The Care of Strangers

September 28, 2020
Physician Michaelson’s subtle, touching debut tracks the daily life of an orderly at a rundown Brooklyn hospital in the 1980s. Sima, who emigrated from Poland as a child with her mother because of the pervasive anti-Semitism there, has been working at the hospital for four years and, as a white woman, feels like an outsider among the nurses and aides from the West Indies. Sima takes college courses in premed, but her fears that her mother won’t support her plans makes her put off completing her requirements. Slowly, Sima strikes up a friendship with intern Mindy Kahn, a psych rotator trying to learn the ropes. It takes Mindy longer than Sima to see how much the two have in common, as fellow Jewish women struggling with self-determination, but gradually they form a bond. Mindy, whose professional life is often a mess, tends to be more engaging than Sima, but Sima’s smaller battles also gain narrative traction. Meanwhile, brief chapters introduce the struggles of a number of repeat patients at the hospital and a formidable, resourceful nurse. While the plot is more episodic than propulsive, the novel has heart. It’s a slight but affecting glimpse into the evolution of friendship between women facing difficult odds.

October 15, 2020
In her first novel, Michaelson's protagonist, Sima, an orderly at a Brooklyn public hospital, emerges as a reassuring symbol of wholesome resilience even though her personal and professional life hold the potential to break her spirit. She is a Polish immigrant who moved to the U.S. as a young girl along with her mother, fleeing anti-Semitic harassment. Sima's shining humanity inspires her to engage with patients with compassion, and she dreams of becoming a doctor and takes pre-med classes when she can. But her inability to cleanly break away from her mother's limited expectations and one troublesome subject required for graduation suggest that Sima may not be able to summon the strength needed for the final push to define herself. Yet she bonds with an intern, Dr. Mindy Kahn, and something in the dynamic of helping and supporting this other floundering woman helps Sima clarify her own goals. Michaelson's success in arranging this unlikely friendship and the understated emotional journeys of her main characters, depicting the reality of hospital life, and portraying patients makes for a very engaging read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)