[.ca] A Country Doctor's Notebook (ISBN 1860461654)

Emotional and moving:
These are the true stories of Mikhail Bulgakov, author of the Master and Margarita from the two years he spent as a medical intern in rural Russia. He vividly describes the loneliness and hardships of life in rural Russia, as well as resistence of the peasants to modern medical knowledge. He shows his inexperience, rudeness, and medical mistakes even more graphically, making one cringe for those under his knife or care. The best story, Morphine, recounts a descent into morphine addiction by the addict himself. This is emotional and moving, attributes that are missing from the tales Bulgakov tells himself. He seems to be fixated on his own suffering and his own value as a doctor and a human and doesn't show much sympathy for his patients or his fellow rural residents.