St. Salacious is the nickname for St. Salonge, the Catholic mega-hospital that is the setting for this humorous but hard-hitting critique of present-day American health care. The hero of the novel is Dr. Marty Fischer, a non-practicing agnostic Jew whose Jewishness is relevant to the story only inasmuch as he works at a hospital full of Catholic symbols. In this satirical sketch of a high-end health care palace for wealthy patients, manicured grounds and parking-lot trams coexist with the Virgin Mary standing in a fountain and Jesus’s crucifixion displayed on every wall. Turker paints an accurate picture of the discomfort many Jews feel in the face of these images, demonstrating how impossible they are to ignore. Throughout the book, Marty finds himself feeling as though the icons are gaping at him.
Marty is a true hero who is indifferent to both wealth and prestige; the work itself is his reward. The book goes into great detail about every medical case that Marty takes on — explanations that are lucid and fascinating for the lay reader. He is furious about the financial politics of academic medicine and the greediness of the surgeons, all of which endanger his patients and threaten his career. Meanwhile, there are mysteries at the Catholic hospital that affect Marty directly, as a result of his paranoia and the visions that his anti-anxiety medications induce. As Marty saves people in and out of the operating room, he must confront one difficult and puzzling predicament after another.
This book feels like a fictionalized autobiography. The author is a pediatric surgeon who aims to shed light on the troubles of academic research and the staggering inequalities of private medicine. With the exception of Sister Catherine, the CEO of the hospital, the other characters are mostly props for Marty, who is perhaps too good to be true but likable nonetheless. The only shortcoming of this book is its use of dialect. Each chapter begins with a quote from Marty’s Zaydeh, who often sounds like an Italian American from Brooklyn.
Despite its serious subject matter, The Wandering Jew of St. Salacious is a light-hearted book and a fast read.
Beth Dwoskin is a retired librarian with expertise in Yiddish literature and Jewish folk music.
