Charles Henderson

Research - ALHE 4060

Summer 2008

Review of “Doctor, Is My End in Sight?”

                This was an interesting read, not your typical novel by any stretch of the imagination but definitely out of the ordinary.  I view this book as Dr. Vance’s personal journal (if I think of it that way it seems to read more fluidly). While reading this book there were certain situations that were brought to the forefront of my mind from the time I spent growing up with my grandmother (and relatives on my dad’s side of the family).  Goozle was a word that to me seemed normal. I have heard this word used by my grandmother for many years and when I read it in this book for the first time I instantly knew what it meant. While reading about “Dunlop’s disease”, I was reminded of an old joke that my uncle told over and over and over… In his telling I knew this to be “Dunlap’s” disease but the same “punch line” none the less.  The “green apple quickstep” was used in my high school as the green apple “splatters”.  “I ain’t fitten fer nothin’” seems to be common with my great aunts to this day, and the answer to “how are you feeling?” I ain’t is right up there with my dad responding to his doctor’s question; how do you feel, his reply; with my fingers.

I think that for Dr. Vance to have been able to write/remember all of these shows that he did listen to his patients, something that seems to be harder to do in today’s time.  One observation that I would tell Dr. Vance’s family is that Dr. Vance’s book stands to be a record of a time/dialogue on the verge of extinction. I would imagine that this language is common in certain areas but I cannot imagine that it is as common today as it was 10-20-30 years ago.