Book #50: On Having a Heart Attack

Title: On Having a Heart Attack: A Medical Memoir


Author: William O'Rourke


Eddie brought this book along on our vacation to Utah, and when I finally finished with The World is Flat I picked it up. It's a short read, only about 120 pages, and O'Rourke describes in great detail his 1991 heart attack, his ensuing heart procedures and recovery, and his medical history since that time. Many heart attack sufferers really liked the book because it's one of the only examples of a heart attack being described in great detail. However, Eddie thought that a lot of the information was outdated (his MI took place 15 years ago and there have been a lot of improvements since then in cardiac care) and we both thought that his bias against the medical profession really colored his writing in some places.


I do think it's ironic that O'Rourke worked for 30 or so years to make it big as a novelist (a fact he laments several times in the novel) and finally made it to the Amazon besteller list with a book about his heart attack.


--originally published 8/11/06