Summary

At the beginning of “Part Three: The Patient Examines the Doctor” Anatole Broyard admits that he is not an expert on illness because he has only been sick once in his life. He warns the reader that he knows very little about doctor-patient relationships and therefore risks romanticizing or idealizing his experience.

In the summer of 1989, after a move from Connecticut to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Broyard found that he could not urinate. Worried, he asked his friends, an academic couple whose scrutiny he trusted, for a doctor recommendation. They referred him to a doctor, who, in turn, referred him to a urologist. Waiting in the doctor’s office, Broyard took in the decor admiring the well-made shelves full of books, the tasteful oriental rug, and the panoramic view of Boston. Pictures of children hung on the wall signaling to...