Victor Villas reviewed Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Important and fruitful read
3 stars
This book encourages some crucial conversations and has greatly expanded my view of what it means to pursue health at the last stages of life. Most importantly, even though I'm surely still ill equipped emotionally, I've learned through account of other people's experiences what kinds of questions to ask.
The high relevancy and impact of this read make it worthwhile, but the book suffers from the non-fiction disease of the century: unnecessary long, repetitive, anecdotal and light on inputs from researchers in relevant fields. It might win over the most stubborn reader, but I had to speed through the middle sections of most chapters to ensure I'd have patience for the whole book.
This book encourages some crucial conversations and has greatly expanded my view of what it means to pursue health at the last stages of life. Most importantly, even though I'm surely still ill equipped emotionally, I've learned through account of other people's experiences what kinds of questions to ask.
The high relevancy and impact of this read make it worthwhile, but the book suffers from the non-fiction disease of the century: unnecessary long, repetitive, anecdotal and light on inputs from researchers in relevant fields. It might win over the most stubborn reader, but I had to speed through the middle sections of most chapters to ensure I'd have patience for the whole book.
