Book Review: May 2025

Book Review: Cutting a Path: The Power of Purpose, Discipline, and Determination

Author: Dr. Sheri Dewan

Book Reviewer: Taraf Jaro

Book cover with photo of a woman surgeon putting on a medical mask with the text Dr. Sheri Dewan Cutting a Path The Power of Purpose, Discipline, and Determination

Identify an outcome, lay out the steps, and execute. Whether going through the steps of a surgery or achieving a goal, this is the ideal template for checking off the to-do list and getting it done. However, in a field as grueling as surgery, this seemingly simple path can appear almost too idealistic and, at times, crowded by physical, interpersonal, and emotional roadblocks. In her empowering memoir Cutting a Path: The Power of Purpose, Discipline, and Determination, neurosurgeon Dr. Sheri Dewan highlights her journey from pre-medical student to attending. She walks us through the pivotal moment of her mother’s aneurysm that initially exposed her to neurosurgery, how she ultimately reached the decision to pursue medicine, and the tumultuous years of residency that shaped her into the physician she is today. In lieu of many women in the field, Dr. Dewan also recounts the delicate art of growing a family in a lifestyle that otherwise marginalizes women choosing to do so, connecting to female readers in the field on both a personal and professional level.

In her autobiography, Dr. Dewan shares her experiences as a new graduate on the path to becoming a neurosurgeon. Spanning over a decade, she guides us through the heartbreak and trauma of her mom’s aneurysm that lends itself to her pursuing medicine, the stages through which she decided to follow through with neurosurgery, and the challenges both unique to neurosurgery residency and experienced by all surgical and medical residents. The overall theme of her autobiography is that reaching a large, almost seemingly insurmountable goal requires summiting countless smaller milestones whose sum results in neurosurgery. She highlights that the simple algorithm of creating a plan and executing the steps is merely a simplified version of the actual path she took. 

Dr. Dewan takes on a practical, solution-oriented approach to her writing. Her reflections on her experiences offer a powerful juxtaposition to her straightforward tone, offering a refreshing read in a field where pushing down one’s emotions is more often praised. She does so by recognizing what she is feeling, acknowledging its presence, and welcoming it with open arms without now allowing it to take over her actions. Beginning from post-undergrad and continuing until her first attending job, Dr. Dewan organizes her narrative by using the natural progression of her career as signposts, occasionally interspersed with moments memorable to her, such as her daughter’s first birthday. Anyone ascending the medical student-to-attending-physician pipeline is familiar with the path, expanding the range of her message to reach beyond the target audience of women embarking on their physician training journeys. 

The text provides consistent odes to the theme, including self-reflection and a spirit animal. Following each chapter are reflections providing pragmatic steps towards achieving your dreams. They incline the book towards self-development by using Dr. Dewan’s story as an example of how to overcome challenges when practically applying these methods. Unconnected from medicine or residency, the pearls of wisdom uniquely create a mentor-mentee relationship between author and reader that can be applied across any discipline. Additionally, she references a tiger motif throughout the book. Traits of the female tiger, such as being ‘destined for the hunt’ through strategic planning, needing to strongly trust her instinct, and being powerful and fearless protectors, are continuously drawn in. Her ability to regulate her emotions with such an empowering tool reflects Dr. Dewan’s strong emotional intelligence. I admire how she looks up to a force of nature as opposed to one distinct figure; a nod towards her being one of the few women to achieve her accomplishments.

Dr. Dewan concludes each chapter with a general note on how to channel that section’s lessons towards executing a goal that ultimately leads to a dream, opening her book to a breadth of walks of life. However, her target audience centers around those who must carry out those tasks while shouldering pregnancy, postpartum, motherhood, and running a household, simply because she herself went through them. She emphasizes the need to empower women and people of color to plan and execute their dreams uninhibited by the inevitable marginalization stemming from social barriers. Although she was stereotyped and faced microaggressions, Dr. Dewan allowed her differences to empower rather than burden her, yielding all the differences in the manner she shouldered her challenges. She encourages all dream seekers to do the same by using her story as a guide for overcoming any challenge faced, whether expected or unforeseen. 

Women can sympathize strongly, including reflections beyond the tasks, where Dr. Dewan encapsulates the unspoken emotional labor of being a caretaker, wife, mother, and the first female surgeon in her residency program. She shares the vulnerable, whispered, yet widely common desire to be able to commit to one aspect of life fully, whether that be career, family, or other tasks, yet being too thinly spread across all. The outcome is consistently feeling as though she is underperforming in one area while overperforming in another, and being unable to go all in at all times. Meeting the needs of her loved ones while ignoring her own at times is a struggle shared by women globally and across professions, further varying the range of people who may be able to see themselves in her shoes.

Dr. Dewan’s ‘Cutting a Path’ provides an objective guide and an authentic narrative on her path to becoming a neurosurgeon, she maintains relatability by encouraging the relentless pursuit of any goal. Providing tangible tools to overcome challenges on the path to success, the avid aspiring female surgeon can and should reference her memoir at each stage of her journey. Dr. Dewan is truly a trailblazer and an inspiration for all female leaders in surgery.

About the Author: Dr. Sheri Dewan

Sheri Dewan headshot

Dr. Sheri Dewan is a board-certified neurosurgeon and best-selling author of the book, “Cutting A Path.” She is the Chair of Neuroscience at Ascension Health and serves as Clinical Professor at The Chicago Medical School. She is one of roughly two hundred board-certified women neurosurgeons in the United States. She completed her neurosurgery residency at Brown University and graduate degree at Northwestern University. She is a proud board member of Women in Neurosurgery (WINS), Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Dewan donates her time performing charity surgery in Southern India and sits on multiple charity foundation boards. She has studied business and finance at the University of Oxford Executive Education program in London, England.

Dr. Dewan is trilingual (English, Spanish and Hindi) and has lived in five countries. Her clinical interests include minimally invasive robotic and endoscopic spine surgery. She holds medical licenses in the US, India and Qatar and is a Visiting Consultant in Neurosurgery at The View Hospital in Doha, Qatar.

 

About the Reviewer: Taraf Jaro

Taraf Jaro Headshot

Taraf Jaro is a final-year medical student at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland in Bahrain. Raised in both Virginia and the Middle East, she recognizes her multicultural background as an asset to bridging interconnectability between East and West. She has contributed to AWS since 2020, including serving two years as the Regional Representative for Africa and the Middle East, helping coordinate the High School Outreach event at the annual AWS 2023 conference, and serving two years on the Publications Committee. 

Outside AWS, she has participated in Yale Global Health SURGE 2023 and is joining the University of Chicago Neuroendovascular Research Team over the next year. Beyond academics, she enjoys working out and exploring new restaurants with her friends and family

 
 
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