SCIENCES

The Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic

by Nora Gallagher
Knopf. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9780307592989. $24. HEALTH
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Spiritual writer Gallagher (Changing Light) recounts a routine trip to the eye doctor that yielded the news that a mysterious illness might take her sight. Billed as a woman's journey through the health-care system, this book wants to be many things: a meditation on faith and spirituality in the face of illness; a diary detailing doctors' visits, tests, insurance forms, and waiting; and a eulogy to a pre-illness life. All of that might have been fine had it not been couched in a poorly used Oz metaphor (Gallagher's name for the land of the sick) that is seldom supported throughout the book. Gallagher might have written a stronger book had she stuck solely to religion or to a comparable story of faith, such as Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning.
VERDICT There are better texts that pull back the curtain on the health-care system or coming to terms with personal illness. There may be some value to theologians in the intersection of religion and medical culture mentioned in the book.
Reviewed by Stacie Williams, Lexington P.L., KY , Jun 01, 2013
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