Gritty Novel Reveals Ruthless World of Academic Medicine

UNM School of Medicine Faculty James Fleming discusses and signs his new novel Tengo Sed (UNM Press, $16.95).

Against the backdrop of a trauma-surgical ICU, James Fleming recounts a day in the life of a hapless, chain-smoking, middle-aged intern in emergency medicine who refers to himself as Hovercraft because of his tendency to hover around the other doctors and on the periphery of the work in the ER. Philosophical with a tendency toward mysticism, Hovercraft is doing his best to navigate the treacherous terrain of medical education and practice with an increasing sense of dread that his career may be doomed.  Through his sleep-deprived eyes readers catch intimate glimpses of patients and their families, doctors, and nurses, and share Hovercraft's own nightmarish perceptions of a world in which things are not going right. 

Tengo Sed presents a series of inter-related narratives populated with colorful characters that reveal the complex, gritty reality of academic medicine.  The novel's Spanish title reflects the Hispanic community in which it takes place and echoes the words of one dying man: "I'm thirsty." Tengo Sed is part of the Literature and Medicine series from the University of New Mexico Press.

"The story is remarkably raw and honest, full of mystery instead of certainty, failure instead of success, and humanity instead of science." -Frank Huyler, author of Right of Thirst

"A brutal and beautiful book.  I read it straight through in one sitting, totally absorbed, deeply touched and frightened at the same time.  The writing is taut, edgy, and original with not a wasted word...James Fleming has written a small, tough masterpiece." -John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War

James Fleming is assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and an attending physician in the Emergency Department of the Veterans Administration hospital in Albuquerque.