House of Prayer No. 2

House of prayer no. 2: a writer's journey home/Mark Richard 205 pgs.

This is Mark Richard's story...sort of. Not really a biography but a series of events from his life. He spent a lot of time in the hospital for "cripple children" due to hip problems that doctors attempted to fix with a series of operations and full body casts. At one point they put "nails" in to hold things together. Years later when the nails were working their way out and becoming apparent through his skin, a doctor decided to remove them with local anesthesia only. The description of that operation was absolutely amazing. Of course nothing went as easily as originally thought and the sounds of the doctor wrestling with the nails and trying to pull them out of his bones sounded a lot like removing nails from old wood. Everyone in the room was a bit grossed out but his description is just so straight forward...of course I can't find the line right now to quote it here. Anyway, an interesting and enjoyable book.