_Brooklyn Beginnings: A Geriatrician's Odyssey_ is a fiery, frank, and often funny account of Dr Michael Gordon's development: not just as a pioneering physician and medical ethicist, but as a husband, father and, throughout his life, the child of aging parents himself. With its distinct and accessible narrative voice, this compelling memoir affirms that "professionalism" in medicine need not be divorced from the domain of the "personal." From acing medical vivas in Scotland, to eluding border guards in Bulgaria, to advocating on behalf of his elderly patients, Dr Gordon's perennial charm reminds readers just how much personality and, to some extent, luck, can powerfully influence the directions taken in one's life. Yet his accounts of personal disappointments, professional quandaries, and those agonizing episodes in life that defy all supposed qualifications, are also written with remarkable candour and honesty. The overall effect of Dr Gordon's style and story is impressive - on one hand, we learn about an extraordinary life; yet this is a personal odyssey rich in moments that will resonate genuinely with the reader's own.