American writer John Updike praises The House of God, comparing it to the military satire Catch-22. Updike says that the novel dispels the idea that medical professionals do not experience the same human emotions and reactions as non-medical people when faced with the serious and unpleasant parts of their work. Updike states that Shem portrays sex in the novel between nurses and doctors as “mutual relief, as a refuge for both classes of caregiver from the circumambient illness and death, from everything distasteful and pathetic and futile and repulsive about the flesh” (xvi). Updike also identifies the time period of the novel as 1973-74, during the Watergate scandal in America.

It’s August 1974, and Roy Basch is a 30-year-old doctor who has just finished his first year as a medical intern at the House of God hospital. This chapter is a flash-forward, as the rest of the book recounts his internship year from 1973-74. Roy and his girlfriend, Berry, are on vacation in France. Roy is traumatized by his experiences over the past year, and Berry reminds him to pay attention to the present moment rather than reminiscing about his work in the House of God.