Originally published in 1974, Rituals of Surgery is Richard Selzer’s first collection of short stories. It indulges in the not-so-openly discussed perspective of surgical doctors and the experiences they go through when treating patients. The literary aspects range from witty and clever thoughts to gory and grotesque detail. The collection is composed of “sensuality, irony, bathos, low comedy, and high terror”. He depicts the details of medical surgery with much accuracy through the medium of short stories. It gets gruesome at times, but it really shows the reality of the field. He brings “light to darkness” and has an evident passion and love for the characters in his work. Rituals of Surgery is called to be a “provocative commentary on the human condition”.
Selzer obtained his bachelor’s degree from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. in 1948. He later graduated from New York’s Albany Medical College in 1953. He has published numerous other works of both fiction and nonfiction covering the aspect of medical surgical doctors and their experiences.
