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A review by rebeccasche
With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix
5.0
"With the End in Mind" is most importantly these things: gentle, tender and very, very human.
Furthermore, it is an absolute masterpiece and incredibly beautiful.
Kathryn Mannix tells stories in way that is inexplicably touching, without making things sound more dramatic than they are or were. She allows her humanness to shine through and shows us her perspective without warping things. The way she tells the stories she wants to share from her personal experience just adds an extra layer of intensitiy to it and helps you to experience them from a close distance instead of reading them as very far away, unrelatable stories that are supposed to teach you something. This book is profound, and real.
Everyone should read this book. Mannix finishes it with "Living is precious, and is perhaps best appreciated when we live with the end in mind. It's time to talk about dying. I have. Thank you for listening. Now it's your turn to talk" and she is absolutely right. Death is one of the only two parts of life that EVERY living being shares - with the other part being birth. Our mortality makes death inevitable, yet we seem to avoid it at all cost, especially in western society. But there is so much to gain from not only openly talking about death, but accepting it as a fundamental (and final) part of life and letting this acceptance change the way we not only approach death, but live until we ultimately meet it.
I have never been this moved by something so real. It made me cry more than 10 times and not because it was sad or dramatic, but because it was so touching, so honest, so real. I just know that Kathryn Mannix is the kind of doctor you can only hope for. And I know that this book can possible change lives.
Furthermore, it is an absolute masterpiece and incredibly beautiful.
Kathryn Mannix tells stories in way that is inexplicably touching, without making things sound more dramatic than they are or were. She allows her humanness to shine through and shows us her perspective without warping things. The way she tells the stories she wants to share from her personal experience just adds an extra layer of intensitiy to it and helps you to experience them from a close distance instead of reading them as very far away, unrelatable stories that are supposed to teach you something. This book is profound, and real.
Everyone should read this book. Mannix finishes it with "Living is precious, and is perhaps best appreciated when we live with the end in mind. It's time to talk about dying. I have. Thank you for listening. Now it's your turn to talk" and she is absolutely right. Death is one of the only two parts of life that EVERY living being shares - with the other part being birth. Our mortality makes death inevitable, yet we seem to avoid it at all cost, especially in western society. But there is so much to gain from not only openly talking about death, but accepting it as a fundamental (and final) part of life and letting this acceptance change the way we not only approach death, but live until we ultimately meet it.
I have never been this moved by something so real. It made me cry more than 10 times and not because it was sad or dramatic, but because it was so touching, so honest, so real. I just know that Kathryn Mannix is the kind of doctor you can only hope for. And I know that this book can possible change lives.