The Desire to Heal by Rafael Campo
"Rafael Campo is that rare and exotic hybrid," raved the Boston Globe, "a doctor-poet, with a sensualist point of view that leads him to explore... the eroticism of healing-the laying on of hands." In this "unrelenting effort to humanize the medical profession" (Publishers Weekly), Campo turns the doctor-patient relationship inside out, writing not just of his attempts to heal, but of how his patients have healed him. He writes of campy Aurora, "dying of love"; the elderly woman telling of her trip to the country to pick "big-as-your-hands" peaches; a hateful addict he wished would die; and Gary, whom he feared to love, "contentious and gossipy and irreverent." Campo's work, "reminiscent of Chekhov... [in] the way language comes up out of the body" (Los Angeles Times), restores "the transcendent power of language to redeem" as, throughout the book, "the narrative, and the narrator, only get more luscious" (Out).
"An extraordinary memoir about the body and the soul" -- Richard Rodriguez
Rafael Campo, author of two books of poetry, teaches and practices medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Hospital of Boston.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393317718 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393317714 |
| Title | The Desire to Heal |
| Author | Rafael Campo |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 1998-10-21 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |