A Ring at the Door. By George Sava. (Faber. 8s.
6d.)
Boom written by doctors have had a good run for their money in recent years, and generally they have more than fashion to recom- mend them. Doctors see men and women unbuttoned and defenceless, and their advice is sought on many subjects only remotely connected with medicine. Now that the consulting- room apparently no longer bears any resemblance to the confes- sional, all that needs to be done is to change a few names and cash in. A Ring at the Door might uncharitably be said to be a third shaking of Di. Sava's case-book notes, but it is extremely fresh and absorbing. In its twenty case-histories, you may read, among other curiosities, of the man who turned into a woman, of the sword-swallower's bellyache, of an alarming treatment for sciatica, and of the split-personality patient who believed himself to be alternately a jeweller and a big-game hunter. All the stories are good, if occasionally over-dramatised, and they are so easy to read that one might well finish the book at a sitting. Dr. Sava is by no means reticent about his 6wn feats of surgery, but his stories have the ring of truth. A few descriptions of operations may repel the ultra-squeamish, but most readers are likely to be asking soon for a fourth selection of Savanese anecdotes.
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