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Book Review Going to Pieces without Falling Apart: A Buddhist perspective on


wholeness By Mark Epstein. 200 pp. New York, Broadway Books, 1998. $23. 0-
7679-0234-3

Article  in  New England Journal of Medicine · February 1999


DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199902043400521

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The Ne w E n g l a nd Jo u r n a l o f Me d ic i ne

Book Reviews there — culture as a determinant of illness and of the char-


acter of illness, its manner of expression. A chapter titled
“Neurobiology and the Obscene” delves into that subject:
“In coprolalia, we confront not just a neurological disor-
ILLNESS AND CULTURE IN THE POSTMODERN AGE der such as uncontrolled twitching but a mobilization of
the complex cultural resource called obscenity.” So it went
By David B. Morris. 345 pp.
in the 19th century for workers who got mercury poisoning
Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998. $27.50.
while making hats. They were plagued by tremors and
ISBN 0-520-20869-2. twitches and were viewed as odd and crazy because of their
speech. Hence the phrase “mad as a hatter” — a vernacular
and intuitive expression that exemplifies the author’s point.
O UR minds live in particular bodies, of course — hence
the psychologically shaping influence of biology, as
sickness soon enough reminds us. The onset of a disease
In our time, other troubles come to some of us, and
they, too, tell of us — illness as telltale evidence of life in
society and of values that prompt behavior that in the long
gives us plenty of opportunity for thought, and in no time, run becomes exceedingly hurtful to a body, to health.
rather often, we are a source of worry for some and of Morris cites a historian who reminds us that “an epidemic
shame for others, depending on what ails us and where we such as AIDS could not have occurred before the mingling
happen to live. In a sense, then, genes, viruses, or bacteria, of races, before the liberalization of sexual mores, and,
for all their decisive say in who gets what disease, have only above all, before medicine had controlled serious infec-
so much of a hold on things. The families to which we be- tious diseases and introduced both intravenous injections
long and the neighborhoods or nations in which we live and blood transfusions.” Nor is anorexia nervosa without
exert their influence on us not only as patients but also as a decided connection to our modern era — what the author
persons who learn to accommodate ourselves to certain calls “the biology of self-starvation.” It is a consequence
cultural (and religious) norms — the values, ideals, practic- of culture (advertising on television and in magazines)
es, and preferences that inform the world we call our own. come to bear on human desire and, literally, appetite: it is
None of the foregoing is all that surprising; it is the stuff better to abstain forthrightly than to appear “heavy,” even
of common sense. Even so, this book by an essayist who if one risks dying.
has observed modern medical life deserves respectful at- There are fine moments in this book — when, for in-
tention. David Morris has already (in The Culture of Pain; stance, Morris calls on the poets Wallace Stevens and Dante
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) tried to link or when he evokes our gadget-filled world (computers, the
a universal aspect of medicine to certain historical and cul- Internet, television) and indicates our susceptibility to it as
tural circumstances through literature and art, as he does well as to germs. Even heart disease and cancer can be
here again; indeed, this book’s title announces his intellec- prompted by that world and by the activities and habits of
tual intent, and his discussion of pain helps him approach consumption it urges on us. It is well for us doctors to be
his essential subject matter — the way in which a person’s aware of these effects, but at moments, alas, we learn that
place in life and his or her beliefs, hopes, and worries all our failures of clarity or vision are shared by others. “Every
come to bear on what pain does, how it is interpreted and utterance constitutes a miniature text,” Morris tells us, “and
handled, and what the consequences are. Jacques Derrida makes the crucial point when he writes
Pain “is more than a medical issue,” he insists, “and more that ‘there is no genreless text.’ ” Other such murky theo-
than a matter of nerves and transmitters.” Here, and retical flourishes from French writers (Foucault appears fre-
throughout this book, Morris takes on what he terms, with quently) supply ironic evidence that culture can shape not
no admiration, “the mechanistic biomedical model.” only the way we act and feel while we are sick, but also how
Morris calls on a most persuasive and prominent witness, we think and, worst of all, how we talk and write.
the novelist Reynolds Price, whose struggle with a tumor
of the spinal cord prompted not only a search for medical ROBERT COLES, M.D.
care but also a deeply felt search within himself, an intense
Harvard University Health Services
scrutiny of his life, its purpose, and its meaning. To Morris, Cambridge, MA 02138
Price is a hero, his look inward and outward a kind of tran-
scendence. By implication, Price’s doctors, and many others,
fell far short of such an achievement, wedded as they were
to an insistence on understanding this or that illness phys-
iologically or anatomically, with little or no concomitant GOING TO PIECES WITHOUT FALLING APART:
interest in trying to know the afflicted person and trying A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE ON WHOLENESS
to figure out what has happened to him or her in mind, By Mark Epstein. 200 pp. New York, Broadway Books, 1998. $23.
in spirit, in manner of living and working, and in outlook ISBN 0-7679-0234-3.
on life.
Not that most clinicians need to be reminded that a
changed mental state is an aspect of clinical duress. Many
diseases certainly prompt melancholy stories that started
after cells began to run amok or viruses became destruc-
I N the introduction to his book, psychiatrist Mark Epstein
recounts the story of a smart and eager professor who
sought wisdom from an old Zen master. The master of-
tive, even lethal, invaders of a body. We are, of course, fered him tea and, on the professor’s acceptance, poured
asked to keep in mind black-lung disease and malaria, ill- the tea into a cup. To the professor’s dismay, however, the
nesses that make the book’s point, that occur as a result of master kept pouring the tea into an overflowing cup, even
a certain kind of lifestyle: work done here, travel undertaken as the tea spread across the floor.

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BOOK REV IEWS

“A mind that is full cannot take in anything new,” the people actually lived their lives. The most extreme separa-
master explained. “Like this cup, you are full of opinions tion occurred in Descartes’s sharp isolation of the worlds
and preconceptions.” Wisdom and happiness are to be of mind and matter. Since then, medicine has come to
found only by emptying one’s cup. view the body as a machine with parts that could be ma-
With this story, Epstein illustrates what he believes is an nipulated. Personhood came to be understood as an in-
important problem for modern Western culture. Trained to creasingly large and fragmented number of components
approach life in the same way as the professor in the parable, and functions, and academic inquiry was cordoned off into
Westerners tend to fill their lives with things and knowl- disciplinary ghettos. It is only with growing recognition of
edge the way the master filled the cup with tea. In the psy- the limits of the Cartesian–Newtonian framework for solv-
chological arena, this gives rise to a sort of psychological ing human problems, the development of quantum me-
acquisitiveness, whereby we attempt to beef ourselves up chanics, general-systems theory, and brain science, and the
with self-esteem, self-confidence, self-expression, or self- increasing contact between the West and the East that
control. The message of Buddhism, Epstein argues, is that these old separations are breaking down.
this Western tendency to build and strengthen the ego to- In general, Epstein’s discussion is balanced, and he is
ward the ideal of a strong, individuated self will not work. aware of the paradoxical nature of his topic. In his efforts
We come to wisdom and peace of mind only by acknowl- to explicate the Buddhist worldview, however, he occa-
edging the difficulties that are created by the ego’s blind sionally parodies Western psychology and its notion of the
need to control and by allowing emptiness to be present self. Self-esteem, self-confidence, the building of a strong
as an inevitable and often valuable state. self — these are not the problem, although some of his
Beginning with his own sense of emptiness as a boy in statements could lead readers to believe otherwise. Instead,
high school and then presenting a variety of Buddhist par- the problem arises when selfhood becomes the only goal.
ables, clinical anecdotes, and personal examples, Epstein To become oneself, one must also lose oneself. In the ex-
recounts what he has learned so far in his lifelong journey pression of an idea so dialectical, one statement immedi-
to understand the mind. Observations of his undergraduate ately implies its opposite. The sweetness of the “middle
classmates at Harvard, his contacts with the Dalai Lama, way” is not learned easily or quickly, and fictions abound
his deepening ability to understand and live in both East- on both sides of the discussion.
ern and Western worlds during medical school and resi- Plato’s Socrates once wondered whether he should be a
dency, and his subsequent contact with several schools of politician or a physician — that is, whether he should try
psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy, and especially the writings to serve the existing tastes and interests of his fellow citizens
of Winnicott — this very personal journey reflects Epstein’s or continually work to improve their minds and souls. Going
growing conviction that the Western psychological notion to Pieces without Falling Apart will appeal to physicians,
of what it means to have a self is flawed. therapists, and patients who, like Socrates, opt for the latter.
Western thought tends to pathologize what is under-
stood in Buddhism as a universally human starting point JEFFREY REDIGER, M.D., M.DIV.
for wisdom and self-understanding. The “deficiencies” of LESTON HAVENS, M.D.
childhood and the “errors” of adult life often do not repre- Cambridge Hospital
sent darkness or void, as they initially seem to, but rather, Cambridge, MA 02139
are occasions that create the possibility of life and freedom.
Human urges and conflicts are not necessarily pathologic;
instead, they reflect the movement of life as it attempts to
become manifest within us. The point is to allow the con-
flicts to surface and become visible. THE CAMEL’S NOSE: MEMOIRS OF A CURIOUS
In response to the Western proclivity for knowledge, SCIENTIST
Epstein offers wisdom from the ancient texts of Buddhism; By Knut Schmidt-Nielsen. 339 pp., illustrated.
in response to the Western bias toward individuation, he Washington, D.C., Island Press, 1998. $24.95.
offers connection; in response to the emphasis on rational ISBN 1-55963-512-6.
mind, he offers mind-in-the-heart. In response to the war-
ring of our cultural dualisms, whether between mind and
body, individual and community, or men and women, he
It has been said that the primary function of schools is
offers unity and reciprocity. All of this becomes possible
to impart enough facts to make children stop asking
through a “middle way” of nonjudgmental awareness that
questions. Some, with whom the schools do not suc-
avoids either “attachment” or “aversion” to any of these
ceed, become scientists. I never made good grades in
polarities and, in so doing, transforms experience. Then,
school. At times I nearly failed, and I never stopped ask-
says Epstein, one can live in the lion’s den of life with hon-
ing questions. Indeed, I have spent most of my life asking
esty and authenticity.
questions and finding answers to how animals manage
In sizing up the possible relevance of Eastern mysticism
in the world around us.
to Western postindustrial cultures, it is important to un-
derstand that both Western science and Christianity were
born in what we now call the East and that many modern
problems revolve around ways in which intellectual cate-
S O begins the autobiography of Knut Schmidt-Nielsen,
professor emeritus of physiology and zoology at Duke
University, who looks back on a life devoted to compara-
gories have been reshaped since then. In the emergence of tive physiology in its largest and most interesting sense.
the intellectual basis of Western culture, science and values Now in his 84th year, Schmidt-Nielsen has received nu-
developed in reaction to each other and, in so doing, be- merous international awards for his contributions to phys-
came somewhat falsified and alienated from the way in which iology. His writing is lucid, lively, and conversational. His

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The Ne w E n g l a nd Jo u r n a l o f Me d ic i ne

textbook on comparative physiology reads like a novel. It of Alice stepping through the looking glass or of a child
is no surprise that he was the originator and first editor of reading about the Wizard of Oz.
the provocative and popular periodical News in the Physio- Schmidt-Nielsen’s life has been complicated as well as in-
logical Sciences. teresting. He is frank about his times of self-doubt, depres-
Schmidt-Nielsen’s life provides evidence of the effects of sion, and fierce professional competition and jealousy, and
both heredity and environmental influences on the devel- about his disappointments as well as his loves. These per-
opment of a scientist. His grandfather, an engineer, was sonal touches, told with disarming frankness, add to the
fascinated by the question of whether saltwater flounders charm of the memoirs of a scientist who never lost the cu-
could live in freshwater lakes. His father was an accomplished riosity of his childhood.
Norwegian enzyme chemist, a protégé of the brothers Ed-
uard and Hans Buchner; Eduard received the Nobel prize FRANKLIN H. EPSTEIN, M.D.
in 1907. Schmidt-Nielsen’s Swedish mother had been an Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
outstanding student of the physicist Svante Arrhenius, an- Boston, MA 02215
other Nobel prize winner, but she regretfully abandoned
her promising scientific career when she married. His post-
graduate mentor was the Danish physiologist August Krogh,
who also received the Nobel prize and whose daughter,
Bodil (later an eminent renal physiologist), Schmidt-Nielsen
THE TENNIS PARTNER: A DOCTOR’S STORY OF
FRIENDSHIP AND LOSS
married and then divorced. Thor Heyerdahl, who later
crossed the Pacific on a bamboo raft, was a school class- By Abraham Verghese. 347 pp. New York, HarperCollins, 1998. $25.
mate. And his most memorable teacher at school (in natural ISBN 0-06-017405-6.
history and science) was Viggo Ullmann, the remarkable
grandfather of the actress Liv Ullmann. DARWIN’S AUDUBON: SCIENCE AND THE
The questions Schmidt-Nielsen asked are deceptively LIBERAL IMAGINATION
simple, almost childlike. They resemble Rudyard Kipling’s By Gerald Weissmann. Approximately 309 pp. New York, Plenum,
questions in his Just So Stories for children. (Schmidt-Nielsen 1998. $28.95. ISBN 0-306-45981-7.
tells us that the favorite author of his mentor Krogh was
Kipling.) How do camels survive in the desert? Why does THE POWER OF HOPE: A DOCTOR’S PERSPECTIVE
the camel have a long nose? Why don’t a duck’s feet freeze By Howard Spiro. Approximately 289 pp. New Haven, Conn.,
on the ice? How do a penguin’s eggs stay warm? How does Yale University Press, 1998. $35. ISBN 0-300-07632-0.
the herring gull get rid of salt? The answers are fascinat-
ing, and to find them the author has journeyed from the
Arctic Circle to the Sahara and the Australian outback. One
of the attractions of comparative physiology is the oppor-
tunity to explore exotic places. The author describes these
T HESE three books, which differ so in style and con-
tent, are persuasive evidence that the tradition of the
physician-author lives on. The beauty of thought and clar-
adventurous trips with such gusto that the reader may be ity of word they convey merit the attention of any doctor.
forgiven for suspecting that the chance to travel might Abraham Verghese has already made his literary mark
sometimes itself be a reason for asking a fascinating ques- with My Own County, a widely praised book about his med-
tion about the adaptation of life to a harsh environment. ical and personal experiences when AIDS invaded a small
In an era when departments of physiology in many rural community. Since then, Verghese, a specialist in in-
medical schools are disappearing or changing their names fectious diseases, has moved to El Paso, Texas, where he is
to include the up-to-date modifiers “cellular” and “molec- professor of medicine at Texas Tech University. His new
ular,” it is oddly refreshing to be reminded of the great book, The Tennis Partner, is an autobiographical novel. It
questions, with their flavor of teleology and purpose, that tells the story of Verghese’s encounters with a drug-addicted
have been considered central to the Queen of Sciences for physician, David Smith, an Australian tennis player who
at least two centuries. How animals adapt to a hostile en- quits professional tennis to study medicine at Texas Tech.
vironment is the underlying question that has always mo- Verghese forms a bond with Smith on hospital wards and
tivated the physiologic inquiries of Schmidt-Nielsen. Marine tennis courts. There, the games they play, at first hesitant
birds, snakes, and lizards, living in a salty ocean, secrete but ultimately furious, are a metaphor for Smith’s battle
unbelievably high concentrations of salt through glands against cocaine addiction and Verghese’s struggle to make
located around the eyes and nose. The large ears of desert something of Smith. But the bright, capable, deceitful, and
jackrabbits stand up and radiate heat, cooling the animal, self-deceptive Smith is as unable to win the final game as
as long as air temperatures are lower than body tempera- he is to find a life free of cocaine. The denouement is not
ture, but wilt and fold up when the air gets hotter, so as a surprise, but it nevertheless shocks. Verghese writes lyr-
not to absorb heat. Countercurrent flow of blood through ically about tennis and with sensitivity about the despair
the capillaries of the Arctic duck’s webbed feet keeps the feet of addicted physicians. The book begins with a scene in
from freezing and the duck from getting cold. The nasal the Talbott–Marsh Recovery Clinic, a real clinic for addict-
and respiratory passages of the camel are lined with hygro- ed physicians. Its head, G. Douglas Talbott, is past presi-
scopic mucus, which dries out when the animal breathes in dent of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and
and then recovers moisture from expired air, thus consid- a pioneer in the treatment of addicted physicians. The Tennis
erably reducing insensible losses of water. To a physician Partner is rooted in the hopelessness and waste of drug
accustomed to the narrow confines of human biology, addiction. Verghese uses his literary gift to deal with the
reading about these insights of comparative physiology problem in ways not possible in a technical paper.
that teach us the way bodies work is an experience like that In contrast to Verghese’s lean prose — as unadorned as

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Copyright © 1999 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
B OOK S REC EIV ED

a service ace — Gerald Weissmann’s Darwin’s Audubon can tions about medicine and medical practice. He writes mainly
border on the baroque. But the baroque style has many for the lay public, but any doctor could profit from reading
admirers and merits, and it suits Weissmann nicely. Readers his book. Every page offers common sense and the perspec-
who can follow the sinuosities of Weissman’s odd connec- tive of a wise physician who has thought hard about doctors
tions and unexpected thoughts will appreciate this quirky and patients, not as theoretical entities, but as real people.
book almost as soon as they begin it. The 24 essays in
Darwin’s Audubon have been previously published, mainly ROBERT S. SCHWARTZ, M.D.
in Hospital Practice. Collecting them in a single volume is
a convenience and gives readers an idea of the scope of ©1999, Massachusetts Medical Society.
Weissmann’s interests. Among my favorites are “Puerperal
Priority,” a beautiful account of the discoverers of the cause
of puerperal sepsis; “Foucault and the Bag Lady,” which
decries the displacement of hopelessly schizophrenic pa- B OOKS R ECEIVED
tients from psychiatric hospitals to the sidewalks; “No Ideas
but in Things,” a marvelous essay about William Carlos The receipt of these books is acknowledged, and this listing must be regarded
as sufficient return for the courtesy of the sender. Books that appear to be
Williams; and “Losing a MASH,” Weissmann’s story of his of particular interest will be reviewed as space permits. The Journal does
own experiences as an army doctor. Best of all is “Words- not publish unsolicited reviews.
worth at the Barbican.” I won’t tell you what this is about
— all these short pieces are erudite, amusing, and stimu-
lating: read them. ANESTHESIA AND CRITICAL CARE
The Power of Hope is a reworking of Howard Spiro’s Doc- Emergency Medicine Secrets. Second edition. By Vincent J. Mark-
tors, Patients, and Placebos, published in 1986, and present- ovchick and Peter T. Pons. 526 pp. St. Louis, Mosby, 1999. $38.
ed now with new ideas and considerations. Strictly speaking, ISBN 1-56053-253-X.
it is not a literary work but a distillation of the experiences Emergency Toxicology. Second edition. Edited by Peter Viccellio,
with eight others. 1277 pp. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams
and thoughts of a physician who has practiced his art and & Wilkins, 1999. $85. ISBN 0-316-90237-3.
profession for over 40 years. Yet the originality and ele- Opioids in Pain Control: Basic and clinical aspects. Edited by Chris-
gance of this book justify its inclusion in this review. The toph Stein. 359 pp. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Power of Hope has an important theme and challenges the $95. ISBN 0-521-62269-7.
Principles and Practice of Anesthesiology. Second edition. Edited
reader with controversial ideas. Spiro emphasizes the dif- by David E. Longnecker, John H. Tinker, and G. Edward Morgan,
ference between the perceptions of the doctor (disease) and Jr. 2529 pp. in two volumes, illustrated; with CD-ROM. St. Louis,
those of the patient (illness). He tells us that the principal Mosby, 1998. $315. ISBN 0-8151-5479-8.
shift in mainstream medicine has been from the ear to the Principles and Practice of Emergency Medicine. Fourth edition. Ed-
ited by George R. Schwartz. 1936 pp., illustrated. Philadelphia,
eye — doctors have lost the art of listening because they Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1998. $179. ISBN 0-683-07646-9.
are too busy looking at images on x-ray boards or through Recent Advances in Anaesthesia and Analgesia. (No. 20.) Edited by
endoscopes. “Physicians,” Spiro writes, “learn how to cure A.P. Adams and J.N. Cashman. 252 pp., illustrated. New York,
but little about how to care.” What Spiro is leading us to Churchill Livingstone, 1998. $75. ISBN 0-443-05988-8.
is his detailed contemplation of the placebo. What is a pla- BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE
cebo? How does it exert its effects? Is the use of a placebo Basic Human Genetics. Second edition. By Elaine Johansen Mange
legitimate only in the setting of a clinical trial? Is it ethical and Arthur P. Mange. 530 pp., illustrated; with CD-ROM. Sunder-
for a physician to treat an individual patient with a placebo? land, Mass., Sinauer Associates, 1999. $72.95. ISBN 0-87893-497-9.
Must the doctor always tell the patient, “You will (may) Basic Neurochemistry: Molecular, cellular, and medical aspects.
Sixth edition. Edited by George J. Siegel, with Bernard W. Agra-
receive a placebo”? Who has the authority to judge whether noff, R. Wayne Albers, Stephen K. Fisher, and Michael D. Uhler.
the use of a placebo is ethical? (“In medical practice ethicist 1183 pp., illustrated. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,
has come to mean those people who evaluate how doctors 1999. $69.50. ISBN 0-397-51820-X.
act with patients but who themselves rarely take care of Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid–Base Physiology: A problem-based ap-
proach. Third edition. By Mitchell L. Halperin and Marc B. Gold-
patients.”) stein. 632 pp., illustrated. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders, 1999. $58.
Spiro moves from the placebo to alternative medicine. ISBN 0-7216-7072-5.
He argues that alternative medicine is a gussied-up placebo The Gut as a Model in Cell and Molecular Biology. (Falk Sympo-
— a placebo with special qualities that distinguish it from sium. Vol. 94.) Edited by F. Halter, D. Winton, and N.A. Wright. 319
pp. Boston, Kluwer Academic, 1998. $163. ISBN 0-7923-8726-0.
the usual sugar pill. In a close analysis, Spiro deals with nu- Heart Development. Edited by Richard P. Harvey and Nadia
merous “unconventional” approaches to the sick, from Rosenthal. 530 pp., illustrated. San Diego, Calif., Academic Press,
shamanism to Christian Science, always wondering if they 1999. $159.95. ISBN 0-12-329860-1.
do help the sick, and if so, by what mechanism. His exam- Human Embryology and Developmental Biology. Second edition.
By Bruce M. Carlson. 494 pp., illustrated. St. Louis, Mosby, 1999.
ination is sympathetic, but he criticizes alternative medi- $39.95. ISBN 0-8151-1458-3.
cine for refusing to be judged by the standards required of Leukotrienes: New concepts and targets for therapy. Edited by Ian
mainstream medicine. (“The holistic alternative medicine Rodger, Jack Botting, and Sven-Erik Dahlén. 143 pp. Boston, Kluwer
movement represents the romantic reaction to the sway of Academic, 1998. $85. ISBN 0-7923-8738-4.
Markell and Voge’s Medical Parasitology. Eighth edition. By Edward
reason in medicine in our postmodern time.”) Yet Spiro also K. Markell, David T. John, and Wojciech A. Krotoski. 501 pp., illus-
condemns the proposition that every ailment has a molec- trated. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders, 1999. $49.95. ISBN 0-7216-
ular or structural basis, and he blames our medical schools 7634-0.
and teaching hospitals for inculcating doctors with the “sci- Molecular Basis of Cardiovascular Disease: A companion to Braun-
wald’s Heart Disease. By Kenneth R. Chen, with Jan L. Breslow,
entific fallacy” of medical reductionism (“the more medical Jeffrey M. Leiden, Robert D. Rosenberg, and Christine E.
science does for disease, the less physicians do for patients”). Seidman. 637 pp., illustrated. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders, 1999.
In The Power of Hope Spiro raises many disquieting ques- $135. ISBN 0-7216-6401-6.

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