Dottoressa
Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome
Publisher’s Introduction
After completing her medical training in New York, Susan Levenstein set off for a one year adventure in Rome. Forty years later, she is still practicing medicine in the Eternal City. In Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome Levenstein writes, with love and exasperation, about navigating her career through the renowned Italian tangle of brilliance and ineptitude, sexism and tolerance, rigidity and chaos.
Part memoir—starting with her epic quest for an Italian medical license—and part portrait of Italy from a unique point of view, Dottoressa is packed with vignettes that illuminate the national differences in character, lifestyle, health, and health care between her two countries. Levenstein, who has been called “the wittiest internist on earth,” covers everything from hookup culture to neighborhood madmen, Italian hands-off medical training, bidets, the ironies of expatriation, and why Italians always pay their doctor’s bills. -Paul Dry Books, Philadelphia, 2019
Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome is available as an English-language audiobook at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.jp, amazon.ca, and amazon.fr, but in only paperback and Kindle editions at amazon.it, amazon.es, and amazon.com.mx.
Presentations and Readings
A virtual reading at the Italian Cultural Institute in conversation with Alexander Stille.
Sarah Smith’s Teatime Readings – includes more of the backstory
Selections and Interviews
New England Journal of Medicine: Endings, Beginnings
The American In Italia: Pulling the Strings
What can Italians teach the rest of the world about health?
KevinMD.com: First steps toward my Italian medical license
KevinMD.com: The Great Bidet Mystery
Feature interview (in Italian)—Sette del Corriere (Vittorio Zinconi)
Interview about the book’s roots—ExpatClic (Claudiaexpat)
from Chapter 2, Wet Paint On My Shingle.
Advance Praise
“A funny and endearing but also deadly serious memoir of the Italian health care system by an astute and caring outsider.”—Booklist
“While sharing the many difficulties she’s faced as an outsider to the Italian health-care system—with its piles of paperwork, unwritten rules, and old boy networks—Levenstein also writes a love letter to Italy . . . The first chapters recount, with a combination of exasperation and humor, the years-long obstacle course she encountered in her quest to practice medicine in the country. She proceeds to talk about everything from what a well-dressed Italian physician should wear, to, in a particularly wise and witty chapter, love and sex from both an Italian and an American perspective. A timely epilogue discusses the Affordable Care Act from her unique position as an American expat and an Italian physician, with Levenstein reflecting on how Italians, despite widespread dissatisfaction with their own health system, manage to live more healthily than Americans.”—Publishers Weekly
“Levenstein’s devotion to the Italian practice of medicine is admirable, and she delivers a charming story well told.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Dr. Levenstein’s gripping account of her experience as an American doctor in Rome is more than a memoir, it is a portrait of a changing country and the evolution of healthcare as seen from behind her stethoscope. It is as funny as it is poignant. A must read for anyone who thinks they understand medicine, Italy, or humanity.”—Barbie Latza Nadeau, Italy bureau chief of The Daily Beast and author of Roadmap to Hell: Sex, Drugs and Guns on the Mafia Coast
“Susan Levenstein’s Dottoressa is a smart, funny, charming, highly readable memoir of practicing medicine in Italy and is full of astute insights into the way Italy works. Approaching Italy from the vantage point of the medical profession and its health system is actually a great way to understand important aspects of Italian society. There is corruption and cronyism, the dysfunctional university system that produces a massive oversupply of doctors, (many of whom remain unemployed), but at the same time an often quite efficient national health system that treats everyone and often with better results than the more expensive American system.”—Alexander Stille of Columbia University, author of Benevolence and Betrayal, Excellent Cadavers, and The Force of Things
“We waited for a writer who never arrived. We expected—in vain—a sociologist who would study and explain us. We hoped for a historian to deconstruct and re-construct the euphoric and problematic ‘life in Italy.’ Then along came Dr. Levenstein, apparently confined to a world of physicians and patients. Luckily she kept notes, and has written a book that must be read. It proves that a stethoscope can be a good instrument to explore not just a person, but a society.”—Furio Colombo, formerly of NYU and Columbia University, editor of The New York Review of Books in Italy, former Italian Senator, former Editor in Chief of L’Unità, and author of Pasolini’s Last Interview, Kennedy’s America, and Trump Power. Colombo, one of Italy’s foremost intellectuals, kindly agreed to speak at my book launch. Here are his remarks:
“Susan Levenstein gives us a fascinating account of her life as an American doctor in the Eternal City, including an analysis of Italian healthcare that is both informed and terrifying. A must read for anyone who contemplates relocating to Rome—if they want to live long enough to enjoy their Italian dream.”—Matthew Kneale, author of English Passengers and Rome: A History in Seven Sackings.
“Susan Levenstein is arguably the wittiest internist on earth, whose droll, mordant voice comes through even in papers she writes for technical medical journals. In Dottoressa, Levenstein offers a memoir of her years as a decidedly unconventional doctor in a decidedly unconventional setting. She is a born raconteur, and has the observational skills of a sardonic cultural anthropologist. This is a wonderfully fun read.”—Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University. MacArthur Fellow, and author of A Primate’s Memoir, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, and Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
“One woman’s story of her medical journey from Harvard to Rome and her experiences, in medicine and life, as she practiced her profession in Italy. Her intelligent, candid, and witty observations, with some moving and courageous insights, lead her and the reader to ask what medicine is and could be.”—Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, author of Mother Tongue, An American Life in Italy and The Other Side of the Tiber, Reflections on Time in Italy
“So far as medicine is concerned, Italy really is a foreign country, where definitions of what ails you, expectations of the physician, and standards of medical practice may come as a surprise. This sharp-eyed, deeply thoughtful, often exhilarating book will enlighten you not only about what it’s like to be an American doctor in Italy but about the whole dolce vita way of life.”—Frederika Randall, journalist (The Nation, New York Times…), translator (Ippolito Nievo, Giacomo Sartori…), critic, and long-time denizen of Rome
Post-Publication Reviews
"Her lighthearted yet trenchant memoir, Dottoressa, highlights the myriad differences between the United States and Italy as revealed by their health care systems." – The Times Literary Supplement (Rebecca Foster)
"After Dr. Levenstein finished her medical studies at Mount Sinai in New York in 1978 she moved to Rome with her Italian husband to set up a medical practice and immerse herself in the culture. The marriage didn't last, but her love of Italy did and she remains there to this day. Her account can be enjoyed as one might a frittata, with the tale of establishing herself as a physican in Rome serving as the eggy part, enhanced by the tasty ingredients within like food, booze, drugs and sex. She mixes them together with the skill of a top chef." – Destination: Books
"At times both hilarious and exasperating, Levenstein's story is a unique peek at life in Italy and the experience of finding home in another country." – A Mighty Girl (Katherine Handcock)
"Replete with rich anecdote—some of her Roman clerics and college-abroad students will stick with me forever—Levenstein's new book is a tonic for general readers. But it should particularly be read by those among the policy army advising Democratic candidates on matters of health."—Health Care Renewal (Russell Maulitz, MD)
“Levenstein’s book, Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome is a finely crafted account of her life and career in “The Eternal City.” It’s a medical travelogue of Italy, one that will tell you more about the country than Rick Steve ever could. Carving out a career as a non-Italian in private practice in Rome is no easy feat, but Levenstein did it by building an international clientele, and by attracting Romans of every station who were aiming to keep their medical problems out of the ever-watchful eye of the city, the government, or the Catholic church. Drawing on more than four decades of experience, Levenstein brings to the reader more oddball characters than a Wes Anderson film, so sit down and enjoy the show.” –Craig Bowron, M.D., FACP
"Tomes have been written about Italians at table in attempts to capture their cultural quintessence but the examination table offers Levenstein a unique vantage point from which to observe the Italian character, diet, approach to love and sex, and philosophy of life. Finally an expat memoir which is not about food, foreign men or house renovation, rich with insights into what makes these irresistible Italians tick."—The Italian Insider (Linda Lappin)
"Written with a somewhat humorous love and sometimes sheer desperation . . . amongst a series of typically Italian scenes of not only brilliance but also sexism, total chaos and rigidity. Susan Levenstein manages to cover a number of aspects illuminating some amusing national differences regarding not only health care but also of character and everyday life." —My Country (Justine Griffin)
"An impressively candid, insightful, exceptionally well written and entertaining life story”—Midwest Book Review (Julie Summers)
"Dottoressa has the feel of an opera, with a prelude, three acts, and three interludes. Levenstein’s libretto is captivating and the aria she sings compelling. This Jewish female internist is determined to coax doctors and patients to see one another as human beings. She writes her prescription legibly—injecting humor to alleviate tedium, with enough Italian scenes to have US readers packing their suitcases. Andiamo!”—The Woven Tale Press (Lanie Tankard)
"Levenstein lays out the health care choices all societies must make. These days, hundreds of policy papers and newspaper editorials regularly debate competing claims of medical efficiency, patient care, cost-containment, and expanding reach. But none do so with Levenstein’s humor and sensitivity to the human condition. And they certainly don’t make it fun — never mind being able to set the story in the Eternal City.”—The American Magazine In Italia (Madeleine Johnson)
"This is one of those rare books that makes me want to underline every other sentence and put a star in the margin next to almost every paragraph. Dr. Susan Levenstein’s story of her forty years of experiences as an American female physician practicing in Rome is at once fascinating, frightening and funny, a lively, insightful and witty tour through an aspect of Italian life that few American visitors to Rome ever experience."—Fra Noi (Judith Testa)
“You will absolutely love this book!”—Modern Italian Network (Gina Andracchio)
Featured at Snowflakes in a Blizzard.
Two excerpts from Dottoressa have been featured at KevinMD.com, considered the web’s leading social media health platform, with 3 million monthly page views, and over 500,000 subscribers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and RSS:
An American Doctor In Rome - Sept 21, 2019
The Great Bidet Mystery - Feb 12, 2020
How the book came about:
From online reader reviews
"This is a memoir of an expat doctor with the knowledge of a scientist, the passion of an Italian, the pragmatics of an American, and the writerly skills to distinguish the truths from the stereotypes that distort them . . . It's the sort of book that should be assigned in medical school courses designed to teach doctors how to understand what it means to practice the so-called 'art' of medicine patient by patient, day by day. Plus, it's fast, funny and deliciously wry.” —Barry Hoffman
“Beautifully written and a delightful read. I think many doctors would enjoy the busman’s holiday aspect of it, with her terrific descriptions of individual patient encounters and systemic problems.”—Gene Bishop, MD
"I almost never laugh out loud when reading a book, but in this case I laughed again and again . . . This book will intrigue anyone who is interested in Italy . . . The stories about caring for patients are unusual because of the Italian setting, with a very wide cast of characters, but also provide universal insights that will touch physicians, other health care workers, and patients. The author is unusually honest and revealing about her own weaknesses and illusions...” —Larry Casalino, MD
"This memoir, which reads like good fiction, lays it on, warts and all. Compared to the USA, in the long run Italy comes across as a more humane and healthier place to live. And reading this book will help you "get it," as well as make you laugh out loud.”—Anomalie (Amalie Rothschild)
"What a wonderful book! . . . Even after having lived myself many years in Rome, Dr Levenstein's book had many surprises and insights for me.”—Ioanna in Europe
"Throw away the guidebooks on Italy. Read this instead. Prepare to laugh. Ostensibly, it is the story of an American Doctor in Rome, but the book is multi-dimensional. No one else could have written Dottoressa but Dr. Levenstein. A native New Yorker with all the unique sense of skepticism and irony we so prize in those from that area, deposited abruptly and directly into the heart of Italy. There are sections of Dottoressa that could be done as stand up comedy. The real story of the Italian bidet is side-splittingly funny. So well written and so superbly structured, that readers who appreciate a finely crafted sentence and a lovingly hewn paragraph will pass the work off to other readers—or buy them their own so they can keep their personal copy. Best book I’ve read in a long, long while.” –Dr. Bil Hawkins
"Dr. Levenstein is not only a good listener. She has been able to teach us how she reasons, thinks, and works with her patients towards the best outcome . . . This is definitely an enjoyable and educational read."–Mark Cohen, MD
"As an American in Italy for the better part of a decade, reading this book seriously put together the puzzle of my experiences with the Italian health care system . . . Loved every bit of this book!" –Sarah Johnson
“As a US —> Italy expat myself, reading this book was extremely relatable (and entertaining!) and it offers a very insightful look into the “true” state of affairs regarding Italian medicine. It will help people of any nationality make sense of the way that things are done in Italy, and adjust their expectations accordingly.”—Abigail