Hilfiker, David : Not All of Us Are Saints

Literature Annotations

Genre	Autobiography (256 pp.)
Keywords	Alcoholism, Art of Medicine, Caregivers, Cross-Cultural Issues, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Drug Addiction, Empathy, Human Worth, Patient Experience, Physician Experience, Poverty, Racism, Scapegoating, Society, Suffering, Urban Violence
Summary	Having previously described his seven years as a family practitioner in rural Minnesota (Healing the Wounds, Pantheon Books, New York, 1985) Hilfiker now has turned his attention to a decade in inner-city Washington, D.C., where he practiced what he calls "poverty medicine." These introspective essays are written in a style similar to that of his first book and detail the profound struggles of the overwhelmingly African-American community he serves and lives with. Also examined are his and his family's battle to live with their white middle-class privileges in the midst of this impoverished community. This book very effectively alternates between the numerous stories of his personal encounters with patients and deeply reflective commentary about those encounters. Prescriptions are not offered other than that a new art of caring for the poor is needed.
Commentary	Healing the Wounds was named first prize winner by the American Medical Writers Association.
Publisher	Farrar, Straus & Giroux: Hill & Wang
Edition	1994
Place Published	New York
Annotated by	Kohn, Martin
Date of Entry	11/15/94
Last Revised	12/06/06