A FORTUNATE MAN

The subtitle "The Story of a Country Doctor" is somewhat misleading: portrait would perhaps be a better word, particularly with the sixty photographs by Mr. Mohr which catch a mood—a moment. So does the text, proceeding from the immediate (British Dr. Sassall's surgery, his calls, in a culturally disadvantaged rural area) to tangential speculations on the role and the image of the doctor, on death "the condition of life," on suffering and its regressive relationship to time, etc. The fortunate man "pursuing what he wishes to pursue," in Dr. Sassall's case his own ideal of responsibility, is submitted to a rather subjective work-up by his biographer along with some of the subtler abstractions of his calling....A special book, with special sponsorship of the publisher.