Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President / by Candice Millard

The irony was that James A. Garfield never wanted to be president. Born into rural poverty in Ohio in 1831, it wasn't an easy road for the future chief of staff who, much like Abraham Lincoln, had to self-educate himself early in life. Limited financially, Garfield would eventually earn a Bachelor's from Williams College in Massachussetts and then a law degree before being commissioned as an officer in the Civil War, rising to the rank of Major General by the time it was all finished. In 1862 Garfield, then only 31, obtained a congressional seat in the House of Representatives and thereafter figured prominently in politics, serving 9 consecutive terms until 1880. Yet all of his merits and conspicuous achievements were, by all accounts, mere window dressing. Garfield was a true public servant, one of the few men who lived to advance the ideals which the country stood for. Never swayed by crooked political machinery and always opposed to "place-seeking" and career advancement, his actions warranted a high degree of public scrutiny but also a hefty amount of sincere praise which culminated in his rather awkward nomination for the presidency in 1880. Despite his personal objection, Garfield eventually capitulated and, though never expected to actually win, campaigned alongside his running mate Chester A. Arthur for the Republican cause. When he did win it was considered a minor miracle and had more than a few people speculating that the new President was merely a puppet in a ruse cooked up by the delegates to get their real man, Arthur, into office.

One person certainly amused at the outcome of the election was Charles Guiteau. Having experienced many of the same setbacks in life as the President himself, the squirrely little man from Wisconsin had tried his hand at many an occupation only to fail or quit at all of them. Many, including Guiteau's own father, considered him insane and various attempts were unsuccessfully made to have him committed. Following the 1880 election, Guiteau, intending to solicit employment in the White House, began stalking Garfield in person. By 1881, after being turned down for an office on more than one occasion, Guiteau resolved it was God's will that he kill the President. On July 2 of the same year, after pursuing Garfield in secret for several months, he encountered the President and Secretary of State James Blaine at Baltimore train station whereupon he fired two rounds of a .44 British Bulldog pistol, one winging the arm of the President and the other piercing one of his lower vertebrae and lodging near his spleen.

Garfield wasn't immediately killed. In fact he initially stood a good chance of survival. Doctors worked around the clock to locate the bullet only to worsen the President's condition with unsanitary procedures and detrimental hygiene, ultimately resulting in an infection which hastened Garfield's death in September of 1881 nearly three months after his assassination attempt. Guiteau meanwhile was immediately apprehended and tried. He persistently maintained he was innocent of all charges, claiming he had only shot Garfield to make Arthur president. An insanity defense was not out of the question as all who stood witness to his trial could see he was clearly deranged. But in the end he was executed in front 2,000 spectators, all watching as the madman danced his way up to the scaffold to be hanged, shaking hands with the executioner and requesting that a poem he had written while in prison be read prior to his death. This, one of the more colorful, though tragic events of American history is certainly a story worth telling and carries lessons worth learning. Millard's previous work The River of Doubt, chronicling Teddy Roosevelt's post-Presidential Amazonian adventure, was highly successful, winning the Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. This latest outing is as entertaining though perhaps not as discretely rendered. Destiny of a Republic runs in the same vein but the story has so many different dimensions it's hard to find a seminal theme to latch on to. There's two vastly different men on a path to destruction, a country still in post-war turmoil, a shady political climate and then the tragedy involved with the medical negligence. That's not even including the interesting tidbits about Garfield's family life which included the death of two young children and the survival of an unlikely marriage to his wife Lucretia. Or even the potentially life saving efforts made on the part of Alexander Graham Bell whose influential inventions attempted to locate the bullet inside the president's body by remote detection. It's a worthy effort however by an author who's fascinated by her subject and mainstream readers as well as history buffs will be pleased with the riveting manner in which the events are brought to life. (973.84092 MILLARD)

The Mercy Rule / by Perri Klass

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Dr. Lucy Weiss has come a long way. As a child she spent her early years bouncing around various foster homes until ultimately being adopted by one of her teachers. Now a pediatrician, Lucy manages a clinic specializing in care for the disadvantaged and travels the country delivering speeches on the particular medical needs of children under foster care. Also a devoted wife and mother, Lucy's the central figure in the lives of her professor husband, her gifted 10-year-old daughter Isabel and her mildly challenged son Freddy. Lucy's commitments to both her work and her family bring her into contact (and conflict) with seemingly endless series of confrontational issues including what to do when a mother abandons her 3 school-age children, when and how to cross the line of professionalism when dealing with clients and colleagues and what to do about David's increasingly retreative lifestyle.

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Klass, an M.D. as well as an author, delivers another warmhearted but practical novel on the ups and downs of life providing for the medical needs of the less fortunate. Dr. Lucy is a well-rounded character and the supporting cast, though marginalized, present a largely believable scenario. This book doesn't really have a plot; there's no real story arc and situations don't really develop or resolve themselves by the book's end. But it doesn't seem to matter. The novel does fine without any major plot twists and Klass's writing is able to keep readers interested through various anecdotal pieces like Lucy's airplane conversations with a kid being flown from one parent to the other--essentially a modern-age "foster" child, reflections on her own childhood and intriguing conversations between Lucy and her patients.

More Than It Hurts You / by Darin Strauss

David Strauss received lots of attention for his two previous novels, Chang and Eng; The Real McCoy, both of which were fictional recreations of notably curious historical figures. His latest, the more contemporary and less lighthearted More Than It Hurts You, is a rather somber testimony on the subtle ways in which preconception and prejudice are still active in society.



Josh Goldin is a can-do man. All his life he's been the guy who could do anything he put his mind to. Now a successful salesman for a large marketing firm, he's sure that his life can't get any better with his beautiful wife Dori loyally by his side and their infant son, Zach, growing up before their eyes. But even if things weren't so good, Josh knows he's capable of fixing it. So when he and Dori's parenting skills are called into question and the right to raise their own child is jeopardized, Josh takes the steps he feels are necessary to protect his portion of the American dream, even if it might end up costing him everything.

Dr. Darlene Stokes is a the head of pediatrics at a large city hospital. A physician of extraordinary skill as well as a professional of unquestioned integrity, Darlene has never made a wrong diagnosis . . . and she knows this time is no exception. Having attended Zach Goldin after he was twice brought to the emergency room exhibiting life-threatening symptoms, Darlene is prompted to make a difficult decision, one that involves accusing the Goldins--Dori in particular--of harming their own son. Darlene knows she's putting everything at risk, everything; including her own reputation, the hospital's image, the profession's credibility and--most of all--the life she'd worked so hard to create for herself. But she also knows her concluding analysis is correct and that no matter how threatening the situation to herself may be, her professional ethics and the well-being of the infant patient demand she come forward with her convictions.

While it's in no way perfect and definitely not as fun as 'Real McCoy', Strauss's More Than It Hurts You is a book which won't be soon forgotten, if only for its intimate portrayal socio-economic bias and underhanded media exploitation. While the book's characterization of both Josh and Darlene is thoroughly comprehensive, the story leaves (perhaps intentionally) some questionable loose ends concerning both, prompting the reader to contemplate whether each's actions were really as conducive to the outcome as Strauss would have you believe. Darlene is the book's most solid character and while sympathy is clearly intended more towards her circumstances, it doesn't necessarily convince the reader that Josh's actions are wholly unjustified, just as the media frenzy and its ensuing victimization of Darlene's not altogether believable. (FIC STRAUSS)

The Hospital (1971) / w/ George C. Scott & Diana Rigg

Out of chaos comes clarity for one man in this black comedy on the medical profession. A chief surgeon at a major NYC hospital, Dr. Bock deals with more than just bloody carnage. His routine headaches also derive from dull-witted residents, bureaucratic red tape, and social upheaval--not to mention corrupt doctors subversively plaguing his practice. Professional duties have decimated his personal life--his wife's left him and his son's now long-estranged. Whatever influence of control he maintains, it dwindles in comparison to the vastly underfunded, understaffed, under-everything hospital viewed at large; which now, evidently, has a serial murderer on the loose.

It's only when a wayfaring young woman--Barbara--emerges with her own 'alternative medicine' that new life is breathed into the downtrodden doc. But even as their relationship blooms, mysterious deaths still perpetuate the hospital's already trauma-laden atmosphere.

A Paddy Chayefsky (Network, Paint Your Wagon) script combined with the talents of Scott and Rigg culminate in this award-winning dramedy full of biting satire and hilarious--if tragic--societal quandaries. Background footage of the hospital's raucous sideshow is gotta-see; so well does it mirror the frantic pandemonium commonly witnessed in person. No ounce of tranquility is found anywhere as tensions from all angles are thrust foreword, as if only the most frenzied setting could accurately depict a realistic emergency room. With Dr. Bock, it's not that he's undervalued or disrespected--rather, just the opposite. It's the ethical anguish he must confront which brings him to his knees; a morbid disillusionment with his own profession and the 'system' it abides by. Scott delivers another Oscar-worthy performance as an end-of-tether man on the verge of breakdown saved from the abyss by Barbara (Rigg), a worldly but sensitive woman privy to the inner-conflicts of exhausted men.