Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
I’d read an article that this book was based on, about the need for more geriatric doctors, and I’d read another book by Atul Gawande, so that pretty much sold me on this even before I kept seeing it popping up everywhere.
This is a hard book to read. It talks about aging, decrepitude, and dying, which are never sunny topics. Can you read this book without imagining your own body breaking down, your own mother needing full-time care? I couldn’t. It’s deeply uncomfortable.
And yet, it’s valuable information. It’s a discussion we need to have. It made me broach the subject with my own parents, who are, thankfully, still in fairly good health. It also made me consider what kind of life I want to have when I’m old.
I recommend this for people whose parents are becoming elderly, with the caveat that you should have something cheerful to follow it up with, as BEING MORTAL is quite a downer.
