This new peculiarly-named history by the Toronto native is well-researched, beautifully written and full of surprises.
The name seems to be based on the roof-top of the now defunct Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital on Christie Street in Toronto, used extensively for rehabilitation of war-wounded in World War I and to a lesser extent, those from World War II. Sun-bathing on the rooftop was standard therapy for tuberculosis of the spine, often acquired or spread there in the trenches. With chapters titled Legs, Arms, Spines, Faces, Lungs, Minds, and Bellies, the injuries range from amputations to para- and quadriplegia, faces torn apart, shell-shock, brain injuries and multiple infections including the devastating 1918-1920 influenza epidemic. The nurses are lauded as the heroes and sometimes romantic partners of patients, but the hospital also was the origin of the subsequently regulated professions of Occupational Therapy and of Dietetics.
This book will not appeal to some readers, but for others it is a valuable reminder of the sometimes primitive and sometimes startlingly innovative history of medicine in the early to mid- twentieth century. And of the appalling conditions and inevitable results of war.
The appalling conditions of the men in the trenches are described in excruciating detail, and the lives of individuals are followed for years as Christie Street became the permanent home for many before it closed in 1949, with the transfer of the patients to the new Sunnybrook Hospital.
The writing is flawless, but wanders a bit beyond the titles of each chapter, including discussion of A.Y. Jackson’s war art and the discovery and early crude uses of insulin. The few black-and-white photographs are helpful.
4.5/5
Thanks, Tom.
The Passionate Reader 