather well written work, one is, like the surviving Dr. Basche, emotionally exhausted, but insightful for having undergone what has so horribly played out in the fateful year of this Resident's life. The future of psyciatry is NOW, to paraphrase George Allen: it is spelled Drugs, tight DSM diagnosis, judgements by non-profesional lower-level employees of insurance companies, and the arrogant self-absorption by many, but not all, in the practicing and administrative arms of the late Twentieth Century psyciatric medical 'state'.
Rating:
Summary: incredibly perceptive
Review: The most powerful thing about this book is that a lot of the situations Basch finds himself in are not entirely dissimilar to what goes on in reality.The actual events may not be as extreme of course but the attitudes of seniors described are not too far fetched. The book left me reliving the sickest parts of my junior Dr. days.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reading for everyone
Review: This book is much deeper than House of God. It does not focus as much on the physical aspects of the Medical training like the former, it is more focused on Dr. Basch's personal changes and growth. The characters are all very interesting, and it is more entertaining for a non-medical related person than House of God in my opinion.Though overall House of God was better, this book makes you think more.
Rating:
Summary: Hyperbole that just isn't funny
Review: This book is painful to read. First of all, it is HIGHLY unrealistic. Analysts who have suicidal adolescent inpatients and never say a word except for to spit out some Freudian theory?!?! All the patients on a ward on 6 medications, all walking around like zombies, and the attendings just observing them from through the glass window and never seeing them ?!?! This book is as much about psychiatry as E.T. is about interstellar space communication. Secondly, from a literary standpoint, Shem is just so formulaic; everyone is a gross cariacature. Let's see, this is how he writes a book: focus on each attending, making him/her a one-sided, one-dimensional extreme character, take that character's fault/ideology and multiply it by a thousand, and have Basch (the main character) first be highly influenced by that character, have a revelation, then tell that character .... Oh, and be sure to throw in some big-busted nurses to have sex with. Finally, this book does a great disservice to the field of mental health. Fine - Shem does not have any obligation to make the world a better place, and I guess he has the right as a writer to perpetuate stereotypes. Psychiatry and psychiatric patients have enough stigma already, which ultimately causes worse quality of much needed care. To those unfamiliar with the mental health field, THIS BOOK IS NOT AT ALL TRUE OR REALISTIC. Don't waste your time; go watch the Sopranos instead.
Rating:
Summary: Boring book that tries too hard
Review: This book tried too hard to emulate the humor and pathos of "The House Of God". Unfortunately it has neither. I rarely put down a book before I finish it but this was one I could not complete. Boring
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Summary: IF YOU LOVED HOUSE OF GOD....READ IT AGAIN!
Review: Yikes, I just can't believe anyone liked this book. First, I absolutely loved the House of God! It was an excellent book, and I really couldn't wait to run out and read the sequel. Unfortunately, Mount Misery is absolutely nothing like the HOG. It was actually a struggle to get through the book, and I had to suffer just to finish it. I know this will be hard to believe if you just finished HOG, but MM is really nothing like it! It is slow, dark, and lacks all the humor/morbid satire and huge issues HOG dealt with. Shem should have never wrote this book, it really disappoints as some of the other reviewers pointed out. Just plain don't waste your time on this one, instead reread HOG! I'm sure you won't believe me, but you will see if you try to read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtless drivel
Review: ~ ~ * * * * * ~ ~
~ ~ As an MD who spent lots of time in 3rd and 4th year doing clerkships studying Psychiatry, at about the time this novel takes place, I have to admit it is an entertaining and frighteningly accurate illustration of the confusion that reigned in most Psychiatry training programs in the 70's and 80's. ~ ~Readers of "House of God" will enjoy this semi-autobiographical story. It is continuation of the story of the young doctor who spent a disillusioning year in a medical Internship in a prominent Boston training hospital, took a year off, and decided to leave the physical Medicine for Psychiatry. ~ ~Friends who have worked "M. Hospital" the prominent mental hospital (outside Boston), that Mount Misery is clearly modeled after, tell me that the characters in the book are also very thinly disguised versions of real life prominent Doctors in the training program. ~ ~It's not necessary to have much medical knowledge to enjoy the cutting humor of the book. The story will probably be more entertaining, the more knowledge you have of the field of Psychology. Be prepared though, this book isn't one you want to read to give you confidence in your Psychiatrist!
Rating:
Summary: Sharp Humor, Take my Word: VERY realistic!
Review: ~ ~ * * * * * ~ ~
~ ~ As an MD who spent lots of time in 3rd and 4th year doing clerkships studying Psychiatry, at about the time this novel takes place, I have to admit it is an entertaining and frighteningly accurate illustration of the confusion that reigned in most Psychiatry training programs in the 70's and 80's. ~ ~Readers of "House of God" will enjoy this semi-autobiographical story. It is continuation of the story of the young doctor who spent a disillusioning year in a medical Internship in a prominent Boston training hospital, took a year off, and decided to leave the physical Medicine for Psychiatry. ~ ~Friends who have worked "M. Hospital" the prominent mental hospital (outside Boston), that Mount Misery is clearly modeled after, tell me that the characters in the book are also very thinly disguised versions of real life prominent Doctors in the training program. ~ ~It's not necessary to have much medical knowledge to enjoy the cutting humor of the book. The story will probably be more entertaining, the more knowledge you have of the field of Psychology. Be prepared though, this book isn't one you want to read to give you confidence in your Psychiatrist!
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