A History of the Present Illness
San Francisco is the setting of this collection of 16 short stories by physician-author Aronson. The patients, families, and doctors populating these tales are clobbered by random events that alter their lives. Missed opportunities and poor decisions also get plenty of play. In one story, a physician is charged with killing a patient. In another, an angry, bratty teenage daughter runs away from home. We never learn her fate or what happens to the worrying parents. A purposeful dearth of denouement occurs in other provocation tales. The gem of the collection, “Lucky You,” recounts what happens when an 11-year-old boy tumbles down a cliff. A dog walker happens to be at the scene of the accident but is hesitant to intervene even though she has medical training. Aronson effectively illustrates just how jumbled life can be. Hope is limping barely one step ahead of sadness. Human devotion and division, responsibility to self and others are only a smidgen of the subject matter examined by talented and knowledgeable Aronson. --Tony Miksanek