Weekends at Bellevue by Julie Holland (2009, Hardcover)

When I set out to read this, I thought it would be more about Bellevue than it was. Holland is pretty whiny in this & at a lot of times she seems to be saying "I'm not a nice person but you should think I'm awesome & blameless anyway". When she does talk about her job, it's pretty superficially done. When she goes over her residency, she glazes over the entire thing- making it seem like the whole thing was effortless. She talks about how she shagged everyone she worked with in the OR (she also insinuates some of them were married), but with no consequences of her actions. Uh, HELLO- there's no way you could have that much sex at work & with co-workers & NOT get some bad stuff coming out of it such as gossip & backstabbing! (Was that because she thought that to admit that would make her appear less of a nice character?)

Then she has several coworkers, some of which she gets along with & some that she doesn't. Holland just doesn't seem to really care about her coworkers, except for superficially. One of her coworkers has a family member die & she doesn't even go over to talk to him, even though she mentions that she talked to this guy almost daily. Her mentor is hospitalized & she only visits her once & Holland glosses over this period, choosing to focus more on herself & her own feelings- as well as the fact that she can't get along with one of her other bosses. (A boss that despite having to take over the duties of the mentor, managed to visit said mentor every day.)

The story isn't bad, but it's just not what it's advertised as. This could've been any hospital in the US, with how little detail Holland gives it. She does mention the patients & whatnot, but she doesn't mention any of the interesting things about being a doctor at Bellevue. I mean come on... this is one of THE top mental hospitals in the country & she can't give us more about what it must be like to be one of the top doctors there?

Ultimately, the book is more of a "me" fest- a biography written to make Holland feel good about herself. Evidently she must have had delusions about this being made into a movie, because it's got a very "Lifetime movie of the week" feel to it at times, with so many different things being swept under the rug & the martyr scenes highlighted for best benefit. While Holland doesn't exactly make herself out to be perfect, she does try to make herself look her best & that's what ultimately makes this book mediocre.

A good biography isn't written just to make the author feel good about herself & make for a nice publicity piece. A good biography includes the author's warts & faults- after all, we all make them. At no point does Holland ever REALLY stop & go "well, I made a boo boo". Nope- it's ultimately always someone else's fault as to why they don't get along. Shucks- Holland could've kept that stuff if she'd just gone into more detail about her job & her time at Bellevue.

There's just no meat to this book & I was left ultimately disappointed. I know that there's more drama & intrigue behind the scenes at any hospital (I work at one) & I can tell that Holland left a lot out of her book. Maybe to make her look better? Who can tell? And ultimately... who really cares? I know I don't, not after reading this lukewarm biography.