Being Mortal, Atul Gawande, 2014

Rating: 5/5

I must admit I approached this book with some trepidation -- this book has been hyped up quite a bit, is written by a practicing surgeon and is about aging and terminal illnesses, mundane topics. But was I incredibly and pleasantly surprised! This book is one of the most useful books that I have read and is remarkable from beginning to end.

Gawande starts off by making the point that unlike in the past, when death was sudden, there is now a prolonged period of aging and the inexorable decay of the body and faculties. He wonders how we reached a situation where the only option for the elderly is to get "institutionalised" and lose control of their lives. The book essentially focuses on the issues with the current medical approach towards terminal illnesses, especially of older people, and towards aging. As Gawande puts it, this approach concentrates on repair of health, even if it means just slightly prolonging the inevitable and tremendously increasing the pain, rather than on the sustenance of the soul. And this sustenance may mean different things for different people -- as one of his patients says, "the best thing in your life is when you can go yourself to the bathroom".

One of the things that I liked about the book was its prescriptive nature -- it does not stop at just laying out the trouble with modern medical care. With real examples, he details what medical practitioners can do to overcome the above issues, and more importantly, what individuals can and should do when grappling with their own aging or that of their loved ones. Ultimately, the job of medicine is not to ensure health and survival but to enable well-being. And in this context, it is important to have difficult conversations and also knowing when to let go.

This is the first book that I have read of Gawande and found him to be an impressive writer. The book is a fascinating and easy read despite the seriousness of the subject, and he has filled the book with personal anecdotes that are immensely relatable to. His brave description of his father's last days, who himself was a medical practitioner, add to the credibility of his arguments and enhance our learnings too. Parts of the book can be a bit depressing given an element of morbidness but I would strongly recommend this to any reader, whether she is elderly herself, has aging parents, or even otherwise.

Pros: Superbly written, tremendously useful for everyone

Cons: Slightly depressing perhaps