Oh my stars! A DR MUTTERS MARVELS review in the LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS(!!!). Reviewer (& poet) Ryan Teitman writes: Aptowicz’s description of the Mütter flap surgery is precise and clear, but she also has the feel for making each scene vivid and immediate: As with his work on the front of her neck, he was mindful not to cut too deeply. But despite his best efforts, one small vessel was opened. For the rest of the surgery, a steady stream of blood dripped onto the floor, ticking like an insistent clock. It’s in sections like this one that the reader is aware of Aptowicz-the-poet. The particular paragraph isn’t necessary to the description of the operation. But that image — dripping blood “ticking like an insistent clock” — functions on at least two levels, to show that Mütter isn’t infallible, and to add an extra element of suspense to the scene. Aptowicz’s prose works the same way Mütter did — with speed, elegance, and tactile accuracy. In her capable hands, Dr. Mütter’s Marvels is a biography of a scientific innovator that conjures, more vividly than it otherwise might, the atmosphere of the often terrifying and swiftly transforming field of medicine in the 19th century. To read more of this incredible review, click here: lareviewofbooks.org/review/o-pioneer
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:15:00 +0000
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