Part 1, Medical Days: Chapters 1-9 Summary and Analysis

In chapter one, Michael Crichton starts out by talking about his days at Harvard Medical School. The first tale Crichton tells is about dissecting the skull of a cadaver. It was a difficult job and not one Crichton was eager to perform.

Crichton says that he never really set out to be a doctor. Crichton grew up in a suburb of New York City. Crichton's father was a journalist. There were no doctors in the family and Crichton had initially gone to college to study English, hoping to become a writer. Crichton was constantly being tested by his father, who was a stickler for proper grammar and word usage.

Crichton did not have a good college experience. Crichton started out as a student in Harvard's English Department, which turned out to be too...