Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

На първо място, не вреди – истории за живота, смъртта и неврохирургията by Henry Marsh

10 reviews

caro6408's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, Blood, Cancer, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, Cursing, Fatphobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: War, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Drug use, Addiction, and Vomit

jolyne's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

To be honest, I loved it. There are so many valid criticisms about this book — specifically about how he talks about his patients and how frankly he confronts the mistakes of his past — so I understand why plenty of people DNF from finding his personality borderline detestable. I must say though, that when reading a memoir about someone at the end of their intense and complicated career, I would much rather feel as though I am traversing their genuine reflections (however disturbing) than feel like I’m wading through a revisionist novel that reimagines the author in the most self-congratulatory light imaginable. 

Of course, it gets intense. It’s uncomfortable to read about how a medical professional regards his patients and to be faced with a lack of compassion that we typically expect doctors to have, but that’s also a story that has to be told. As people who are not surgeons, many of us just choose to place our confidence in the doctors that we’re told to have faith in. It’s interesting to then be placed on the other side of the looking glass and forced to confront the unspoken truths that we try to avoid thinking about, and Marsh makes for a funny and sardonic guide. Elaborating on how there’s almost a certain necessary level of sociopathy that brain surgeons need in order to be able to stomach operating on such uncertain cases, he also takes time to regard his colleagues who aren’t in neurosurgery with what feels like a sense of envy, love, and respect, saying that they were much too nice to ever succeed in his field.

As somebody who reads a lot of non-fiction, I also always appreciate when the writing style opts for being accesible instead of being ridiculously indulgent (we get it guys, you’re smart and have a lot to say blah blah). This is a book that I would be comfortable recommending to most people, in part because of how conversational Marsh’s writing is but mostly for the gripping content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Drug use

angelagm's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

emily_p1's review against another edition

emotional funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Cancer

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, and Gore

nere's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

2.0

Thursday, December 22, 2022

"I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing."

unfortunately this very much reads like someone who loves to hear themselves talk

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Cancer

fluffy1st's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Child death, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent

kfquarium's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Excrement, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Addiction, and Suicide attempt

leoniefnk's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

2.25

If seen as a collection of short stories, I might rate this somewhat higher. However, as a single piece this misses the mark purely out of lacking organization disrupting what had the potential for good storytelling. The jumps in time back and forth, not only between phases of life but between specific events which you feel like you've already heard about (and forgotten), is extremely annoying. One story would tangent to another before returning, so that I hardly knew in which anecdote I was in. As someone interesting in a career in surgery, I'm glad I read this, but I found the narrator limited in his own reflection: perhaps he observed the trends in how his behavior, practice, and views have changed, but he does not seem to go beyond that. I finished the book having felt like I had just listened to an old man's disorganized retelling of his life i.e. this felt like a second or third draft. If one switches the order of the chapters, nothing is lost/gained, and I failed to discern an overall message/theme when looking at the stories as a whole. To the author: why should I read this book? What are you trying to tell me?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

fetterica's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Death and Suicide attempt

neri's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical content