In the crowded world of medical memoirs, some stories simply recount a career. Others, however, transcend the genre, becoming timeless testaments to the endurance of the human spirit. Dr. Michael M. Meguid’s epic series, A Surgeon’s Tale, firmly belongs in the latter category, and its fourth volume, Great Joys, Great Sorrows, is its beating, emotional heart. 
This isn’t just a book about medicine; it’s a profound story of survival.
For new readers, the series chronicles the incredible journey of a young man from a traumatic, multicultural childhood to the pinnacle of the surgical world at Harvard. But Great Joys, Great Sorrows plunges the reader into the crucible itself: the grueling, soul-crushing reality of a 1970s surgical residency. This is where the story of survival becomes most palpable.
The book’s opening pages lay out the stark reality with the “1970s Surgical Residents’ Survival Guide,” a list of grimly humorous aphorisms that includes “Eat when you can,” “Sleep when you can,” and the telling rule, “Residents can be replaced. Nurses cannot.” This isn’t just a historical document; it’s the framework for a life lived on the edge, where 110-hour workweeks were the norm and burnout was a constant, looming threat.
The central theme that makes this historical medical biography so compelling is the concept of the “wounded healer.” Dr. Meguid isn’t just a doctor learning his craft; he’s a man grappling with the ghosts of his past—maternal abandonment, cultural displacement, and the search for a father figure he finds in his formidable mentors. His struggle to master the scalpel is a mirror of his struggle to heal himself.