In ‘An Imperfect Offering’, a memoir written by James Orbinski on his travelling tales as a doctor working and bearing witness in some of the world’s most death-ridden and hostile regions, he writes of a man he met in Afghanistan who once said to him: “No scars, no story, no life. Sometimes, the best story […]
Category: Book Reviews
James Poskett: Abandoning disease
Imagine you are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Your weight loss, lethargy and occasionally-blurred vision are all finally explained and your treatment, regular injections of insulin, prescribed. A month later you go back to your doctor. They open their clinical handbook, flick through the index and, rather unfortunately, ‘diabetes’ has been omitted from the latest […]
Gawande’s ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ and Jurisevic’s ‘Blood on My Hands’
Atul Gawande has published ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ with Profile Books. Its about his WHO project to develop an 18 point safety checklist for non-cardiac operations. His blend of anecdotes and data makes comparison with building construction and aircraft accident investigation. On a more personal level Craig Jurisevic has published ‘Blood on my Hands’ as an […]
“In the Land of Invisible Women” by Qanta Ahmed
I have recently been reading a memoir by a British lady, of Pakistan origin, who undertakes a position as a medical doctor at a hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The book is beautifully formatted, with a cover decorated in Islamic art and design, with each chapter laid out to chronicle another adventure in Dr Ahmed’s […]
Book review: The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Helen Garner’s The Spare Room (published by Canongate) is an exploration of the emotional and practical turmoil engendered by caring for someone who is grasping at straws to evade the terminal truth of their illness. The narrative probes a friendship between two feisty women when it is taken to new levels of intensity by […]