When someone gave me the Blood of Strangers, Frank Huyler’s first book of short stories about his experiences in emergency medicine, I almost didn’t read it. I thought I could never enjoy a book about emergency medicine. I was so wrong, and White Hot Light is even better. This is not “Emergency Room” or “Gray’s Anatomy.” It’s never sensational. It’s quiet, and sometimes melancholy as the author looks back over the years, not just in medicine but also as a youth living in far-flung places with his family. Each story is a small gem. One story in particular was a beautiful bookend to a story from Blood of Strangers. In this recent book, he had to coax the diagnosis of AIDS out of a young doctor who was too young to have seen and experienced it as an epidemic, as Huyler had in his youth, and as he portrayed in a heartbreaking story in his previous work. The performance was perfect. Highly recommend.
Review from White Hot Light →