I was feeling bitterly cold. The shivering did not stop. Unintelligible voices began coalescing into words. Words joined into sentences.
Category: Essays
Reading Arrowsmith During the 2020 Pandemic
By J. Russell Teagarden Reading the 1925 novel Arrowsmith during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic reveals many parallels that can make us wonder if the outcomes of pandemics will forever be …
Memories of the Spanish Flu
My time spent in the army now seems to me like a long, complex dream. The events are all familiar, but you cannot be sure whether they really happened. After a very brief period of basic training in New Jersey, I was stationed in South Carolina as a physician at a small army base.
High Anxiety: Going Viral?
By Howard Trachtman, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Co-editor, LitMed Database. Jenny Offill’s new book, Weather was reviewed in the New York Times and other …
The Height of the Storm: When A Play Is as Jazz Does
The Height of the Storm, a play by Florian Zeller, can be interpreted as a fusion of two artistic genres to tell a story; in this case dramatic theater and jazz. In his essay, Russell Teagarden explores how jazz, with its variations on rhythm and themes, is embedded in the play’s structure, and how in the end, the play is as jazz does.
Saving Grace
Expecting to call in my next patient, the staff instead called me. My patient had become explosive, thrashing about in the waiting area, prompting a call to 911.
Oliver
I cannot recall the date you died. My memories are both foggy, perhaps a subconscious protective force against the despair in recalling your last days, and intensely detailed.
Hurricane Residency
Among the desperate parents in Target, I spotted an old friend. We had the same goal: find enriching activities that would occupy our toddlers.
Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders is well known for his inventive and affecting short stories. Lincoln in the Bardo is his first novel, and as described by Charles Baxter in his review in the April 20, 2017 issue of The New York Review of Books
