This book about family practice in medicine and the doctors who, well, practice it was written in the 1980s but does not feel dated. Ailments haven't changed much, really, and I suspect Maine, where most of the doctoring in this book takes place, hasn't changed much either. I read McPhee because he has a way with words, like describing the doctor who wears a cross in his lapel and has personally been obstetricated twice.I also read him because of the cool things I learn. Like about the condition...

At a time when reading the news makes me horrified, and then more horrified, it was a great relief to read this book about doctors choosing to go into "family practice"--to choose to work in rural settings, treat the whole patient, and even make house calls. McPhee is careful not to mythologize these real people--they are not SuperDocs, but they are truly admirable human beings. And, of course, since he's a brilliant writer, McPhee has fun describing doctors and patients and adding the occasiona...

Delightful quick read!

I come from a family of general practitioners - my mother was a G.P. and my sister followed in her footsteps - and I am a fan of John McPhee's writing, in general. So I expected to like this book more than I actually did. The book follows the standard McPhee schema - in-depth reporting on a very specific topic, in this case doctors who choose to work as general practitioners. McPhee provides vignettes of a dozen or so such doctors, almost all of them working in Maine. McPhee is usually very effe...

This was EXCELLENT. Extremely engaging, fascinating, and helped to lessen the stigma surrounding family practice physicians. I am not entering the medical field and I found this to be an enjoyable read. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the doctor-patient relationship.

This book was definitely a good read. The writing was a bit gritty at times with back-to-back medical stories surrounding family practice doctors. A good book to gain further perspective into preventative medicine and why we should to care about general practice.

You guys, my dad is in this book!

I received this book from a patient and ever so grateful. It offers a beautiful and (almost) timeless lens into the joys, complexities, rewards and struggles of Family Practice. I had to keep glancing at the year it was published. It’s soon to be a staple on my desk to revisit when I need a reminder of why I love what I do in Family Medicine.

This book jumps a lot which McPhee employing several different narrative and investigative writing styles. The beginning and throughout are too choppy moving from one patient to next as to imitate the sense the family/general practitioner may experience seeing many diverse patients consecutively. While this may mirror the feeling of witnessing a quick patient turnover, I would have appreciated it if McPhee used his interviewing skills to investigate further and provide more information than just...

John McPhee tells the story of different family practice physicians who chose to practice in rural Maine in the early 1980s, when this was a newer medical sub-specialty resurrected. He brings out the lives of about a dozen doctors, their patients and their conditions as they visit these doctors, and intersperses these stories with explanations of how this medical specialty is different and how it fits into the towns where they serve. The book is good but it doesn't feel like it comes fully toget...

A fun, often humorous, look into the need for family medicine. It follows about 12 doctors and shares why certain patient presentations would best be served by the family doc. I thought all in all it was a little hard to follow, but the topics made for a great book discussion. I think I would actually read it again one day, since it was such a short read and gets your mind thinking, especially if one is considering family Med. Last thought; very impressive how this book was written in the 80’s b...

I didn’t check when this book was published. The edition I bought made me think maybe it was early McPhee, but, no, far from it. I’m not sure how McPhee got access to the patient information that makes up this book—maybe a benefit of writing about doctors at the fringes—but the writing style felt more rote here than other McPhee. He weaves a few threads, but it’s not the rushing waters of the McPhee I love most.

An interesting and entertaining glimpse into rural family medicine. Even though this was written in the '80s, it still feels incredibly relevant, and rings true with what I've been seeing firsthand in my work as a medical scribe at a family practice. McPhee is also a great writer. He surrounds vignettes of doctors and the patients they see with context around the development of the field of family medicine and the cultural context of rural Maine, and writes in an engaging and accessible voice.

An excerpt of this book appeared in The New Yorker in 1984. That article was very influential for many of us in our early careers in family medicine. The book follows a group of new graduates of a family medicine program in the state of Maine as they engage in rural practice. At the time family medicine had the trappings of a 'movement' in medicine, vestiges of which continue to animate some of us in what is now the 'old guard'.

A slightly dated piece, but one brim full of respect and appreciation for family doctors. McPhee makes a persuasive case for the crucial importance of the family doctor, and its advantage over the specialty approach. Using anecdotes and focusing on the story of a few doctors he brings to live people of care, concern, and great devotion.

An excellent portrait of the heart of family medicine. The fine details of the patients and doctors alike in a case report style are written with such compassion I almost thought the author to be a family physician himself. This book should be required reading for all medical students and for anyone who has ever been a patient. Definitely a book I will be recommending to all my friends!

What can I say about John McPhee that I haven't already said in previous reviews. He can take any subject and make it interesting. It matters not if your particular interest lies elsewhere. All of a sudden the book turns into a page turner, you can't wait to get back to it book and you are sorry when it's finished. Just pick up one of McPhee's books and see for yourself.

Quick reading book about what the title says: Family Practice as the heir of the GP. Great, very short, stories and vignettes make the point that there is more to medicine than medicine and that time and listening are often more important to caring relationshps over time.

This book was interesting to read as a rural family medicine physician who “does it all”, only in a different state. There were only a couple of medical things that were inaccurate.

It’s well written like all of his books, however, I just didn’t find it as compelling or deeply researched as others.

What an honest and straightforward book about an important form of medicine. I loved this book. It was short, but very meaningful. McPhee gives small glimpses into the lives of doctors who have chosen to practice family medicine. They subscribe to the idea that if a doctor treats your parents, your grandparents and your extended family, they will be more skillful at treating you. This is the story of the Family Medicine Institute in Augusta, Maine. And how it has revolutionized small town medici...

The book is rather fragmented, as the author spends one paragraph to up to a few pages about a patient's visit to a GP. Thus it had a rather fragmented structure, so trying to read more than a dozen of pages at a time can get a bit tiring after a while. However, because you can read a few paragraphs at a time without losing the plot, I think it is good for being used as an English reader for EFL learners. The stories are straightforward, and there are not too many difficult words except for the

An incredible book about Family Practice Physicians and their role in American health care, as well as the need for more family practice doctors who can provide the much-needed service of primary care. This service would make emergency medicine much less costly and would decrease the cost of health care in this country exponentially as well as increase the health and well-being of American citizens. But it's not an easy job being a family practice physician.

I love books about medicine and doctoring (Gawande's Complications and Better, Groopman), even though I sometimes read them with a tinge of regret at what might have been had I decided to suck up 5 years of med school instead of pursuing the joys of a liberal arts education. In Heris of General Practice, Mc Phee delves into the lives of the men and women who go against conventional wisdom and opt for family medicine, instead of the more glamourous specialities such as cardiology.

Brilliant, as usual. Every physician, hell every patient should read this gem. Beautifully crafted portraits of several family practice docs, mostly in rural Maine, which McPhee uses to critique the emergence of specialization and the counter reaction to it. The last paragraph is genius.

This book was given to me as a gift by my niece and signed by the author. JM's daughter was/is a friend of my niece. I don't remember reading it or what happened to it as I don't have it any more. Maybe I read some of it. Date read is a guess.