Gray Matter Review

Title: Gray Matter
Author: David Levy with Joel Kilpatrick
Pages: 304
Publisher: Tyndale

Gray Matter by David Levy is an excellent non-fiction account of his career as a neurosurgeon and his steps of faith to make prayer a central part of his career.

One of my favorite things about this book is what he doesn't write about. Many non-fiction auto-biographies will spend 4 to 5 chapters discussing the main character's background, family history and what had they had for lunch when they were 7 years old :-) Levy and Kilpatrick do an excellent job of getting right into the action by describing a consult and surgery of a women with a brain aneurysm. The story delves into Levy's calling to pray for his patients before surgery. There are several different surgeries highlighted throughout the book.

Levy's stories carry heavy emotion (especially since many of these cases are life or death matters) and he does an excellent job describing his own inner turmoils he deals with as a surgeon. Several times I was really pulled into the stories of people that were entrusting their lives to a doctor, who was in turn calling on the Lord, that all things might be done in his name.

Toward the middle part of the story, as Levy becomes comfortable praying with his patients, he shares his experience of helping patients ask for forgiveness from those that have heart them in the past. Some of these parts of the book feel a little bit like a psychology/psychiatric session, but for the most part it was done in the right way.

I will finish with two final notes. Some of the surgeries and consults seemed to run together and be similar, but again not to the point of annoyance. If you are interested in a faith-based novel with excellent and fascinating descriptions of neurosurgery this novel is for you. Great read!

4.5/5 Stars