I read this for book club, and I did get into it. It gives you a glimpse into a world I know very little about. What is sad is that despite the fact that she is a psychiatrist, she does very little actually helping (or fixing) people. As the weekend attending doctor her job is to T & R patients as they come in. Which means treat and release. Treat the surface symptoms that is -- which can be drunk, high, delusional or suicidal. Suicides get to stay overnight, but the rest get kicked back out onto the street. Because most of the people who end up at Bellevue are being escorted in by the police for one reason or another. It is all very sad. So Julie Holland would journal her experiences after she got off a shift to try to shift gears and return to her "normal" life during the week. Eventually she quit her job and wrote this book!
Would I recommend it? I don't know. I would as a book club book, definitely, because it has rich content to be discussed.
HALLIE: I read this not really understanding what I was getting into. It was interesting to hear about her experiences, as well as very sad and horrifying to hear how common an occurrence these crazy people were! I thought the book itself focused too much on her own thought process on whether she was crazy or hardened for being able to work in a place like Bellevue. Basically I liked the story she was telling but didn't care so much for the inner thoughts part of it.
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