"As his story unfolds, the reader is comforted in knowing that he must have made it through, because he lived to write about it. But the book is no less riveting.... He writes of the difficulty that even a confident, educated man can have in talking with doctors. He confronted egos, condescension, excuses -- even lies. He ran into odd forms of compassion, such as the physician who instructed his receptionist to return Newman's $10 co-payment, as though the gesture would help compensate a man who just learned he might die soon. He also found doctors who asked about his family, who...