- An excerpt from “The Beauty in Breaking,” by Michele Harper. My father is hitting my mother. He’s fighting with my brother.
- The Beauty in Breaking Excerpt. The following excerpt was taken from the book, The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper, available July 2020. Harper: The View from Here. It wasn’t at all how I had pictured graduation from my emergency medicine residency at Mercy Hospital in the South Bronx would be, but it certainly was a blistering end.
- Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing.
The Beauty in Breaking
Genre: Memoir
Free download or read online The Beauty in Breaking pdf (ePUB) book. The first edition of the novel was published in July 7th 2020, and was written by Michele Harper. The book was published in multiple languages including English, consists of 304 pages and is available in Hardcover format. The main characters of this autobiography, memoir story are,. The book has been awarded with Goodreads. The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper's journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky: How to tell the truth when it's simpler to overlook it.
- Annotated by:
- Glass, Guy
Dr Michele Harper The Beauty In Breaking
- Date of entry: Sep-15-2020
- Last revised: Sep-18-2020
Summary
The Beauty in Breaking is the memoir of an African American physician who, in her own words, has “been broken many times” (p. xiii).
Despite maintaining a veneer of affluence, the author, her mother and siblings live in constant fear of being battered by her father. Following one particularly vicious attack, she accompanies her injured brother to the local emergency room. That day she serendipitously discovers her calling: “As my brother and I left the ER, I marveled at the place, one of bright lights and dark hallways, a place so quiet and yet so throbbing with life. I marveled at how a little girl could be carried in cut and crying and then skip out laughing” (p. 18).
Much later, the author (Michele Harper) undergoes a shattering breakup and divorce. She endures disappointments at work, some of which, regrettably, can only be explained by the color of her skin.
As she picks herself up time and time again, Harper discovers her inner resilience: “The previously broken object is considered more beautiful for its imperfections” (p. xiii). She learns from the experience of her own suffering to develop compassion in her clinical work. The bulk of the Beauty in Breaking is devoted to case studies of the author’s clinical encounters with patients in the emergency room.
Commentary
Michele Harper Bio
Many of Harper’s observations will resonate with other clinicians. We have all had to treat someone whose views or behaviors are unpleasant, even reprehensible. In “Erik: Violent Behavior Alert” the author grapples with her feelings upon being presented with a patient who has assaulted another female physician in a previous visit. At first, she acts out by delaying the inevitable: “Yes, this patient would wait. He would wait while I pushed my chair back, stood up, walked to the break room, poured myself a cup of coffee, went to the restroom, and finished some notes” (p. 79). When she discovers the patient is in bad shape, she has an entirely different perspective. This is a wonderful teaching moment.
Most valuably, we learn in The Beauty in Breaking about what it is like to be an African American doctor. In “Dominic: Body of Evidence,” Harper recounts the story of how she refused to examine a patient against his will. A resident questions her authority in a manner that communicates “one of the ubiquitous microaggressions faced by people of color” (p. 104). The resident then proceeds to go over Harper’s head in a demeaning manner she might not have dared with a white physician. Harper is reminded of a meeting with her department chairman: “You didn’t get the position… You’re qualified. I just can’t ever seem to get a black person or woman promoted here. That’s why they always leave! I’m so sorry, Michele” (p. 109). The prejudices inherent in the medical profession have rarely been illustrated with as much candor as they are here.
The Beauty In Breaking Amazon
This is a sensitive book which approaches such painful topics as domestic violence and racism, and which gets to the heart of what it means to be a healer.
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The Beauty In Breaking Michele Harper
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