Complications by Atul Gawande

Complications: A surgeon's notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande (2002)
Read: September 2011

I was lent this book by a colleague at work after I’d recommended to them the Goldacre Bad Science book. It is written by a surgeon in the early years of qualification as they reflect on their experiences as a resident trainee, and how they continue to learn new techniques each day.

It is a very obvious premise when you think about it. Gawande points out that when it comes to medicine, and surgery especially, we want to have the best doctor on hand with the most experience and lowest risk of error. However to get to be the surgeon with the most experience you have to practice… so where do you get this practice from if you aren’t performing surgery (because you aren’t the most experienced yet)? The book also ponders a thought which I see in teaching and education – that you may have been doing this for many ‘years’, but in that case you were trained in techniques many years ago, and aren’t necessarily doing the new/modern/cutting edge thing. Again - how can you balance the years experience with the value of fresh ideas, fresh mind and fresh enthusiasm. Continuing Professional Development may be the buzz word here, but then you get back to the original conundrum – how can you have the most experience in your field if you don’t get to practice!

 

I did find this book fascinating – from the case examples given, the personal reflection on his own failings and premise of learning curves. It was difficult at times to read though because of thinking about the situation I am in at the moment hearing that a family member needs to undergo diagnosis and surgery.

Being Abbas El Abd by Ahmed Alaidy

Being Abbas El Abd by Ahmed Alaidy (2003, translated 2006)
Read: September 2011

I read this book in a day probably about a two years after I bought it and a good year after Scott read it. I bought it because the Grauniad had run a story in their Review section about modern Arabic literature. Taxi was recommended in the article – and we loved that book – as was this and a few others, but this was the only one that they had at Adam bookshop in the Grand Mall (a great bookshop with modern, kids and coffee table books in English, Arabic and German).

This book was described as being “inspired by Chuck Palahniuk” and as such seemed to be the cutting edge of modern Arabic writing. What I found though was that this was almost more Irving Welsh with the language specific dialect being used. For me this book confused modern and contemporary with street/shock modern – it was as if the author had a point to prove that Arabic writing can be edgy and can compete with writers like Palahniuk and Welsh. All this for me though actually made it a difficult read and the story wasn’t all that great. It was as if the writer was trying too hard to be controversial and like his icons, that he didn’t develop the story or writing style enough.

The story was that of Abbas, who was an enigmatic character who would make arrangements on behalf of his friend, the narrator, and then shirk off into the background. It had suggestions of the split personality seen in Fight Club and was very psychological in the narrative. The text was littered with symbols (literally symbols, such as smilies and bloke/woman signs) and odd phrasing. I found the story interesting, but not particularly engaging or revealing (what I normally enjoy about reading Arabic translations is getting a bit of insight into the culture and region).

The most interesting part of the book was actually the translators note – a few pages at the end of the book. This revealed the difficulty the translator had had in adapting the book from Arabic to English and translating colloquialisms and slang into an English text. The translator also mentioned that some phrases in the book had been written in English already – to emphasise various points – and so he chose not to translate these back into Arabic, but to use French instead.

What this book taught me was that the title of the AUC series “modern arabic literature” is quite a clustering of styles and writings. Most of which are probably better described as “contemporary” – set in current times and about current issues. This book seems to have taken the definition of “modern” quite literally and tried to do something that is more ‘out there’. Maybe it has pushed some boundaries – shown that Arabic authors too can write in this way – it’s just that ‘this way’ is maybe not for me!

The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (2008)
Read: September 2011

Jane bought us this book after we raved about enjoying The Historian. Both books do the job really well of balancing story with semi-academic historical research.

The protagonist of the book is a book restorer and as she examines and restores this old text she tries to unravel the clues hidden between the pages – an insect wing here, a staining there. Using her knowledge, contacts and a bit of science she is able to get close to the history behind the book – a place and a time and some background – but the novel then diverges and you get a chapter showing the detail of the true story that this book went through to get to its current home.

I liked how the book progressed with the two stories side-by-side and that the book was gradually going back in time, not forward, rather like Memento. The science and research side of the book interested me and didn’t weigh the book down at all, but meant that each story was well led into.What I really liked was the detail descriptions given of the book – in some ways I wanted to see an illustration or example of a kabbalah, but at the same time it was nice to create my own image of the book and its detail.

What I didn’t expect was the protagonists story to have so many layers to it. The relationship she has with her mother is key to her life and personality and I didn’t expect this to be explored in so much detail – rather the focus to be on the text and the characters around it. It was a really interesting story in itself as the mother and daughter confronted each other.

 

The way that the narrative of the book worked too, meant that you could explore many different time periods and places as the book travelled on its journey.

Grauniad Travel Tip: Travel Books - Narrow Dog to Carcassonne

Narrow Dog to Carcassonne, by Terry Darlington

I love to travel slowly. This book describes the adventures of a family (Terry and Monica Darlington and their dog) as they travel by narrowboat across the Channel and then through the waterways of France. It closes with a stanza from a most beautiful poem: Ithaka by CP Cavafy (tinyurl.com/ithakacavafy). The poem describes how the journey and adventures on the way to Ithaka are more important than any destination. A great motto for anyone who loves travel, and one that inspired my husband and me to choose it as a reading at our wedding.

Alip

Not a winning tip, but was published (and deemed phot-worthy!) in the paper today :)

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (2008)

Read: August 2011

I think I picked this book up from a science teacher friend as he was leaving Egypt and thought it looked a good enough read. When we lived (and worked) in Cam I used to go and buy half a dozen ‘popular science’ books at the start of each term trying to get the most out of having a student discount. This book would definitely fit into the ‘popular science’ category as it is an accessible science-y read, but on opening it up I found that it was so much more than that.

Ben Goldacre is a journalist (as well as being a qualified doctor and working full-time for the NHS) and his aim in life (and in this book) is to show that a lot of people use “science” in bad ways – they misrepresent studies, make generalised claims, complete poor research, promote flimsy ideas as fact and more. The book covers a number of different stories and examples on this theme, looking at his favourite subjects of Gillian McKeith, MMR, nutritionists and homeopathy as well as using a huge range of smaller studies to back up his claims that a lot of science out there is bad science.

It’s a really compelling read and I really enjoyed it – being all science-y, but also full to logic and reasoning to have someone help explain why these ridiculous stories get into our newspapers and are so quickly purported as fact. I’m actually planning to use some of the material in various chapters to help teach my TOK (Theory of Knowledge) course with examples of how we know in science, maths, emotion, reasoning and instinct. Lots of annotations and turned down corners in this book!

The Samaritan’s Secret by Matt Rees

The Samaritan’s Secret by Matt Rees (2009)

Read: August 2011

I think I first heard about Matt Rees and the Omar Yussef detective/crime novels from a newspaper review, and after reading the first in the series I made sure I had the full set. I don’t like to rush the things that I love, so have been spreading the reading of his books out over as long as I can stand. Getting back to Egypt last week I wanted to get back into Middle East mode, but with something good to read, not too hard or potentially rubbish (!) so I dived into the third Omar Yussef book and finished it in a matter of days.

I really loved this book as we saw (a little) more of Omar Yussef’s granddaughter (who is his favourite and the one who encourages him on his detective adventures) and his family. The book also expanded beyond Bethlehem and Gaza now to Jerusalem and introduces the Samaritans as the new source of mystery when one of their members is found murdered. It’s interesting to read about the small community of the Samaritans and their teetering presence on the edge of society. The other divide here is between the ins and the outs, as we find out that the deceased was an adviser to the Old Man and is suspected of remaining in control of not only his money, but money donated by the UN. The story is twisted, as these things are in the Middle East, by corruption and (a new slant I haven’t seen in Rees’ books before) homosexuality.

Again a really great book that tells a compelling story in a setting that I find real to life and fascinating. There’s only one book of the series left..how long can I wait?