Book Review: A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor

Book Description:

Patrick Taylor’s devoted readers know Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly as a pugnacious general practitioner in the quaint Irish village of Ballybucklebo. Now Taylor turns back the clock to give us a portrait of the young Fingal—and show us the pivotal events that shaped the man he would become.

In the 1930s, fresh from a stint in the Royal Navy Reserve, and against the wishes of his disapproving father, Fingal O’Reilly goes to Dublin to study medicine. Fingal and his fellow aspiring doctors face the arduous demands of Trinity College and Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital. The hours are long and the cases challenging, but Fingal manages to find time to box and play rugby—and to romance a fetching, gray-eyed nurse named Kitty O’Hallorhan.

Dublin is a city of slums and tenements, where brutal poverty breeds diseases that the limited medical knowledge of the time is often ill-equipped to handle. His teachers warn Fingal not to become too attached to his patients, but can he truly harden himself to the suffering he sees all around him—or can he find a way to care for his patients without breaking his heart?

A Dublin Student Doctor is a moving, deeply human story that will touch longtime fans as well as readers who are meeting Doctor Fingal O’Reilly for the very first time.

My thoughts:
A Dublin Student Doctor: An Irish Country Novel (Irish Country Books) by Patrick Taylor is the sixth book in the Irish Country Novels. The book starts out in Dr. Fingal O'Reilly's present life as he admits Donal Donnelly into the hospital with a head wound. This brings back many memories about his student days in Dublin and also his journey into becoming a doctor. His reminiscing and the present day go back and forth for a few chapters before the story focuses on his student days.

I enjoyed reading about his student days and meeting his friends and family. There was more language in this book due to his realistic description of Dublin during the 30's. It was also interesting to see how different the medical profession was then versus now. As the book ends and comes back to the present time, I realized how much I missed the little town of Buckballybo, where Dr. O'Reilly practices, and all the interesting characters that have made An Irish Country Doctor, An Irish Country Village, An Irish Country Christmas , An Irish Country Courtship such wonderful reads.

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