Monday Mornings

February 27, 2012
In his fiction debut, Dr. Guptaâa practicing neurosurgeon and Chief Medical Correspondent at CNNâtransports readers into an exclusive cadre of Chelsea General surgeons linked by the dreaded and revered Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conferences on the titular Monday morningsâthe meetings at which doctors are held accountable for mistakes or deaths in the operating room. Each of the lavishly described (though emotionally flat) main characters is a caricature of a surgeon: for the overly-dedicated Sydney Saxena, life is career, pager, exercise. Tina Ridgewayâthe gorgeous, married brainiacâand heartthrob Ty Wilson, the first to endure an M&M, satisfy the requisite hospital drama illicit romance; meticulous Sung Park wants to see Ty "publicly crucified;" and XXXL-scrubbed George "Gato Grande" Villanueva is the brilliant, brash, ER chief and former NFL player around which much of the novel revolves. Despite these potentially intriguing character sketches and plot points, Gupta (Cheating Death) attempts to weave too many threads and is thus unable to sufficiently develop his doctors or a compelling story line. Though the book reads quickly, medical jargon will alternately intrigue and frustrate a general audience, and readers will be left wondering whether Gupta should be the subject of his own M&M.