The Doctor's Dilemma: Stories

by Daly Walker

Overview

The fragility of life. The persistence of hope. The marvels of medicine.

And, yet who is the surgeon behind the mask or the doctor behind the stethoscope?

In sixteen literary short stories, Daly Walker reveals the great weight that falls on the shoulders of healers. The line between life and death is often as thin as the blade of a surgeon's scalpel. "India's Passage" reveals a surgeon facing his worst nightmare: a misstep that shakes his confidence and nearly ends his career. In "Blood" a surgeon must decide whether to save a life or respect a patient's religious beliefs. In "Boots on the Ground" a surgeon in Afghanistan confronts the irony of saving lives in the midst of a combat zone. And, in "Palliation" a doctor learns an important lesson about the Hippocratic oath.

If you like stories brimming with emotion and characters whose flaws and self-doubts make them all the more human, then the luminous tales in Daly Walker's The Doctor's Dilemma will take you on profound journeys of discovery, redemption, and hope. Read The Doctor's Dilemma today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951479640
Publisher:	Grand Canyon Press
Publication date:	04/22/2021
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Daly Walker is a retired surgeon. . He divides his time between Boca Grande, Florida and Quechee, Vermont. He teaches a fiction writer's workshop at Dartmouth College in Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Table of Contents

Part I

MORTALITY

At the Door

India's Passage

Drumlins

Boots on the Ground

Pulsus Paradoxus

Part II

MORALITY

Nui Ba Den

Pascal's Law

Crystal Apple

Jacob's Wall

Blood

Bobolinks

Part III

IMMORTALITY

Resuscitation

One Day in the Live of Dr. Ivan Jones

Old Dogs

Palliation

Corks in the Ocean

Editorial Reviews

Roger Rosenblatt, memoirist, essayist, and novelist

Emily Dickinson's famous lines warning the surgeon to be careful about disclosing the "culprit life" have never been more aptly or gracefully applied than in Daly Walker's The Doctor's Dilemma. Walker may be retired as a surgeon, but he has not lost a step in his ability to carefully open a subject, and make it live anew. These rich stories, written in taut, clean prose, give us the culprit life in every dimension. There is tenderness here, as well as skill, both undergirded by the feeling, known to every able doctor, that life remains more wondrous and mysterious than any science that addresses it. I love this book.

Roxana Robinson, author of Dawson's Fall, Sparta, Cost and Georgia O'Keefe: A Life

These stories are tender, wise and loving. A doctor as well as a writer, Daly Walker offers new ways of looking at the frailties of the human heart, and the intricate and powerful ways in which it works. Bravo to Walker, for this beautiful collection.

Jane Fletcher Geniesse, author of American Priestess and Passionate Nomad

Daly is a writer with a firm grasp on the anguish and beauty of the human condition.

Robert B. Santulli, MD, Dartmouth College

In this wonderful collection of stories, Dr. Walker writes about the intimate secrets in the hearts and minds of his characters who happen to be physicians. His beautifully crafted prose portrays their struggles with gut-wrenching decisions, their feelings of pride and pleasure, of doubt and uncertainty, of guilt and sadness, of longing and love, and so much more. In short, he demonstrates and celebrates their humanity.

Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen and Stop That Girl

The Doctor's Dilemma is a beautiful and deeply perceptive collection of stories. Daly Walker's writing is artful and profound.

The Book Review Directory

. . . stories that touch on what can be considered life's unanswerable questions: Why are we here? Where are we going? . . . The Doctor's Dilemma chronicles life in the hospital frontline, but even more importantly, it faithfully encapsulates the lives of the men and women underneath the scrubs and the people behind the mask, allowing readers to see beyond the stethoscope they carry, and making it relatable at a deeply personal level for anyone who has ever suffered pain and loss.

The Prairies Book Review

Original and evocative, endearing and brilliant, the stories in The Doctor's Dilemma oscillate between life to death, hope to despair, exhilaration to anguish. Humming with life, the stories create a collage of medical professionals' everyday struggles, entwining moral allegory and familiar life situations. Subtle, pure, and stunning, the collection will entertain, challenge, and move readers.

From the Publisher