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Dottoressa :

Title :

Dottoressa : an American doctor in Rome / Susan Levenstein, MD.

Title:

Dottoressa :

Author:

Levenstein, Susan

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

xiv, 270 pages : portrait ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First Paul Dry Books edition.

ISBN:

9781589881396

Production / Publication Information:

Philadelphia : Paul Dry Books, 2019.

Summary:

"After completing her medical training in New York, Susan Levenstein set off for a one year adventure in Rome. Forty years later, she is still practicing medicine in the Eternal City. In Dottoressa Levenstein writes ... about navigating her career through the renowned Italian tangle of brilliance and ineptitude, sexism and tolerance, rigidity and chaos. Part memoir--starting with her epic quest for an Italian medical license--and part portrait of Italy from a unique point of view, Dottoressa is packed with vignettes that illuminate the national differences in character, lifestyle, health, and health care between her two countries"--Page 4 of cover.

Language:

English

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Geographic Term:

Italy -- Social life and customs.

Personal Subject:

Levenstein, Susan.

Subject Term:

Women physicians -- Italy -- Rome -- Biography.

Medical care -- Italy -- Rome.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	610.92 LEV	31330008810867	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"Wise and witty."-- Publishers Weekly

"A charming story well told."-- Kirkus Reviews

"Smart, funny, charming . . . full of astute insights into the way Italy works."--Alexander Stille

"A wonderfully fun read."--Dr. Robert Sapolsky

"As funny as it is poignant. A must read for anyone who thinks they understand medicine, Italy, or humanity."--Barbie Latza Nadeau

After completing her medical training in New York, Susan Levenstein set off for a one year adventure in Rome. Forty years later, she is still practicing medicine in the Eternal City. In Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome Levenstein writes, with love and exasperation, about navigating her career through the renowned Italian tangle of brilliance and ineptitude, sexism and tolerance, rigidity and chaos.

Part memoir--starting with her epic quest for an Italian medical license--and part portrait of Italy from a unique point of view, Dottoressa is packed with vignettes that illuminate the national differences in character, lifestyle, health, and health care between her two countries. Levenstein, who has been called "the wittiest internist on earth," covers everything from hookup culture to neighborhood madmen, Italian hands-off medical training, bidets, the ironies of expatriation, and why Italians always pay their doctor's bills.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Levenstein's memoir of her 40 years as an American-trained doctor living and working in Rome is equally revealing about her struggles with her profession and her experience of her adopted country. While sharing the many difficulties she's faced as an outsider to the Italian healthcare system-with its piles of paperwork, unwritten rules, and old boy networks-Levenstein also writes a love letter to Italy, which first won her heart on a holiday there as a student in 1970, and to which she returned in 1978. The first chapters recount, with a combination of exasperation and humor, the years-long obstacle course she encountered in her quest to practice medicine in the country. She proceeds to talks about everything from what a well-dressed Italian physician should wear, to, in a particularly wise and witty chapter, love and sex from both an Italian and an American perspective. A timely epilogue discusses the Affordable Care Act from her unique position as an American expat and an Italian physician, with Levenstein reflecting on how Italians, despite widespread dissatisfaction with their own health system, manage to live more healthily than Americans. She still resides and works in Rome, noting that despite many false starts and frustrating encounters, "it never occurred to me to head home." Americans worrying about healthcare and contemplating an expat lifestyle will find Levenstein's story fascinating. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

In her first book, Levenstein recounts how a one-year assignment in Rome became 40 years of practicing medicine in Italy.In 1978, the author and her husband moved to his home city of Rome and quickly faced the difficult task of navigating Italy's infamous bureaucracy. One of the first words to learn, she writes, was "pazienza," or "patience squared," which is "often invoked as a gentle reprimand for a foreigner's loss of cool" and "extends beyond the prosaic keep waiting' to the philosophical." She also learned ways around the system; someone always knows someone who can grease the wheels. After finally gaining the official title of Dottoressa, waiting for the sole calligrapher to produce her diploma took nearly two decades. In the meantime, finding a position with an established group was not as hard as finding an office. Levenstein tried out numerous different offices, each with a seemingly worse landlord than the last, until her group settled in 2010. The most interesting part of the book is the author's descriptions of her alternating admiration and horror at Italian medical practices. Collegiality is all but unknown, and there are no referrals. Office hours are optional. Doctors almost never touch their patients, but they always listen to every word. Though they write prescriptions, the pharmacist can and will substitute another drug. As for testing, if a patient feels she needs an MRI, CT scan, or other test, she can just go in to the office and request one. Levenstein also demonstrates how well universal health coverage works. Italians live some of the longest, healthiest lives of anyone on the planet, mostly due to diet, accessible care, and even distribution of wealth. The author gives many illuminating examples of patient encounters as well as encouraging accounts of alternative forms of treatment.Levenstein's devotion to the Italian practice of medicine is admirable, and she delivers a charming story well told. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Nothing quite prepared New York-raised, more or less Jewish Levenstein for the role she ultimately chose for herself, being a doctor in Italy. Taken in by the beauty of Italy and the overall ebullience of the Italian people, including her Roman engineer husband, little did she know the challenges she would have to surmount in order to practice medicine in her adopted country. It all came down to two words, Italian bureaucracy. Defending her doctoral thesis in 1979 lasted about the time it took for handshakes all around, but getting the actual diploma took until 1997. There were other issues surrounding her efforts to secure an Italian passport and residency papers, and even her middle name turned out to be a problem. When she finally was able to hang her shingle, business was less than stellar, but ever so slowly things started to improve, making all the struggles worthwhile. Sort of like childbirth, she offers. A funny and endearing but also deadly serious memoir of the Italian health care system by an astute and caring outsider.--June Sawyers Copyright 2019 Booklist

Prologue	p. xi
Preludio
1 Eternal City, Eternal Wait	p. 3
2 Wet Paint on My Shingle	p. 16
3 Seven Hills, Seven Offices	p. 30
Interlude Quo Vadis, Doc?	p. 45
Moto perpetuo ad libitum
4 Joining the Club	p. 51
5 ItalyCare	p. 64
6 In the Crunch	p. 89
7 La Dolce Lifestyle	p. 106
8 Down There	p. 124
Interlude A Baby That Wasn't	p. 141
Opera buffa ma non troppo
9 The Patient Game	p. 145
10 The Doctor Game	p. 167
11 Filthy Lucre	p. 176
12 Playing Doctor	p. 185
13 Sex in My Office	p. 192
14 Madness and Misery	p. 208
Interlude Colic in the Coliseum, Cystitis in the Sistine Chapel	p. 223
Opera seria ma non troppo
15 Doctor Susan	p. 227
16 Endings	p. 243
17 Native Misinformant	p. 251
Epilogue
A Moral, or Three	p. 263
Afterword	p. 269

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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