Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Few of us have truly confronted our mortality. For my friends and I that are reaching middle age the stretch of days, months, and years we expect to have in our future seems almost limitless. I'll be turning 40 this year, and that probably isn't even the midway point of my life if I happen to be blessed with the same longevity of much of my family. Those days are finite, however, and we all need to regularly review what measures we would take to extend our life and what we would consider a life worth living. What's more, many in my shoes will be taking care of their own parents, if not now then soon. We need to be able to discuss what makes for a meaningful life and our wishes. This book provides an excellent window into how modern medicine often substitutes quantity of life for quality of life, and how to approach the hard decisions we must face as we approach our end.
If you read nothing else, stop in a library or bookstore and browse the epilogue. There you will find the condensed version of the book. Doctors want to fix, heal, and provide hope. We all die, however, and there is no beating death. Given that, at what point should extreme measures be taken that provide little hope of improvement. In many cases a patient will choose to undergo painful, debilitating chemotherapy in the hope of one day fully springing back to their youthful selves. The reality is that the procedure will most likely not work, and even if it does, will leave the patient at a plateau within their disease.
In addition to the discussion of medical choices, there are also fantastic chapters on attitudes towards the elderly. As we grow old, we lose our independence. That can be frustrating and frightening. Hospitals and traditional nursing homes further remove that independence by demanding that patients live on the schedule most effective for the staff, not what is most comfortable for the patient. Patients begin to feel that they are simply being stored off until death takes them rather than continuing to live fruitful and worthwhile lives. Contrast this to the independent and assisted living centers which allow such simple but meaningful forms of autonomy as choosing the thermostat settings for your room, choosing when to eat, and when to bathe. What seem like trivial freedoms are huge for those who have already suffered diminished autonomy.
Being Mortal is an important book, and an important subject for everyone to confront and have frank conversations about. This book is a great way to start that process.
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Review: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
Review: The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Chrysalids drew me in the more I read. It's set in a time many centuries after nuclear war has reshaped humanity. There are pockets of civilization, small towns and not much more, that vigorously keep to the 'true image' of all things. They strictly judge not just their livestock and crops, but their offspring as well and cast out anything that is deviant. Beyond these pockets lie fringes areas where the genetically inferior are left to live among mutinous flora and fauna. Beyond that are the bad lands, where only mutations grow, and worse beyond, where anything that touches the land dies.
David is a young many growing to adulthood in these circumstances. His father is one of the community's most strict adherents to the rule of the true image. It is a difficult childhood for him.
There are a lot of themes that can be taken from this story. It would make for an excellent book club reading or classroom discussion. I can heartily recommend it to almost any reader.
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Review: The Water Knife
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bacigalupi writes modern dystopias. By that I mean, he writes of potential dystopias based on modern issues. Twenty years ago and further back our dystopias were all based on the premise of some all out war between superpowers. Whether it was nukes or an EMP, it was definitely a war that brought about our end. Bacigalupi writes how our greed will be our end. The blind eye we turn to our environment so that we can make that sweet, sweet short term dollar. The Water Knife is the story of greed for water. Californians are already feeling the pinch of too little water. The end of days scenario Bacigalupi presents doesn't seem that far off.
More than a story of death by our hands, this is also a story of the lies we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves it is going to get better. We tell ourselves this little lie, when we know it won't. That lie prevents us from making the changes that would actually impact our lives in positive ways. Lucy, Angel, Toomie....they all believe the lie they tell themselves. Just get by today, and maybe tomorrow it will get better. Maria sees the lie for what it is, and is the rare creature who ignores the lie.
It's a fascinating, gripping, and depressing story of what our future could be like.
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Review: Annihilation
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
A very good emulation of H.P. Lovecraft, but without any sort of resolution. I never grew to like any of the characters. I never felt any real sort of fear. Worse, it quickly became clear we wouldn't learn anything meaningful about Area X, so I didn't even feel a sense of curiosity.
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