Better : : a Surgeon's Notes on Performance

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / General / Gawande, Atul	4-week checkout	Due 05-26-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / General / Gawande, Atul	4-week checkout	Due 05-14-2024

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Think about it submitted by larkspur on May 26, 2007, 5:54pm Reading _Better_ all but guarantees you'll be thinking for a good long time about the medical system, both in its miraculous and horrendous aspects; as well as about the drive for improvement and even perfection, and perhaps even about your own philosophy of life. As in his previous collection of essays, _Complications_, Gawande does not shy away from the distasteful in his field, or from the unknown. You'll learn a lot, and learn to question even more.

Gawande is clear about his perspective throughout the essays, but in only a few, including "Doctors of the Death Chamber," does he offer a true opinion. That moment feels somewhat of an imposition: I prefer the open-endedness that is the rule in _Better_. Far more powerful are "The Score" and "The Bell Curve" and "On Washing Hands," essays that will leave you with both less trust in what medicine will achieve, and more respect for the goals towards which medical practitioners strive. Gawande does not want medical professionals on a pedestal. He is fascinated by the humanity that still (despite the "industrialization" of many practices) suffuses and defines a healer.

Better submitted by crp on August 6, 2019, 12:02am AG has done it again. Pure pleasure to read this, esp if you are in medicine or know someone in your family who does.