Reviews for Being Mortal

by Atul Gawande

Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

Gawande's fourth popular book, Being Mortal, layers touching story after touching story into a devastating critique of how people approach the end of life. At times, keeping all the narratives straight proves difficult, yet each piece of each narrative remains powerful. These accounts are woven neatly together with personal and professional reflection as well as scholarship. For example, in the midst of telling readers about his grandmother-in-law's approach to the end of life, surgeon/journalist Gawande (Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School; The New Yorker) quotes B. Vladeck, summing up the origins of one problematic approach: "describing the history of nursing homes from the perspective of the elderly 'is like describing the opening of the American West from the perspective of the mules'" (Unloving Care: The Nursing Home Tragedy, 1980). As Being Mortal draws to a close, Gawande offers some (albeit tentative) recommendations for improving how people face the end of life. Though he does not break new ground here, he rightly points out and announces human shortcomings in a way that all can see and understand. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Abraham P. Schwab, Indiana University--Purdue University Fort Wayne


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Distressed by how the waning days of our lives are given over to treatments that addle our brains and sap our bodies for a sliver's chance of benefit, surgeon Gawande (The Checklist Manifesto, 2010) confronts the contemporary experience of aging and dying. Culture and modern medicine encourage an end-of-life approach that focuses on safety and protection but is sadly shallow. He frets that residents of nursing homes are often lonely and bored. Physicians are keen on intervening whenever a body is diseased or broken. Yet this medical imperative applied to terminally ill individuals can be frustrating, expensive, and even disastrous. Gawande suggests that what most of us really want when we are elderly and incapable of taking care of ourselves are simple pleasures and the autonomy to script the final chapter of life. Making his case with stories about people who are extremely frail, very old, or dying, he explores some options available when decrepitude sets in or death approaches: palliative care, an assisted living facility, hospice, an elderly housing community, and family caregivers. One of these stories is the impassioned account of his father's deterioration and death from a tumor of the spinal cord. As a writer and a doctor, Gawande appreciates the value of a good ending.--Miksanek, Tony Copyright 2014 Booklist


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A prominent surgeon and journalist takes a cleareyed look at aging and death in 21st-century America. Modern medicine can perform miracles, but it is also only concerned with preserving life rather than dealing with end-of-life issues. Drawing on his experiences observing and helping terminally ill patients, Gawande (The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, 2009, etc.) offers a timely account of how modern Americans cope with decline and mortality. He points out that dying in America is a lonely, complex business. Before 1945, people could count on spending their last days at home. Now, most die in institutional settings, usually after trying every medical procedure possible to head off the inevitable. Quality of life is often sacrificed, in part because doctors lack the ability to help patients negotiate a bewildering array of medical and nonmedical options. Many, like Gawande's mother-in-law, Alice, find that they must take residence in senior housing or assisted care facilities due to the fact that no other reasonable options exist. But even the most well-run of these "homes" are problematic because they can only offer sterile institutional settings that restrict independence and can cause psychological distress. Moving in with adult children is also difficult due to the tensions and conflicts that inevitably arise. Yet the current system shows signs of reform. Rather than simply inform patients about their options or tell them what to do, some doctors, including the author, are choosing to offer the guidance that helps patients make their own decisions regarding treatment options and outcomes. By confronting the reality rather than pretending it can be beaten and understanding that "there are times where the cost of pushing exceeds its value," the medical establishment can offer the kind of compassion that allows for more humane ways to die. As Gawande reminds readers, "endings matter." A sensitive, intelligent and heartfelt examination of the processes of aging and dying. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Starred Review. Gawande presents problems and potential solutions to the question of how we can best address our mortality. Through stories and research he shows that we are shifting from a highly medicalized end of life to an experience in which we can have some sort of meaning. Surgeon, writer, and public health researcher Gawande asks how we can live out our later years in the way we desire and how best to talk to our health-care providers to achieve that. He also discusses how health-care providers can and should approach talking to aging patients and their families. Robert Petkoff reads the book in a clear, distinct voice. The book is written from the first person and so the narration comes across very well. Listeners will gain great insight into ways of thinking about the important issues of facing mortality. VERDICT An excellent book for everyone but of particular interest to health-care providers and those approaching their later years or caring for the elderly.-Eric Albright, Tufts Univ. Health Sciences Lib., Boston (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.