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A review by ashleyhubbard
Autopsy: Life In The Trenches With A Forensic Pathologist In Africa by Ryan Blumenthal
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.
I was so excited to read this book because I love forensic pathology and medical memoir-type books.
But almost immediately I was cringing and often. I found Blumenthal to be lacking compassion and empathy for anyone that wasn't "innocent" enough for him to treat.
According to him, he only got in medicine to help the "innocent." Innocent being defined as someone who does everything right -- not a smoker or drinker, someone eats healthy and exercises, and so on.
Yet, the author views himself as a compassionate and caring person. Which is just, honestly, confusing.
In the win column, I did really find the forensic pathology content fascinating but the lack of compassion really ruined it for me. There are plenty of other books on similar topics one could read but as I like to read a diverse range of authors and stories, I was excited to read this one – especially coming from an African perspective.
I think this book could have been handled with a stronger editor (or an editor at all – I'm not sure if there was one). Sometimes, the author rambled too much and sometimes they didn't explain things for the everyday layman.
But almost immediately I was cringing and often. I found Blumenthal to be lacking compassion and empathy for anyone that wasn't "innocent" enough for him to treat.
According to him, he only got in medicine to help the "innocent." Innocent being defined as someone who does everything right -- not a smoker or drinker, someone eats healthy and exercises, and so on.
Yet, the author views himself as a compassionate and caring person. Which is just, honestly, confusing.
In the win column, I did really find the forensic pathology content fascinating but the lack of compassion really ruined it for me. There are plenty of other books on similar topics one could read but as I like to read a diverse range of authors and stories, I was excited to read this one – especially coming from an African perspective.
I think this book could have been handled with a stronger editor (or an editor at all – I'm not sure if there was one). Sometimes, the author rambled too much and sometimes they didn't explain things for the everyday layman.