Frist’s book asks if Trent Lott wears a hair piece
Library shelves groan with self-admiring political memoirs. now Bill Frist has produced another one.Never say Frist doesn’t learn from his mistakes. In his 1989 autobiography Transplant, he admitted that as a medical student he adopted cats from animal shelters, “treat[ed] them like pets for a few days,” then took them to a lab to die in research experiments. He blamed this conduct on the pressures of med school.
“And I was totally schizoid about the entire matter,” Frist wrote. “By day, I was little Billy Frist, the boy who lived on Bowling Avenue in Nashville and had decided to become a doctor because of his gentle father and a dog named Scratchy. By night, I was Dr. William Harrison Frist, future cardiothoracic surgeon, who was not going to let a few sentiments about cute, furry little creatures stand in the way of his career. In short, I was going a little crazy.”
That bit of honesty cost Frist no little embarrassment in his 1994 Senate campaign, when he was mocked as a cat killer. So don’t look for any such critical self-examination in Frist’s new book, A Heart to Serve (Center Street), which he signs 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13 at Davis-Kidd. In this updated story of his life, he admits to not a single act—nor even so much as a passing thought—that anyone might possibly criticize.
So the wealthy have faster access to care in this country. And that’s an argument for keeping the U.S. system?
The book lacks even the occasional titillating detail to liven the tedium. Does Trent Lott wear a toupee? Is Mitch McConnell as mean as he looks? Frist doesn’t say.
Nashville Scene
10/8/9
Magnolia Tribune
