Growing up on St Lawrence Boulevard, Phil Gold never aspired to be a
doctor. But working as an encyclopedia salesman, a bottle washer at
Molson, and a fur-coat schlepper in textile factories helped him realize
and embrace his parents' desire for him to follow that path.Looking back
at his short wander from the Main to nearby McGill University and the
Montreal General Hospital, Gold coins a new word, fortunome, to evoke
his sense of a lucky life: "Our genome comes from our parents; our
environment or epigenome shapes the expression of who we are; but
without a good fortunome, life's odds turn against us." A born
storyteller, Gold recounts the sights and sounds of a bygone era -
horse-drawn milk carts, Yiddish neighbourhoods full of Holocaust
survivors, furniture chopped up to keep the home fires burning, sacks of
grain lugged off ships in the harbour, antisemitism and ethnic
street-fighting, the padlocked doors of the Red Scare, his father's
first car. Gold tells the story of dating and marrying the love of his
life, Evelyn, studying under the brilliant Sir Arnold Burgen, and his
discovery of CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) in a clear, fast-moving
narrative that grips and fascinates. Gold's Rounds also includes
unforgettable stories from six decades of treating patients at the
General, scenes from the founding of the famous Goodman Cancer
Institute, and reflections on the physician's role and the meaning of a
good death. By turns funny, wise, and heartrending, Gold's memoir of a
life well lived will be cherished by both medical professionals and
general readers.
