“The Pitt” season 2 recently wrapped and I already miss the characters and the unfolding drama. If you also miss the high stakes, mission-driven ER environment of The Pitt, as well as the interpersonal dynamics between the cast members, here are some books to read while we wait for another season:
The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town by Brian Alexander
The Pitt highlighted the ways in which economic disparity, debt, and insurance shape access to care, its costs, and outcomes. Alexander also shows how the ER is a great equalizer where anyone from any walk of life may wind up in times of need. In Bryan, Ohio, a town of 8,500, we see how the community and care workers collide in the years 2018 through 2020 in a town still wracked by economic downturns as the pandemic unfolded. Library Journal said that this “expertly reported account” truly “puts a human face on broader issues of social inequality.”
You might be tired of hearing about the pandemic, but many have remarked that The Pitt dramatizes in one day what likely happens within weeks or months in one ER. The pandemic, though, was a time of high volume and high need, so it captures the breakneck pace of the Pitt well.
The Helpers: Profiles From the Front Lines of the Pandemic by Kathy Gilsinan
The pandemic reminded us that nurses and doctors are essential workers, and their frontline view of the pandemic as it unfolded remains pivotal to understanding community health crisis. Through interviews with people on the frontlines, from nurses to community food service providers to a funeral director, this book shows what happens when people step up to help in times of need.
In The Pitt we only see the paramedics in passing, but they play a crucial role in emergency services. In Riding the Lightning: A Year in the Life of a New York City Paramedic by Anthony Almojera the perspective of a paramedic in a busy metro area takes center stage. Almojera, a 17-year veteran of New York Fire Department, saw the pandemic unfold day in and day out in his city. He chronicled the traumatic events, and their toll on the city and the frontline workers, with gritty immediacy. You can also read his New York Times op-ed on the mental health crisis. Also try The Sky Was Falling: A Young Surgeon’s Story of Bravery, Survival, and Hope by Cornelia Griggs and Every Minute is a Day: A Doctor, an Emergency Room, and a City Under Siege by Robert Meyer.
If you appreciated learning in season 1 about how Black community members started the Emergency Medicine system, try Kevin Hazzard’s American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics. Peter Safar met police and doctor opposition in Pittsburgh for an ambulance service until Freedom House in 1967 took it on. Freedom House was a non-profit founded to support Black businesses that received a federal grant that enabled it to train and deploy emergency services. Forty-four Black men signed up to be the first to respond to this community need. This chapter of history deserves more shine beyond its mention in a television episode.
Homelessness was also a major theme in The Pitt. Tracy Kidder’s Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People introduces Dr. Jim O’Connell, a man who along with a stellar team of nurses has served the homeless and insecurely housed in Boston for more than 35 years. You learn about Dr. Jim’s journey as well as the stories of the people he meets on the street—some of whom he gets to know over decades of his career. It’s a sobering and inspiring look at the issues of homelessness in our country and the very real people at the heart of it.
What about fiction in hospital settings? For a more romance and interpersonal dynamics based story, try On Rotation by Shirleen Obuobi. Angie Appiah is a third-year Ghanian American medical student in Chicago whose personal life is a little messy as she pursues her medical career. Angie navigates the pressures her parents place on her as a first gen American and the high expectations of the medical profession, while falling for an artist who may just rock her world.
Joseph Earl Thomas’ God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer is narrated by a Black man working in a Philadelphia hospital trauma center. The main character is also named Joseph Thomas and he ruminates on his army days and his MD/PhD studies at the University of Pennsylvania while on rotation. Told in a bold and fluid style, this inventive novel touches on many of the themes of race, class, and social inequality explored in The Pitt.
The Hospital at the End of the World by Justin C. Key is a science fiction debut about a world ravaged by climate change and controlled by the Shepherd Organization, a company embedding AI into all daily life. Pok is eager to follow his father’s footsteps in the medical field, but when his acceptances fall through and a nefarious plot against him and his father unfolds, he flees to the anti-AI stronghold of New Orleans. This is a thrilling futuristic tale about technology and the future of humanity.
For more readalikes for The Pitt, check out NoveList and try these links, too:
7 Books for Fans of Medical Drama ‘The Pitt’ (Exclusive)
~Posted by Misha S.