A review by khornstein1
The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

4.0

For book club: a bit uneven but I ended up enjoying it. The ER stories are strong, and the idea of illness as an opportunity for healing is good. Some good observations about racism in medical settings. There were some threads that started out strong and then got a bit lost: the story of her family and the abuse she suffered as a child, her childhood visit to the ER as an inspiration to become a physician, her stints at various hospitals. I'm also noting that this was written pre-Covid. Like many memoirs of younger people, we sense that there is so much more of this story to come and I would have loved an in-depth look at her work at the VA, for example. Maybe that will be volume 2! Recommended if you like hospital drama.