Tell Me Where It Hurts

December 24, 2007
This is the perfect gift for anyone considering becoming a veterinarian. Trout, a staff surgeon at Boston's Angell Animal Medical Center, has exactly the traits that any pet owner would wish to find in a vet: he's smart, sensitive, experienced, empathic and has an excellent sense of humor. He also happens to be an excellent writer, and his personality suffuses the many stories “sifted from recollections of thousands of animal encounters” during his 25 years of practice and compressed in this account into one day. Trout shows how the daily life of a veterinarian requires the ability to be “a social worker, a psychologist, a grief counselor, mentor, carpenter, plumber, cosmetologist, athletic coach, magician, grim reaper, and occasionally, guardian angel.” And in some of the more heart rending stories, such as that of an older widowed man dealing with the potential loss of his shepherd companion, Sage, Trout shows his sensitivity to the fact that in each case, “The rewards and strength of the bonds with the animals in their lives proved irresistible, irrepressible, and more than worth the risk.”

April 28, 2008
Though he practices veterinary medicine in Boston, Trout hails from the U.K., so it's fitting that fellow Brit, Simon Vance, narrates. At a couple of points early in the recording, Vance stumbles slightly in bringing to life a few minor figures with pronounced regional American accents. He quickly regains his stride and settles on a style that conveys exact emotions appropriate to the frenetic pace of a large urban animal hospital. With Vance's smooth delivery, Trout's informative asides about the state of his often romanticized and largely misunderstood profession flow nicely into the action. The dramatic tension reaches a climax worthy of ER
or Grey's Anatomy
, and Vance's portrayal of one family soap opera featuring a lonely widower hoping for a miracle to save the life of his beloved German shepherd and the man's type-A personality daughter angrily dismissing Trout as a misguided purveyor of false hope, proves especially electrifying. Simultaneous release with the Broadway hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 24).

February 1, 2008
Modern veterinary medicine is potently explored in this noteworthy debut by a staff surgeon at the Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. The 24-hour romp Trout describes includes a riveting midnight foray into the operating room; compelling stories about individual patients (Sage, a ten-year-old German shepherd in need of emergency surgery; Woody, a geriatric Labrador diagnosed with aggressive cancer; Chunky Bear, a corpulent 40-pound cat; and Thor, a bisexual male boxer with profoundly pendulous breasts); and curious tête-à-têtes with demanding, devoted, and disgruntled pet owners. With refreshing frankness, Trout offers lucid observations on animal-human relationships ("Companion animals have moved from the periphery of the American family to its center in a love affair that has shifted the paradigm from accessory to necessity, from mere property pet to the status of an adopted child. Pet owners are now pet parents"). Trout thoughtfully considers the myriad of treatment options available for 21st-century pets, the impact of technology on the veterinary profession, and larger ethical and quality-of-life issues. Recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/1/07.]Miriam Tuliao, NYPL

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2008
Far from the rustic environs of James Herriots Yorkshire Dales comes an equally heartwarming, yet high-tech, memoir of a veterinarian. Trout is a staff surgeon at a large veterinary practice in Boston and writes with equal facility of the clinical side of animal surgery and the emotional side of the human bond with animals. Couching his stories as a 24-hour day in the life of, the author has squeezed his reminiscences into a single day to capture the pace, the rush, and the intensity of all that is new in twenty-first-century veterinary medicine. As he moves from the 2:00 a.m. emergency surgery on a dog with a twisted bowel to an outwardly male boxer with an undescended testicle and an infected uterus, or euthanizes an old Labrador retriever, Trout looks back on earlier cases, muses on such subjects as the ethics of euthanasia and the costs of modern veterinary procedures, and wonders at the different ways the love shared between owner and animal is expressed. This is an addictively readable chronicle of what it means to be a veterinarian today.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)