Shaman (1992)

a very nice read about a rather innovative doctor and family around the time of the US Civil War. I enjoyed the description of life both in the city and countryside...mystery elements in the story keeps you interested throughout and I won't be a spoiler by describing any of them.

You become involved in their life and it was a very satisfying read. ( )

I thought this was a fascinating work of historical fiction and science. This is a thoroughly researched novel, it brought alive what it was like for a young person to be growing up in the mid 19th century America. Three scenes resonated with me, and I am going to describe them, as I'd like to remember them.

In the first, Shaman (the protagonist) is attending college. He is a 15 year old deaf student - who is very interested in science and medicine. In this scene he decides that his future will be medicine:
"He watched until the stars seemed to wheel, enormous and glittering. What had formed them up there, out there? And the stars beyond? And beyond? ...
He felt that each star and planet was part of a complicated system, like a bone in a skeleton, or a drop of blood in a body. So much of nature seemed organized, thought out - so orderly, and yet so complicated. What had made it so? .... The stars were magical but all you could do is watch them. If a heavenly body went awry, you couldn't ever hope to make it well again."

The second scene that struck me is when the 25 year old Shaman learns that his father had been been working with a merchant neighbor to help run a section of the Underground Railroad. Shaman is surprised that: "The plump, balding merchant didn't look heroic or appear the kind of person who would risk everything for a principle in defiance of the law. Shaman was filled with admiration for the steely secret man who inhabited Cliburne.s soft storekeeper body." George Cliburne, is a Quaker with a philosophical bent, who persuades Shaman to attend a Quaker meeting. The Quaker principles suit Shaman, who eventually seems to adopt them as his own.

Finally, near the end of the book, Shaman is teaching a human anatomy lesson, much as his father taught him. He says:
"No matter how soiled the human body is, it's a miracle to be marveled at and treated well. When a person dies, the soul or spirit - what the Greeks called anemos - leaves it. Men have always argued about whether it dies to, or it goes elsewhere. ... the spirit leaves the body behind the way someone leaves a house he's lived in."

This is a book abut two men - father and son coming to maturity. I found it well worth reading, it made me think about lessons I might impart to my own son. ( )

Great book! If you liked this, you should also read der Medicus. It was even more fascinating. This is just a continuation of it.(in a later generation...) ( )

Loved it! ( )