WithDr. M tter's Marvels, author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz gives us both a front-row seat to the good, the bad, and the grotesque of the evolution of American medicine and a riveting biography of a man so flamboyant, in life and in the operating theatre, that he would be crowned the ' P.T. Barnum of the surgery room.'
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is an award-winning writer of Words in Your Face- A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam and popular touring poet and spoken-word performer. She lives in Austin, Texas.
“[Aptowicz’s] poetic eye is exactly what makes Dr. Mütter’s Marvels
a marvel itself. . . . With clinical precision, Aptowicz lays bare
the facts of Mütter’s colorful, tumultuous life. . . . For a book
so immersed in the intimate perspective of its subject, it also
brings a broad perspective about everything from the development of
modern medicine to women’s issues of the nineteenth century, not to
mention how norms of beauty and the definitions of monstrosity have
inspired and held us back over the centuries. With Dr. Mütter’s
Marvels, Aptowicz keeps a steady hand on her historical scalpel,
even as she wields it with a winning flourish.”
—NPR Books
“Ms. Aptowicz rescues Mütter the man from undeserved obscurity,
recreating his short life and hard times with wit, energy, and
gusto. Her book, like the Mütter Museum, is a reminder that the
course of human suffering and the progress of medical science are
often messy, complex, and stranger than can be imagined.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“As a huge fan of the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, I was excited
to get my hands on this rich biography of the real doctor, Thomas
Mütter, a nineteenth-century surgeon who treated people with
misunderstood conditions and amassed a fascinating collection of
medical oddities.”
—USA Today
“Austin-based poet and writer Aptowicz, a woman whose various
awards and publications attest to her formidable skill and style
when dealing with an impressive diversity of subjects . . .
provide[s] such a thorough and compelling account of Mütter’s life
and times, his medical innovations and personal fortitude, his
enduring legacy, as is to be found between the well-designed covers
of this new book.”
—The Austin Chronicle
“Aptowicz does an excellent job of establishing the context of the
times and competing personalities. . . . As Aptowicz clearly
shows, [Mütter’s] legacy lives on in many aspects of medicine we
now take for granted.”
—The Seattle Times
“Aptowicz has a keen eye for the era’s grotesque details
(amputation accidents, for one thing) and an obvious sympathy for
Mütter’s passion and legacy.”
—The Boston Globe
“Aptowicz shows Mütter, beloved by his students, evolving from a
mischievous, impatient young doctor to an increasingly spiritual
man beset by premature illness, and her writing is as full of life
as her subject.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Dr. Mütter’s Marvels is both an insightful portrait of a
pioneering surgeon and a reminder of how far medicine has
come.”
—BookPage
“Dr. Mütter’s Marvels is narrative nonfiction at its best. . . .
Aptowicz is refreshingly careful with her language, keeping the
narrative speculation to a minimum, painting most of her scenery
with the weight of her research. She revels in the details, but
largely lets the reader draw their own conclusions. The result is
an approachable history of a man and of a time period that does
exactly what narrative nonfiction should do: answers the questions
the reader never realized they had.”
—A.V. Club
“In her deftly crafted narrative, the author provides an absorbing
account of the charismatic surgeon’s life and career as well as a
vivid look at the medical practices and prejudices of his time.
Aptowicz draws nicely on Mütter’s speeches and lectures to reveal
the depth of his empathetic philosophies and humanist
approach.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Aptowicz penned a fast-moving and popular history of the early- to
mid-nineteenth-century American and Parisian medical worlds, making
the most of works by and about Mütter’s contemporaries.”
—Library Journal (Starred Review)
“Aptowicz pens a fascinating and muscular biography of Dr. Thomas
Dent Mütter, splendidly re-creating the doctor’s medical
advancements, the age in which he worked, and the conditions and
practices he sought to change.”
—Library Journal, Wyatt’s World
“Aptowicz approaches her subject with passion and finesse, so that
the book reads more like fiction than nonfiction, ensuring that it
will appeal to a wide audience.”
—Publishers Weekly, Galley Talk
“Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s ‘true tale of intrigue and innovation
at the dawn of modern medicine’ is such a captivating, gripping,
and intensely interesting historical tale that even the reader who
has mere casual interest in the subject will find themselves
devouring Aptowicz’s text in a matter of days, if not hours.”
—Fanboy Comics
“Ms. Aptowicz rescues Mütter the man from undeserved obscurity,
recreating his short life and hard times with wit, energy, and
gusto. Her book, like the Mütter Museum, is a reminder that the
course of human suffering and the progress of medical science are
often messy, complex, and stranger than can be imagined.”
—Dr. John J. Ross, author of Shakespeare’s Tremor and Orwell’s
Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Groans and Last Gasps of Ten Great
Writers
“An extraordinary, moving, and humbling story about a remarkable
and compassionate surgeon who changed the face of medicine forever.
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz immerses us in the strange world of Dr.
Thomas Mütter and unfolds the tale of his pioneering approach to
surgery with verve, wit, and sensitivity. We are all of us the
richer for Dr. Mütter’s visionary work and the legacy he left us in
the shape of one of the world’s most beguiling museums.”
—Wendy Moore, author of The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and
the Birth of Modern Surgery
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