Life on the Ground Floor, Dr. James Maskalyk
Life on the Ground Floor, Dr. James Maskalyk
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Life on the Ground Floor
Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine

Author: Dr. James Maskalyk

Narrator: Dr. James Maskalyk

Unabridged: 5 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/10/2018

Synopsis

*Canada Reads 2019 Longlist
*Winner of the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

Do no harm is our most important rule, but we break it all the time trying to do good.
 
In this deeply personal book, winner of the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, humanitarian doctor and activist James Maskalyk reflects upon his extensive experience in emergency medicine. Splitting his time between a trauma centre in Toronto's inner city and the largest teaching hospital in Addis Ababa, he discovers that though the cultures, resources and medical challenges of the hospitals may differ, they are linked indelibly by the ground floor: the location of their emergency rooms. Here, on the ground floor, is where Maskalyk confronts his fears and doubts about medicine, and witnesses our mourning and laughter, tragedies and hopes, the frailty of being and the resilience of the human spirit.
     Yet, he is swept most intimately into this story of "human aliveness" not as a physician, but as a grandson carrying for his grandfather, now in his nineties.
     Masterfully written and artfully structured, Life on the Ground Floor is more than just an emergency doctor's memoir—it's a meditation on health and sickness, on when to hang on tight, and when to let go.

About The Author

Dr. James Maskalyk, bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Six Months in Sudan, is an emergency-room physician, award-winning teacher and member of Médecins Sans Frontières. He teaches meditation with the Consciousness Explorers Club and currently divides his time between Toronto and Addis Ababa.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Krista on January 07, 2018

I sit behind the nursing station, stomach rumbling, humbled, watching white coats flash behind curtains. It's tough to say I'm proud of these people, as I have had nothing to do with making them. Still, daily, I feel something akin to that when I watch these doctors navigate a floor full of sick......more

Goodreads review by Hailey on August 31, 2018

As an ER nurse who has worked in the busiest ER in western Canada... I appreciated this book so much. To read things that I have thought, to take in another perspective of emergency medicine in another country... anyone who plans to seek out care in the ER should read this book. It’s well worth it.......more

Goodreads review by Judy on January 15, 2022

In this deeply personal and insightful memoir, Dr Maskalyk penned his experiences of working as a physician in the Emergency Department at both St Michael’s hospital in Toronto and Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From life to death, laughter to tears, both the frailty of life and the r......more

Goodreads review by Jo-anne on June 24, 2019

This book is difficult to label...it's an autobiography, an exploration of emergency medicine, a look at the issues surrounding foreign aid...but most of all it's an eloquent journey through the alphabet. Absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in medicine today, philosophy, and the meaning of......more

Goodreads review by Mateo on October 02, 2017

Excellently written memoir of a physician who toes the line between caretaker, educator, and a struggling being. Maskalyk's sharp, and subtle, yet direct prose has a way illuminating some of the bleakest moments anyone in the care professions can experience. Whether your work takes you through the w......more

Quotes

National Bestseller
Winner of the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Shortlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize
Shortlisted for the 2018 Trillium Book Award
Shortlisted for the 2018 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
Longlisted for the 2018 B.C. National Award for Canadian Nonfiction
Finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Awards
Canada Reads 2019 Longlist
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2017
A National Post Best Book of 2017
A CBC Best Book of 2017
A Chatelaine Best Book of 2017

"The problem with memoirs, especially when they are written by Western doctors heading off to Africa for work, is they can be self-indulgent and messianic in tone. Dr. James Maskalyk deftly avoids that trap in his highly acclaimed first book, Six Months in Sudan . . . [and] he's done so again in his new memoir, Life on the Ground Floor. . . . [His] idealism and passion are obvious .  . . but the strength of the book is that it captures the viscera, real and symbolic, of the ER—its sights, sounds, smells, pulse—without romanticizing the work. . . . Ultimately, that's what the book is about—making connections, across continents, culture and social classes, and clinging to the joyful moments that can be found amid the horror." —The Globe and Mail

"A master of the medical memoir . . . Dr. James Maskalyk has a remarkable talent for description and detail. . . . [He] is entrancingly interesting . . . and his talent is offering serial nuggets of insight into things we rarely consider. . . . What makes Maskalyk so readable? He is a noticer of small things, a person on whom nothing is lost." —Toronto Star

"Maskalyk delivers a vivid and compelling sense of the emotional urgency in the ER—which is the same no matter the continent—for patients, the people who love them and the people who are trying to keep them alive." —Chatelaine

"With his moving and penetrating account of his experiences as an emergency room doctor in hospitals from Toronto to Ethiopia, Maskalyk joined a centuries-old tradition of doctors who write well." —Maclean's 

"A raw, authentic and deeply humanitarian memoir of life as an emergency physician, written with eloquence and wisdom." —Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum

"Another beautiful, tender and moving portrait of humanity from one of Canada's finest new, non-fiction writers. Life on the Ground Floor perfectly captures the human spirit in all of its complexities, weaving a powerful narrative that is at once gripping, evocative and tinged with humour. In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuscinski, Katherine Boo and Wilfred Thesiger, Maskalyk has a rare sense of people and place, bringing readers along on an extraordinary journey." —Samantha Nutt, author of Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies & Aid

"Maskalyk offers penetrating, honest and deeply personal insight into modern-day medical practice with all of its paradoxes, ambiguities and uncertainties. Life on the Ground Floor is yet another superb book from one of Canada's best writers, Maskalyk at his shining best." —James Orbinski, author of An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-First Century

Praise for Six Months in Sudan:
 • "This journey is beautifully told in sharp beats and lyrical notes. It is the voyage of a young doctor in a hard world and deep within his own heart." --Dr. Vincent Lam, award-winning author of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
 • "Gripping and humane. . . . [A] brave and intelligent memoir." --Daily Mail (UK)
 • "Austere as the Sudanese landscape, plangent as a ballad, this book has poetry in it along with pain." --The Washington Post
 • "This is a rare memoir . . . with genuinely brilliant writing. I'm sure Maskalyk is a fine doctor, but he's an even better writer." --The Vancouver Sun

Awards

  • British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
  • Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
  • Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize
  • RBC Taylor Prize
  • Toronto Book Award
  • Trillium Book Award
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