★★★★★
This collection of essays and medications is one of easiest and hardest books I’ve ever read. Easy, because Atul Gawande writes like he’s telling a simple story —conversational, personal, and grounded in reality. Hardest, because it asks to deal with the question of what matters in death —and as a consequence, the courage to ask what it means to be alive.
“One has to decide whether one’s fears or one’s hopes are what should matter most.” Do we prioritize having the best possible day for now, hoping for a string of best possible days, or do we sacrifice time now, more treatments or more surgeries, for more time later, however long or short that could be?
The book is a journey in perspective. While some terms are familiar to me as a family doctor, such as “hospice care” or “assisted living”, Gawande tells the story with his patients, his own family, and well-researched material translated to clear and purposeful prose. To me, he asserts the need to revitalize —literally, to add and center life, and not to over-center cure or survival— the highly medicalized approach to death and dying. The subsequent themes are woven through the lives of a recurring cast of characters, meeting again over several chapters, until he finally arrives at the final argument.
“We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive.”
I highly recommend this to any adult, and in particular, to any adult who has dealt with death or the terrifying experience of nearly dying, whether their loved ones’ or their own. A medical degree isn’t needed to reflect on perspectives on life and death’s meaning and purpose. Like life and death, and all the hard conversations in between, this book is for everyone.
Until next time! ♥️
jari m 
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