Review: Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

Title: Dr. Mutter's Marvels
Author: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
Series: Stand Alone
Published By: Gotham (September 4, 2014)
Source: Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: Biography/Historic (Fictionalized)
My Rating: 4 Stars


Book Description:
A mesmerizing biography of the brilliant and eccentric medical innovator who revolutionized American surgery and founded the country’s most famous museum of medical oddities

Imagine undergoing an operation without anesthesia performed by a surgeon who refuses to sterilize his tools—or even wash his hands. This was the world of medicine when Thomas Dent Mütter began his trailblazing career as a plastic surgeon in Philadelphia during the middle of the nineteenth century.

Although he died at just forty-eight, Mütter was an audacious medical innovator who pioneered the use of ether as anesthesia, the sterilization of surgical tools, and a compassion-based vision for helping the severely deformed, which clashed spectacularly with the sentiments of his time.

Brilliant, outspoken, and brazenly handsome, Mütter was flamboyant in every aspect of his life. He wore pink silk suits to perform surgery, added an umlaut to his last name just because he could, and amassed an immense collection of medical oddities that would later form the basis of Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum.

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I can honestly say I have never read a book quite like this one before. 

Fiction and fact, blended together so seamlessly that it is sometimes hard to tell them apart. To know when something was fictionalized from dramatic sake or because it really happened.

Either way, this book was quite interesting. No, quite fascinating and dare I say, even fun?

Once again I find myself in unfamiliar territory with this read. Something I never would have picked up on my own but truly enjoyed. 

I confess that I knew nothing about Dr. Thomas Mutter but am now quite curious about his life work and all the medical advances he made throughout his career. In fact, I would love to visit Philadelphia and see the museum that was erected in his honor and all the oddities that live there. 

The author did a fabulous job blended the fact with the fiction and making this read not only somewhat mesmerizing, but entertaining as well. I truly had fun learning about this remarkable professor and doctor and all that he had to offer the world, some of which, is still practiced today.

If you are looking for a different kind of historical read, then this is the read for you. 

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by the author or publisher. I was not compensated for this review.*