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A review by edders
Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh
5.0
Admissions begins in a similar place to where Henry Marsh's previous book, Do No Harm, left us. Mr Marsh is a neurosurgeon who is slowly retiring from practice after a long career. He is frustrated by bureaucracy surrounding him in his work in the English NHS but equally or more concerned for individual colleagues he has helped that work outside of teams, braving the responsibility and the effort of maintaining isolated neurosurgical practices alone. He is also anxious about how much time he has left in the world, and whether he can begin anything when he is no longer a young man.
There is much in this book that is similar to that in Do No Harm - the sense of self-importance, the medical jargon being broken down for his audience in the technical cases he exposes to us and of course, the awful and tense consequences of the surgeries he describes (many of them unsuccessful to at least some degree). However, the tone of Admissions has changed quite a bit and I think it gives us an impression of honesty and reflection that was missing in Do No Harm.
This is not a book that could be written by a young man entering his career. Mr Marsh has become more honest and more afraid since writing Do No Harm but he has become a much better author because of it. He still conveys a passion for the precise science and art of brain surgery, but he is now admitting the uncertainties and the pain that come with his profession.
All in all this book is a much more touching one than Do No Harm. It spends a long time addressing fears of failure, fear of undignified death and fear of leaving things unfinished. Hope is a recurrent theme which Marsh finally explores through his patients. He criticises the attitude of surgeons whilst empathising with it.
There is much in this book that is similar to that in Do No Harm - the sense of self-importance, the medical jargon being broken down for his audience in the technical cases he exposes to us and of course, the awful and tense consequences of the surgeries he describes (many of them unsuccessful to at least some degree). However, the tone of Admissions has changed quite a bit and I think it gives us an impression of honesty and reflection that was missing in Do No Harm.
This is not a book that could be written by a young man entering his career. Mr Marsh has become more honest and more afraid since writing Do No Harm but he has become a much better author because of it. He still conveys a passion for the precise science and art of brain surgery, but he is now admitting the uncertainties and the pain that come with his profession.
All in all this book is a much more touching one than Do No Harm. It spends a long time addressing fears of failure, fear of undignified death and fear of leaving things unfinished. Hope is a recurrent theme which Marsh finally explores through his patients. He criticises the attitude of surgeons whilst empathising with it.