The Spirit of the Place

Unexpected conditions can have us traveling to places we did not expect. Reluctantly responding to his dead mother's critical controlling spirit again as she offers him a significant inheritance provided he lives in the house of his youth for one year and thirteen days, the protagonist, Orville, finds himself once again in the broken down town of his youth. With all of its struggles and challenges, this town has the full spectrum of human betrayal, love, forgiveness, acceptance, bad choices, suffering, hopes and mutual support.Orville brings to this his medical skills along with a desire to escape from what at first seems only to be endured. However, tending to the town's medical needs is an investment. In his role, he learns all of the secrets. He begins to form relationships with those he cares about and gradually comes face to face with how his own assumptions might be limiting his happiness. This novel shows how allowing ourselves to come into contact with the true spirit of a place can teach us a great deal about what we really want, what matters to us and the power we have to create it in the here and now and how that can matter for wherever we choose to do next, no matter where we chose to do it.

As a physician, I have read Shem's House of God in med school, Mount Misery, and most recently, Man's Fourth Best Hospital. Apparently, I missed this gem when I was transitioning from cardiology fellow to returning to my hometown to practice cardiology. A friend recommended that I read it and ended up reading it twice!This book captures the beautiful realizations and privilege of practicing medicine in your hometown with all of the extreme quirkiness that each town exhibits. It holds up a mirror to our humanness, our handicaps and teaches us to embrace these with compassion and forgiveness for ourselves and others. It also teaches us that the important things are not always about chasing a vision but seeing that what we are looking for is already here if we can be present to it.

Ok. Not great. It seemed like a book I wished was over before I was done with it. Not worth the price.

Shem is a superb story teller about a conflicted love between a mother and a son who is a doctor. The young doctor (Orville Rose) is forced to return from a love affair in Italy to his small town home on the Hudson River. His dead mother has left letters to be delivered periodically saying in her will that Orville must live in her house for one year and 13 days if he is to inherit a million dollars.. One event and one letter after another pulls the reader into stories and love and conflicts in this small town. The scene where the young doctor attends the death of his old mentor doctor friend is special and could only been written by a doctor who has faced the death of a friend with love and compassion. Dr. Shem has done it again with these stories. The reader is led in the dark until the last few pages. Stories well told.

Incredible read on a small town medical practice. Written by the author of The House of God. I read The House of God while in medical school and it is arguably the most poignant book on residency specialist training. He has the touch to develop characters and plot that are seriously unique.

A beautifully told story with it’s captivating characters and raw emotions set in small town America. A roller coaster ride through a critical period in the main character’s life. Suited to mature readers who allow themselves to be drawn into the spellbinding drama of a group of ordinary people, so sensitively woven and unfolded by the author.

Samuel Shem is best known as the author of The House of God and Mount Misery. While this is not a funny as The House of God, it`s not as sad either, a completely different stand alone novel. I enjoyed it.

I began reading " The Spirit of the Place" the moment it arrived by mail. I turned the last page six hours later. In the beginning I devoured each page. In the middle I savored each word. In the end, I slowed to a snail's pace afraid the last page was near. "The Spirit of the Place" is one of those rare reads that is not content to slap awake every emotion , it must continue on to the marrow. Like all good books this one should be read repeatedly until its pages are tattered and its back weakened.

The compassion of Sam Shem. The masterfull writing equals John Irving at his best. Read it and weep, laugh, and much more.