annotations: the only doctor for thousands of miles
Eli Saslow on a medical desert; tourism is weird and wonderful and bad; and other things I read
This is annotations, a newsletter in which I annotate a story every two weeks, and also read and write other stuff.
Welcome back! Thank you for the break; hope it was a good month for you all, too.
annotated: “‘Out here, it’s just me’: In the medical desert of rural America, one doctor for 11,000 square miles” by Eli Saslow, The Washington Post
Photo: Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post
Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow—whose latest piece is about the only doctor left to care for three remote counties—is known for his character-driven narrative features about mostly ordinary-ish people across the country: a disseminator of fake news, a former white supremacist, a survivor of a mass shooting. He is one of the best out there at finding these “characters,” developing relationships with them, and then producing really exacting, clear-eyed, immersive narratives that can only come from stellar observational and reporting skills. The way he writes is really clean and beautifully straightforward—less magazine-y, more shaped by a newspaper’s appreciation for clarity and economy of words. It’s just one example of the range of stylistic flair and voice that one can apply to feature writing; not everything has to sound like Hunter S. Thompson penned it.
HERE ARE MY ANNOTATIONS. (For anyone new here, comments on this doc are open, so you can add your own annotations! I highly encourage it!)
you annotated
There were several thoughtful reader-contributed insights in the margins of the last annotations doc, about Jiayang Fan’s profile of Constance Wu for the New Yorker. Here are a couple of my faves:
read
An essay—really excellent in its portrayal of bleak, soul-crushing banality—about working as a debt collector. [The Outline]
Kyle Chayka on Iceland, algorithmic tourism, and authenticity. [Vox]
The paradoxes of the world’s largest monument, a massive memorial for a Lakota warrior who refused to concede to the white man — owned and profited off of by a white family. [The New Yorker]
“In New York, hope sometimes comes at the price of the sun”: the underground world of immigrants who live in the cramped, windowless basements of Queens. [NYT]
A woman who was sexually assaulted by a superstar doctor and still sought justice in the face of stonewalling and a gross lack of care or action. The last scene is so powerful. [The Cut]
What if your abusive husband is a cop? [The New Yorker]
Heteropessimism. [The New Inquiry]
Doing a lot of slow reading and rereading lately and have found renewed appreciation for this classic essay about Olive Garden by Helen Rosner. [Eater]
noted
yes this is very useful
As always, remember you can send me suggestions of stuff to read and writers to interview, please and thank you!
jgz