Links List/Research (Question #5)

1. Vincent Lam's official website.
Includes autobiographical information about the author as well as a list of news articles that he and his book are mentioned in including book reviews. It also includes other articles written by Dr. Vincent Lam.

• Dr. Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario, and grew up in Ottawa.
• His first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Giller Prize.
• Dr. Lam's first novel, Cholon, Near Forgotten, about a Chinese compulsive gambler and headmaster of an English school in Saigon during the Vietnam War, will be published soon.

2. University of Toronto's official website.
Includes campus and program information. This is the setting of the majority of the book and all the main characters attended this university.

• The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. This would be the faculty the characters would've been enrolled in.
• This campus map would give a better idea for the setting of this book.
  
• There is an academy associated with the school called FitzGerald which is sometimes referred to as "Fitz". This makes me wonder if that is where the character Fitz' name came from.
  

3. An Interview with Vincent Lam: Published in Toronto Life.
A more personal look at Vincent Lam's life at the beginning, moving into a discussion of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, and then into an in depth view of medical politics.

• "If the book became a best-seller, would you give up practising medicine?
  No, I love practising medicine. If I have a tough day writing, it's just great to get out of the house, see some patients. Writing is very satisfying, but it's also very introspective... Maybe when I'm 85 years old I won't be practising emergency medicine, but right now, I don't foresee the end of it."
  

I thought this quote was interesting. It made Vincent Lam seem very genuine, and therefore I now assume his writing to be genuine as well and drawn almost entirely from his personal experience.


4. The City of Ottawa: Official Website
Having travelled to Ottawa myself, the locations at the beginning of the story were very familiar, but this website helped fill in a few gaps.

• A helpful map.
  

5. A Review of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.
An in-depth look (biased because it's a review) of the strengths and weaknesses within the book - but the author of the review believes that the strengths and weaknesses are the same points. It also has similar views to the points I expressed in my four journal posts.

• "Lam's characters remind us of all the things that doctors can't fix. It is a demystification of medicine. We see doctors guessing, lying, screwing up. We see death shrugged off as part of the business"
• "And yet, the same things that are the book's strengths are also its weaknesses. Sometimes, the language is too sterile to allow emotion, sometimes the characters are too flawed, too foolish, to evoke sympathy...Reading these stories is like peering through the ice at the waters beneath; there is a coldness, a distance to them, but there is also something flowing and deep below."
• "I can understand why someone might not like this book, but it is different from anything else I have read this year, and I don't think I will forget it anytime soon."

6. An Article About the Television Show Based off of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.

• The drama series, based on a book written by Vincent Lam, a Toronto-based emergency-room physician, is being developed for The Movie Network in Canada.
• “E.R. is a medical drama for conventional television; Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is a medical drama for pay television,”

I'm going to look out for it on the Movie Network.


7. The Scotiabank Giller Prize Official Website.
All the information about the prize that Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures was nominated for and won.

• The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch... The award recognized excellence in Canadian fiction – long format or short stories – and endowed a cash prize annually of $25,000.00, the largest purse for literature in the country.
• In 2005, The Giller Prize teamed up with Scotiabank to create The Scotiabank Giller Prize. It is the first ever co-sponsorship for Canada’s richest literary award for fiction. Under the new agreement, the purse will double, growing to Cdn. $50,000 with $40,000 going to the winner, and $2,500 being given to each of the four finalists.

8. A Secondary Biographical Website: Vincent Lam.
A more in-depth and unbiased look at his life.

• Dr. Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario. His family emigrated from Vietnam during the Vietnam War and he grew up in Ottawa speaking Cantonese at home. He did his medical training in Toronto, where he now lives and works as an emergency physician. He also does international air evacuation work and expedition medicine on Arctic and Antarctic ships.

When it is worded like that, it makes his book seem a lot more personal.


9. The News Article Announcing that Vincent Lam Won the Giller Prize
This article explains why the book won and gives a brief explanation of Vincent Lam's biography as well.

• The News Report associated with this article. (video)

10. Interview With Vincent Lam: Talking About Giller Prize Win.
More look into the steps he took to win the Giller Prize. 5:00 interview from CBC.

Response #4

The last part that I thought was significant (or more significant than the other chapters) was the SARS chapter.

This chapter spoke to me because it was something I could relate to - or at least remember - and gave a sense of reality to me as I read it. It was also another instance that reminded us that the doctors were human, which was of course apparent throughout the book but it seemed most obvious for me here when both Dr. Chen and Dr. Fitzgerald became sick with SARS.

It was also in this chapter that we are brought back to the beginning of the book. We are reminded of Fitz and Ming's relationship and shocked as a reader when Chen and Fitz talk to each other regularly from their hospital beds. Fitz is still resentful for his loss of Ming but he puts that aside for some good company and learns a lot about Chen in the process.

Also in this chapter, Fitz' alcoholism is addressed - another reminder that he is perfectly human. Not only is Fitz affected by SARS but he possesses a simple human weakness/addiction that can be apart of anyone's life. Chen also draws attention to the reader the fact that this book is all based on perspective and each chapter has it's own bias relating to the narrator. When I read chapters narrated by Fitz he spoke about his alcoholism being under control and how he rarely drank and when he did it was in moderation. Over the course of his chapters, I as the reader, noticed that it was a more frequent occurance and began to happen on the job - but never once did I really think of it as an issue until this chapter. Chen also says:
"...the night when Fitz arrived for a shift with the sweet smell on his breath, his speech
slurred, and was asked to leave and stop seeing patients, it didn't make a difference
whether people knew he was withdrawing" (p.288)
It is only one line in the book, but it is enough to show us that Fitz' problem is a lot worse than he seems to think it is.

Also within this chapter (as I mentioned above) we see Chen and Fitz truly bond which reflects a lot on Chen's personality which was pretty skewed due to Fitz' hatred for him. They talk like old friends as opposed to old enemies, and when Fitz collapses and nearly dies, Chen breaks through the glass wall separating their rooms to save him.
"Fitz said, 'You think we'll die?'
'Maybe.' the laughter continued.
'Me, more likely. I'm on a hundred percent'" (p.296)
This is the kind of conversation that you'd share only with the closest of companions as it demonstrates weakness which is something no-one would want their enemies to witness.

Response #3

After writing a brilliant response, my computer crashed so let's try this again and see if it's better or worse the second time around.

Again, choosing a "significant" point to pause and write about proved to be difficult. I chose the Janice chapter because it stood out for me.

Janice is not only left to deal with giving birth, but during this she is thrown a lot of challenging situations to deal with on top of it. Her husband is out of town (and having a lot of trouble making it back home), she is having a very slow and painful labour and to top it all off she is at high risk of fetal mortality and then has a caesarian section without the proper anesthetic.

I think that this chapter caught my eye because it breaks with the rest of the book in the way it is approached. The style seems to read as more of a soap opera than the rest of the stories do. The characters seem almost two dimensional and less personal whereas in the other chapters we see further into the lives of all characters - primary, secondary and sometimes even tertiary. In this instance we see the characters like so:

• Janice is very intricately described as she is the narrator.
• Dr. Ming (who we now know is an obstetrician) seems sweeter than normal. She candy-coats the situation and doesn't give straight answers. However, she acts with the same sort of initiative as she always has in previous chapters.
• Janice's husband seems distant and uncaring. He is never explained in depth but what we do learn of him makes the reader want to slap him.
• The nurses are merely there. They do their job with little to no conversation whereas in the other chapters nurses are always described and/or conversed with.

Also, the way that this chapter is written is mostly internal and almost completely narrated by Janice's thoughts more than her actions. It flips between her reality and her dreams (focusing on beach scenes and relaxtion) which gives contrast between her sleeping peace and waking turmoil.

Response #2

sig·nif·i·cant
–adjective
Signifying something; carrying meaning; Having a covert or hidden meaning; Having a noticeable or major effect; notable;

Finding "significant" points to comment on for my novel has proven to be a most challenging task.

For my second significant point I chose Dr. Sri's interactions with Winston. I'm not exactly sure why I chose it either, possibly because part of being significant is "having a noticeable or major effect" and this chapter had the largest effect on me.

Winston is a psychologically troubled man dealing with the intense emotions of being in love. He sees things as they aren't, he neglects treatment and eventually he ends up hurting himself. Winston also demonstrated the strength of Dr. Sri's character as well as gave us a glimpse into his life.

When Dr. Miniadis (the supervisor) says,
"Tell me, Dr. Sri, if you woke up one day and saw a purple bird in your room, what would
you think?" (p.152)
and Dr. Sri acknowledges that this notion is crazy because there are no purple birds native to Toronto yet as he treats Winston he believes that - just for a moment - he had caught a glimpse of a purple bird flying past a window... this moment really stuck with me throughout the book.

It reminded me that the Dr. himself isn't inbincible and that doctors are truly the same as the people they treat. It reflected Sri's character and his open mind. It sparked questions within my mind: why did he see the bird? will this be concluded later? what is the significance of Winston's madness? is what he saw real?
However, with Vincent Lam's writing style none of my questions were ever answered and I am sitting here typing this and still wondering.

Winston was another character that really stood out to me. In his insane ramblings he asked questions that made you think and sometimes made you laugh.
"Naturally, it concerns me, as it would concern anyone, that someone watched my
urination" (p.135)
It is that kind of question that not only makes you re-examine past memories and points out certain things that could be true, but at the same time it adds some comic relief to the story.

Winston's unique situation also stuck with me for the duration of the novel, just as the purple bird did. I wish Vincent Lam had provided me with some closure on both of the issues.

Response #1

Because Vincent Lam broke Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures into twelve chapters - each with it's own characters and purpose, it was difficult to narrow it down to four significant points - or even find one for that matter.

As Dr. Fitzgerald seems to be the most important character throughout this book, and his relationship with Ming is one of the few things that is mentioned throughout the book, I considered Dr. Ming and Dr. Fitz' break-up to be fairly significant.

When the two of them break up we lose focus of the theme of the book. We are reminded that they are both people and not just doctors. It is also through this that we see character information emerge. The one gentle Ming has a sour attitude towards Fitz and ends up doing everything in her power to block him out of her life. She won't answer his calls, open his letters and eventually she changes her phone number.

Fitz on the other hand is literally crazy in love with Ming. He continually calls despite getting no answer. He writes to her non-stop, even when he gets no reply. When he is in Toronto for his university interview even after being ignored for so long he still shows up at her apartment and upon discovering she is not home, he breaks in to wait for her.

This part in the novel is also one of many conflicts. At this point, as the reader, you have only really been introduced to these two characters and the story has only been narrated through their perspective. This makes this conflict very important as it triggers the split in narrative and pulls focus to two different lives as opposed to two entwined ones. Once the character of Chen is introduced through conversation between Ming and Fitz, he gets to narrate the next chapter - sending the book in a whole new direction and pushing focus from the love of two doctors to the independent stories of other doctors and patients.

Preliminary Brainstorming

Events that may be significant later on:

• Fitz' ride with Karl in the elevator.
• Fitz' growing alcoholism
• Ming and Chen's relationship (and future marriage)