Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Anchor Canada, 2006

Hardcover, 368 pages

Winner of the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize

I'm not usually a big fan of short stories - not sure why, except that I prefer to get more involved in characters' lives than is usually possible in a short story. I put this on my reading list after reading a couple of great reviews, and I'm glad I did. Vincent Lam is a Canadian emergency physician; this is his first book. The stories in the book revolve around four medical students (later doctors), and although we do get to know each character, their differing paths both during and after becoming doctors are not the main theme of the book. Instead, the stories examine what it is to be a doctor - the burdens they face, the impacts on their personal lives, and the critical decisions they constantly make. These seem like lofty themes, and the book could have fallen into the "stories about noble doctors" trap, but for me, the themes were approached very obliquely and the stories instead examined the humanity and fallability of medical professionals.

Although I did really enjoy the book, I realized I'm still not a huge fan of short stories; there were at least a couple of stories that could easily have made full-length books and I hated to be left wondering what happened to the characters. The stories that stay with me the most are Winston, about a mentally ill patient who believes he is being poisoned, and Contact Tracing, describing fictional events around the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto. Winston left me with too many unanswered questions - I was intrigued by the idea that the patient was not as ill as everyone assumed, and I wanted a better explanation of his sickness and the true events that led to his "delusions". Contact Tracing was a scary reminder of the SARS outbreak: the descriptions of the terror felt by doctors and nurses, the alienation they and their families experienced, and the constant media commentary was very interesting to read. But I was disappointed at the end of each story to find the plot abruptly cut off and to be thrust into a new story with no tying up of loose ends.

I'd give this book four stars out of five, and I will definitely watch for Vincent Lam's next book to be released.