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ANATOMY OF DECEPTION
by Lawrence Goldstone
Delacorte, January 2008
352 pages
$24.00
ISBN: 0385341342


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Lawrence Goldstone, who mostly writes historical biography, has tried his hand at fiction with first novel ANATOMY OF DECEPTION. Using detailed research about William Halsted, William Olser, Thomas Eakins, and other figures of the period, he has crafted a moody "what if" story about a young man learning medicine in the late 1800s.

In a time when the success of operations was counted by how many the surgeon performed and how quickly he did them, instead of by patient recovery rates, the only way really to learn anatomy was illegally to dissect whatever corpses came a student's way. Ephraim Carroll, the hero and narrator, is learning all he can from Dr Osler, who is suggesting new ways of practicing medicine. The tiny class gets practice whenever it can at the morgue, where the attendant can be bribed to let them in while he takes an extra-long break.

What starts out as a good night's work – five fresh corpses – comes to a sudden stop when Dr Osler sees a young woman. Was he too tired to keep cutting? Too squeamish about slicing into such unsullied beauty? Or, as some of the students whisper, was he horrified to have recognized her?

Caught between his fellow students, all of whom seem to have some hidden agenda, and Dr Osler, who has secrets of his own, Carroll finds himself forced into the position of judging the worth of one life compared to others.

ANATOMY OF DECEPTION is certainly ambitious, and Goldstone includes very helpful appendixes drawing the line between history and fiction. There is certainly an appeal for anyone who likes forensics and historical medical thrillers. But I found the book to be slow and bleak. The 1880s were a time of great expansion and invention, but none of the excitement of the era is reflected in the characters, all of whom I found to be driven or grim or both. Even when characters reflect upon all the changes they have seen, there is a melancholy that prevented me from enjoying what I was reading. Nobody in the book ever had pleasure, and thus neither did I as reader.

Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, February 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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