GESUNDHEIT!

Part manifesto, part autobiography and part jeremiad, this rambling, repetitive volume indicts our system of medical care and offers an alternative of humor and love. The author, subject of the Robin Williams film Patch Adams, comes off as egotistical and fanatically cocksure of his opinions. That the founder of the free Gesundheit Medical Institute was once a mental patient is not surprising. As narrator, comedian Arte Johnson is faced with representing a comic therapist who has written a humorless book. This he handles earnestly and tellingly, exercising more control than is his wont but nonetheless delivering all of Adams's sincerity and fervor. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 99]