“A penny saved is a penny earned,” the well-known quote by Ben Franklin, he actually said using different terms. The actual quote, “A penny saved is twopence dear”, with the use of better wording became the quote everyone knows today. A penny does not necessarily have to be money, it can be anything. If an author didn’t save a “penny” they might not write their book effectively. Demonstrating clearly in the book, he did not save any “pennies”. If the author of Last Night in the OR, Bud Shaw had saved pennies, the book could have been readable. The book consists of a memoir of the high-achieving Bud Shaw. The author use to have a career as a transplant surgeon, and a protégé of Thomas Starzl, “the father of liver transplantation,” when the…show more content… Naturally, a book that intends to highlight the accomplishments of a surgeon would not include strong figurative language, but Shaw utilizes the element substantially. Figurative language may seem like a petty detail, but evokes a powerful emotional response, especially a sense of nostalgia. Shaw’s similes appeal to wistful longings for a simpler past while describing his father. First he compares the name of a chapter to his father, “The Good Days are Like the Bad”, he says the good and bad days vary interchangeably, and they “ (are) like that, bad days evolve to become the next good days”(Shaw 270). Comparing how his father’s days vary helps convey his legacy with his father, who influences him greatly. Bud’s father shapes his ideas of what a surgeon should be like, therefore his legacy reflects the actions of him. In addition, making these clear connections to the present and past effectively displays the current situation of Bud's father. When with his father at Thanksgiving, his father fixes some of his pain simply with his hands. Bud said his father acts “like a miracle”(Shaw 256)—he describes how his father can no longer remember what he did earlier in the day but can still make “miracles” with his hands. Illustrating the skill of his father, a surgeon will always be a component of him and carries with him until the day he passes away. In addition, the…show more content… With no clear path the reader has no idea what’s happening. Once figurative language increases the readability of the book, his confusing chronological order leaves the reader lost. Most of the chapters read comparing to random anecdotes and memories, without any point or overarching theme. The stories seem to always lack either context, a beginning, a middle or end. Sometimes feeling like there were paragraphs or whole pages missing. He mentions people as if the reader should know who they were, but they have never emerge before. In the “Good Opera” chapter, Shaw introduces a patient who momentarily will go through a liver transplant. The surgery commences then suddenly the surgery finishes and he gives the husband the outcome, completely skipping the surgery part. What went wrong? The way he writes the story makes it seem like there’s something missing. Shaw also lightly goes over his struggle with lymphoma. A couple of quick references are made to Shaw having lymphoma in two chapters of Section 2 and Section 3. In Section 3 during the chapter “Spring of 1994, Ohio”, he finds a lump and he worries about it, but never does anything about it. In the next chapter, two years have passed. The lymphoma, a huge part of his life, and he quickly mentions the lymphoma throughout the book never clearly explaining to the reader how he overcame it. The doctor acting a patient could have substantially add
