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І наостанок
Генрі Марш, нейрохірург із багаторічним стажем, уже на пенсії. Він боровся за людські життя, а тепер сам опинився в ситуації, що може стати його смертним вироком. У цій книжці він пише про заплутаний шлях від лікаря до пацієнта, бо тепер він — уже не в лікарському халаті, а на картці хворого — його прізвище. Генрі Марш нотує спогади про минуле та розмірковує про справи, які треба завершити. І зараз він більше, ніж будь-коли, зачарований таємницями науки і мозку, красою світу природи та любов’ю до своєї родини.
«І наостанок» — елегійна, відверта, світла і пронизлива книжка про життя, смерть і те, що, зрештою, має значення.
«І наостанок» — елегійна, відверта, світла і пронизлива книжка про життя, смерть і те, що, зрештою, має значення.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 17, 2023
About the author
Henry Marsh
24 books717 followersHenry Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St George's Hospital in London in 1987, where he still works full time.
He has been the subject of two major documentary films, YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS, which won the ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY GOLD MEDAL, and THE ENGLISH SURGEON, featuring his work in the Ukraine, which won an EMMY award. He was made a CBE in 2010. He is married to the anthropologist and writer Kate Fox.
His latest book is And Finally, coming after Admissions and Do No Harm.
He has been the subject of two major documentary films, YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS, which won the ROYAL TELEVISION SOCIETY GOLD MEDAL, and THE ENGLISH SURGEON, featuring his work in the Ukraine, which won an EMMY award. He was made a CBE in 2010. He is married to the anthropologist and writer Kate Fox.
His latest book is And Finally, coming after Admissions and Do No Harm.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 408 reviews
July 19, 2022
'As a neurosurgeon, I lived in a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story of how I became a patient myself.'
Henry Marsh writes a candid, reflective and human account of his life as a brain surgeon and his shock at becoming what he never envisaged being, a prostate cancer patient, after doing what doctors so often do, ignoring his symptoms for a considerable length of time. Having retired from his profession, although continuing to work in Ukraine and Nepal, at the age of 70, he had never considered that the state of his brain would be less than ideal, only to be confronted with the reality of a brain scan that revealed its true withered and aged state. What makes this memoir worth reading is that for me Marsh does not shy away from the flaws and imperfections of his time as a neurosurgeon, the mistakes made, the failure to face up to truths, the self deceptions, and the lack of empathy he had with his patients, which he suggests he perhaps needed as it might have hindered his ability to operate to the best of his ability.
Marsh reacts to his potential terminal cancer diagnosis as any ordinary human being might do, the fear and disbelief, he informs us of the classic theory stages, the oscillating between terror and denial, bargaining, anger, and with patients perhaps reaching the stage of acceptance. He accepts he has been fortunate, he has lived a good long life, he has been blessed with good friends, a loving family, supported by his wife Kate, and he loves reading to his grandchildren. As he goes to explore theories of consciousness, he notes their subjective nature, and being a man who does not believe in the afterlife, he concludes it is the present that is important and it is there to be lived to the last breath. His details of his experience of cancer treatment are a true revelation, the hormone treatment, chemical castration, radiotherapy and the side affects suffered.
Whilst parts of the memoir meander a little, I have no doubt many readers will find Marsh's thoughts, reflections and philosophical exploration both eye opening and helpful. He highlights that painful process of ageing and dying can be done well or badly, he acknowledges his cancer came at a time when he had lived a life, so many of his young patients did not have that to fall back on. He examines the debates for assisted dying and the national obstacles that prevent a dignified and peaceful death being available to its citizens. Poignantly, Marsh tells us that it is only in old age and close to death that he comes to understand more about himself and his past. A memoir that I recommend highly. Many thanks .to the publisher for an ARC.
Henry Marsh writes a candid, reflective and human account of his life as a brain surgeon and his shock at becoming what he never envisaged being, a prostate cancer patient, after doing what doctors so often do, ignoring his symptoms for a considerable length of time. Having retired from his profession, although continuing to work in Ukraine and Nepal, at the age of 70, he had never considered that the state of his brain would be less than ideal, only to be confronted with the reality of a brain scan that revealed its true withered and aged state. What makes this memoir worth reading is that for me Marsh does not shy away from the flaws and imperfections of his time as a neurosurgeon, the mistakes made, the failure to face up to truths, the self deceptions, and the lack of empathy he had with his patients, which he suggests he perhaps needed as it might have hindered his ability to operate to the best of his ability.
Marsh reacts to his potential terminal cancer diagnosis as any ordinary human being might do, the fear and disbelief, he informs us of the classic theory stages, the oscillating between terror and denial, bargaining, anger, and with patients perhaps reaching the stage of acceptance. He accepts he has been fortunate, he has lived a good long life, he has been blessed with good friends, a loving family, supported by his wife Kate, and he loves reading to his grandchildren. As he goes to explore theories of consciousness, he notes their subjective nature, and being a man who does not believe in the afterlife, he concludes it is the present that is important and it is there to be lived to the last breath. His details of his experience of cancer treatment are a true revelation, the hormone treatment, chemical castration, radiotherapy and the side affects suffered.
Whilst parts of the memoir meander a little, I have no doubt many readers will find Marsh's thoughts, reflections and philosophical exploration both eye opening and helpful. He highlights that painful process of ageing and dying can be done well or badly, he acknowledges his cancer came at a time when he had lived a life, so many of his young patients did not have that to fall back on. He examines the debates for assisted dying and the national obstacles that prevent a dignified and peaceful death being available to its citizens. Poignantly, Marsh tells us that it is only in old age and close to death that he comes to understand more about himself and his past. A memoir that I recommend highly. Many thanks .to the publisher for an ARC.
March 2, 2023
2023 has already been a stellar year for reading, And Finally, by Henry Marsh has made it even more so. I devoured this because I loved it. Dr Marsh is a retired UK neurosurgeon, he’s 72 and has was diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer, how’s that for relatable? So, Marsh tells his cancer story of course, but he intersperses this by digressing into all sorts of interesting areas – this man is surely a polymath. The polymath content exceeds the cancer stuff considerably BTW.
However, the subject of death is the ribbon running through this book, I can recommend this to everyone, because death is one thing, we all have in common.
Eternity is not the infinite prolongation of time but instead its abolition
A tiny aliquot of Marsh’s offerings – He used to mountain trek, and he discussed mountain sickness. The DNA of Tibetans contain DNA from Denisovans - early hominins who interbred with Homo sapiens, resulting in more efficient oxygen binding haemoglobin - wow. He also discussed the dilemma surgeons have in referring patients to a colleague who may have more of a chance of success operating on a specific case/brain tumour. His discussion on the politics and management of public hospitals was something I could identify with, and it was interesting, and comforting in a way, to read the labyrinth of useless bureaucracy exists everywhere (but there are ways around it). Also, the reluctance of specialists giving out percentage chances of survival (or death) to cancer patients – which is true and why this happens. The types of receptor cells in insect retinas. The desire of humans to significantly elongate life and the research (and the farcical thinking) associated with this. Woodwork. Transposing results from mouse trials to humans, the danger associated with this because ”We are not, it has been observed, large mice - I laughed hard at that one. Anaesthesia (he loves general anaesthesia as do I), etc etc etc – so, so, much interesting stuff.
For me it was his writing on Advanced Prostate Cancer I found the most fascinating. He takes the reader from pre-diagnosis to death, and how, having a probably terminal (sooner or eventually) disease impacts the patient.
Marsh’s exhaustive precis of the final stages of dying with this disease is interesting, captivating and thought provoking. His personal experience of androgen deprivation therapy – ADT - (removing our testosterone) was, for me, hilarious. I howled with laughter when he described looking in the mirror, after he was on ADT for a year or so (I was on this stuff for about 2 years) he said:
“I have acquired the plump and hairless body of a eunuch, and look rather like an outsize geriatric baby””
I snorted like a hog when I read that. It is SO true!! One thing I remember was the glee at seeing my own hair grow back on the top of my head – it wasn’t quite swishy and luscious, but it was apparent nonetheless, and also my smooth skin and hairless limbs were a never-ending source of wonder. But these interesting or positive side-effects were outweighed by my burgeoning “Man-Boobs,” extreme fatigue, very hot flashes, muscle weakness and mental slothfulness. Phenomena I am experiencing and managing to this day.
This is NOT a grim book about a confronting topic, it is bright, bouncy and fascinating. I can recommend this to everyone – it is outstanding.
5 Stars
However, the subject of death is the ribbon running through this book, I can recommend this to everyone, because death is one thing, we all have in common.
Eternity is not the infinite prolongation of time but instead its abolition
A tiny aliquot of Marsh’s offerings – He used to mountain trek, and he discussed mountain sickness. The DNA of Tibetans contain DNA from Denisovans - early hominins who interbred with Homo sapiens, resulting in more efficient oxygen binding haemoglobin - wow. He also discussed the dilemma surgeons have in referring patients to a colleague who may have more of a chance of success operating on a specific case/brain tumour. His discussion on the politics and management of public hospitals was something I could identify with, and it was interesting, and comforting in a way, to read the labyrinth of useless bureaucracy exists everywhere (but there are ways around it). Also, the reluctance of specialists giving out percentage chances of survival (or death) to cancer patients – which is true and why this happens. The types of receptor cells in insect retinas. The desire of humans to significantly elongate life and the research (and the farcical thinking) associated with this. Woodwork. Transposing results from mouse trials to humans, the danger associated with this because ”We are not, it has been observed, large mice - I laughed hard at that one. Anaesthesia (he loves general anaesthesia as do I), etc etc etc – so, so, much interesting stuff.
For me it was his writing on Advanced Prostate Cancer I found the most fascinating. He takes the reader from pre-diagnosis to death, and how, having a probably terminal (sooner or eventually) disease impacts the patient.
Marsh’s exhaustive precis of the final stages of dying with this disease is interesting, captivating and thought provoking. His personal experience of androgen deprivation therapy – ADT - (removing our testosterone) was, for me, hilarious. I howled with laughter when he described looking in the mirror, after he was on ADT for a year or so (I was on this stuff for about 2 years) he said:
“I have acquired the plump and hairless body of a eunuch, and look rather like an outsize geriatric baby””
I snorted like a hog when I read that. It is SO true!! One thing I remember was the glee at seeing my own hair grow back on the top of my head – it wasn’t quite swishy and luscious, but it was apparent nonetheless, and also my smooth skin and hairless limbs were a never-ending source of wonder. But these interesting or positive side-effects were outweighed by my burgeoning “Man-Boobs,” extreme fatigue, very hot flashes, muscle weakness and mental slothfulness. Phenomena I am experiencing and managing to this day.
This is NOT a grim book about a confronting topic, it is bright, bouncy and fascinating. I can recommend this to everyone – it is outstanding.
5 Stars
February 17, 2023
Henry Marsh's first book, Do No Harm, has landed in my Top Ten all-time favorites. This book, while lacking the sense of discovery of his first, still offered the opportunity to spend several hours in the company of a truly brilliant and humane man.
The book can be roughly broken into two halves; the first half concerns the brain, and specifically the human brain (Marsh is a retired neurosurgeon), and the second half concerns death. Which is really an examination of life, of course.
I had more fun with the first half. Marsh has a way with language. Discussing the impossibility of using the human mind to try and understand the human mind:
The second half of the book reads like a series of essays published elsewhere -- a bit disjointed, but no less interesting for that. I did not expect, for example, to read about unicorns with floppy horn disease, which seems like a rather socially crippling blow in the unicorn world.
There's a bit of an elegiac feel to this, which is a pity -- one of our best doctor/authors hanging up his gloves after writing three short but excellent books. I can recommend them all wholeheartedly.
The book can be roughly broken into two halves; the first half concerns the brain, and specifically the human brain (Marsh is a retired neurosurgeon), and the second half concerns death. Which is really an examination of life, of course.
I had more fun with the first half. Marsh has a way with language. Discussing the impossibility of using the human mind to try and understand the human mind:
You can't cut butter with a knife made of butter.He also has this to share:
Hope is one of the most precious drugs doctors have at their disposal...Only at the very end does hope finally flicker out. Hope is not a question of statistical probability or utility. Hope is a state of mind, and states of mind are physical states in our brains, and our brains are intimately connected to our bodies (and especially to our hearts.) Indeed, the idea of a disembodied brain, promoted by the more extreme protagonists for artificial intelligence, might well be meaningless.Moving along, he ponders the mystery of consciousness:
Freud did not discover the unconscious--the idea that we are not fully aware of why we act in the way that we do was not exactly new. He presented an essentially hydraulic model of the mind: infantile erotic and aggressive drives from the id are repressed by the ego and the superego. This buildup of pressure is relieved by dreaming.....Freud produced no evidence to justify his theory, so we don't need to provide any evidence to disagree with it.We learn that Marsh actually spent a year studying philosophy before turning to medicine, and while the philosophical musings he recounts here do not lead to anything that resembles a conclusion, he's still adept at tossing out little medical pearls that made my jaw drop. A Nobel-prize-winning biologist has shown that nearly all cells can be coaxed into returning to stem cells; a sort of backwards migration to a state of purity, if you like. While some people see this as a potential path to extending our lives to hundreds of years, Marsh notes that, in mice, these messed-with cells tend to spawn a type of tumor called teratomas. Teratomas are a phenomenon with which I was previously unfamiliar. I suspect I would have remembered them, if I'd heard about them before, due to their odd feature of containing misplaced body parts. Marsh offhandedly mentions removing a tumor from a child's brain and finding a miniature ribcage inside it, and mentioned another case in which a miniature brain and skull were found in a tumor removed from a teenage girl's ovary.
The second half of the book reads like a series of essays published elsewhere -- a bit disjointed, but no less interesting for that. I did not expect, for example, to read about unicorns with floppy horn disease, which seems like a rather socially crippling blow in the unicorn world.
There's a bit of an elegiac feel to this, which is a pity -- one of our best doctor/authors hanging up his gloves after writing three short but excellent books. I can recommend them all wholeheartedly.
December 3, 2023
«Чому лише в поважному віці, навіть ближче до смерті, я почав розуміти так багато речей про себе та своє минуле?»
Перегортаю останню сторінку і думаю про те, яке особливе місце посідають книги автора у моєму серці (і моїй бібліотеці). Мемуари у різному віці відрізняються, і ці - міг написати тільки медик на пенсії. Тут багато (забагато?) науки, а також чимало болю та рефлексій про смерть, які не часто порушують сон молодих.
Наприкінці книги Генрі Марш каже, що не знає, чи йому ще вдасться відвідати Україну. Але я знаю, що точно вдалося, адже цей примірник для мене підписала у автора моя подруга Света, коли він восени приїжджав з презентацією до Києва.
Генрі Маршу болить за Україну, а мені болить за нього, бо знати, що дорогий твоєму серцю автор хворий на рак, страшно. Але з притаманною авторові іронію я міркую, що не мені, читачці з країни у війні, думати про те, хто має більше шансів кого пережити.
Перегортаю останню сторінку і думаю про те, яке особливе місце посідають книги автора у моєму серці (і моїй бібліотеці). Мемуари у різному віці відрізняються, і ці - міг написати тільки медик на пенсії. Тут багато (забагато?) науки, а також чимало болю та рефлексій про смерть, які не часто порушують сон молодих.
Наприкінці книги Генрі Марш каже, що не знає, чи йому ще вдасться відвідати Україну. Але я знаю, що точно вдалося, адже цей примірник для мене підписала у автора моя подруга Света, коли він восени приїжджав з презентацією до Києва.
Генрі Маршу болить за Україну, а мені болить за нього, бо знати, що дорогий твоєму серцю автор хворий на рак, страшно. Але з притаманною авторові іронію я міркую, що не мені, читачці з країни у війні, думати про те, хто має більше шансів кого пережити.
November 6, 2022
In brief - An interesting read that felt a little unfocussed.
In full
Henry Marsh is now a retired neurosurgeon. He has previously written books on being a brain surgeon and how doctors behave. I for one found "Do No Harm" an excellent read. Retired he is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. This book is the story of his life just before the diagnosis and then through that and the treatment needed. He also looks rather more widely at his life, work and science and the world generally.
The book starts with the author's comments that he has advised patients and friends to avoid brain scans as you never know what may be found. He has said this in previous books. As part of a study he then has one himself as a "healthy person". He is not that pleased to find that he has the signs of an "ageing" brain. Given that he is 70 it's not that surprising however he states that "Diseases only happen to patients not doctors" as something he and others in the medical profession may consider true. He then looks at the brain and ageing which takes in quantum physics, neurology, the history of science, MRI scanners, consciousness among other things.
The core of this book I guess is about cancer and ageing, particularly his. Given his diagnoses and age this seems appropriate. I really did find much of the book very interesting. Given that I too am ageing though without any diagnoses of terminal illness as yet it made for a thought provoking read at times. However it is also fair to say that the book does stray from the core for periods. There is a biographical element to the writing and he has led a rich and interesting life so again much of this is very readable. Individual chapters can be very wide ranging and I found this made for a "bumpy" read for me sometimes.
This author is a man I have a great deal of respect for. I've read his books and heard him speak. I did find this an interesting read and one that made me think too. His approach in previous book and this one is exceptionally "human" for a doctor. It's interesting just how much he feels and sees his change from being a doctor to being a patient. I guess personally I would have been very interested in hearing about his experiences with prostate cancer in a more focussed way. It may not be the book I would suggest people new to Henry Marsh should start though.
Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
In full
Henry Marsh is now a retired neurosurgeon. He has previously written books on being a brain surgeon and how doctors behave. I for one found "Do No Harm" an excellent read. Retired he is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. This book is the story of his life just before the diagnosis and then through that and the treatment needed. He also looks rather more widely at his life, work and science and the world generally.
The book starts with the author's comments that he has advised patients and friends to avoid brain scans as you never know what may be found. He has said this in previous books. As part of a study he then has one himself as a "healthy person". He is not that pleased to find that he has the signs of an "ageing" brain. Given that he is 70 it's not that surprising however he states that "Diseases only happen to patients not doctors" as something he and others in the medical profession may consider true. He then looks at the brain and ageing which takes in quantum physics, neurology, the history of science, MRI scanners, consciousness among other things.
The core of this book I guess is about cancer and ageing, particularly his. Given his diagnoses and age this seems appropriate. I really did find much of the book very interesting. Given that I too am ageing though without any diagnoses of terminal illness as yet it made for a thought provoking read at times. However it is also fair to say that the book does stray from the core for periods. There is a biographical element to the writing and he has led a rich and interesting life so again much of this is very readable. Individual chapters can be very wide ranging and I found this made for a "bumpy" read for me sometimes.
This author is a man I have a great deal of respect for. I've read his books and heard him speak. I did find this an interesting read and one that made me think too. His approach in previous book and this one is exceptionally "human" for a doctor. It's interesting just how much he feels and sees his change from being a doctor to being a patient. I guess personally I would have been very interested in hearing about his experiences with prostate cancer in a more focussed way. It may not be the book I would suggest people new to Henry Marsh should start though.
Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
March 12, 2023
Beautifully written. I'm trying to organize my thoughts about this book. The subject matter is interesting, yes. My reason for reading this volume was because of its utterly unfathomable and humanistic point of view: a neurosurgeon who has now become the patient.
I oscillated between utter amazement at his ability to compartmentalize and write about his diagnosis, and an overwhelming sadness. The knowledge that there would be no "happy ending," that this is of course a work of nonfiction, was amplified more than I had anticipated. Perhaps I was naive. Perhaps I was curious.
There was also a personal element of having a family member recently undergo brain surgery for the removal of a large tumor. I have read a few of Henry Marsh's works, wondering what the life of a neurosurgeon entails; not just the doctor we meet cordially and research thoroughly, but wanting to get to know the human being who goes home after extensively long shifts. So many of us see specialists at one point or another for something. I was curious about the thoughts of a man who had studied neurology, who worked on the human brain day in, day out. I wanted to get a chance to know "the man beneath the scrubs" so to speak.
I was captivated by Marsh's willingness to journey beside us, at least for a little while - and he did not hide (from what I was able to gauge from my interpretation of this text) from his human experience as the patient of an incurable illness. He did not write from an angle of anything other than a level playing field. Perhaps that was what broke my heart more than I had expected: his transparency and profound understanding of what he could not possibly have understood as a healthy neurosurgeon of years past.
This was profound, moving, intriguing, lyrical, poetic, and yes- heartbreaking. I'm extremely grateful I took the time to read "And Finally: Matters of Life and Death." (Sigh) ~~
*I read the book itself. I've been told by others who have listened to his narration of the audio version, it's equally magnificent. I have the sneaking suspicion that listening to Marsh as the narrator of this work (in particular) would be exceptional. I'm not one who cries too often, but I'd keep my Kleenex handy if I listened to the audio book.*
I oscillated between utter amazement at his ability to compartmentalize and write about his diagnosis, and an overwhelming sadness. The knowledge that there would be no "happy ending," that this is of course a work of nonfiction, was amplified more than I had anticipated. Perhaps I was naive. Perhaps I was curious.
There was also a personal element of having a family member recently undergo brain surgery for the removal of a large tumor. I have read a few of Henry Marsh's works, wondering what the life of a neurosurgeon entails; not just the doctor we meet cordially and research thoroughly, but wanting to get to know the human being who goes home after extensively long shifts. So many of us see specialists at one point or another for something. I was curious about the thoughts of a man who had studied neurology, who worked on the human brain day in, day out. I wanted to get a chance to know "the man beneath the scrubs" so to speak.
I was captivated by Marsh's willingness to journey beside us, at least for a little while - and he did not hide (from what I was able to gauge from my interpretation of this text) from his human experience as the patient of an incurable illness. He did not write from an angle of anything other than a level playing field. Perhaps that was what broke my heart more than I had expected: his transparency and profound understanding of what he could not possibly have understood as a healthy neurosurgeon of years past.
This was profound, moving, intriguing, lyrical, poetic, and yes- heartbreaking. I'm extremely grateful I took the time to read "And Finally: Matters of Life and Death." (Sigh) ~~
*I read the book itself. I've been told by others who have listened to his narration of the audio version, it's equally magnificent. I have the sneaking suspicion that listening to Marsh as the narrator of this work (in particular) would be exceptional. I'm not one who cries too often, but I'd keep my Kleenex handy if I listened to the audio book.*
March 18, 2024
Люблю книжки такого типу.
Наче вживу поспілкуватись з дорослою розумною людиною, яка ділиться своїми думками.
Ну і звісно, це дуже цікаві роздуми про старість та смертність.
Наче вживу поспілкуватись з дорослою розумною людиною, яка ділиться своїми думками.
Ну і звісно, це дуже цікаві роздуми про старість та смертність.
October 25, 2023
I truly enjoyed listening to this book read by the author himself, retired neurosurgeon Henry Marsh. I was fascinated to learn that had purchased a lock keeper's cottage on the Thames. My Dad's dream was to be a lock keeper on the Thames and in 1969 he achieved that dream. He grasped the opportunity to be the relief lock keeper for one year. We lived in a rented cottage on a farm in Abbingdon, Oxfordshire. Reading about Marsh's cottage brought back memories.
This book is broader in scope than expected and I enjoyed the chapters on fairytales, and creating dollhouses first for his daughter, then his granddaughters. I also appreciated learning his thoughts on assisted death, and the inclusion of descriptions of flora and fauna and various animals. Marsh talks a lot about how doctors treat their patients and how they communicate bad news in particular. He also explores theoretical physics and philosophy. Interspersed with all this is his own treatment for prostate cancer and his experience at the hands of various healthcare givers.
Standout quotes:
"We accept that wrinkled skin comes of age but find it hard to accept that our inner selves, our brains, are subject to similar changes."
"Hope is one of the most precious drugs doctors have at their disposal."
"Hope is a state of mind, and states of mind are physical states in our brains, and our brains are intimately connected to our bodies (and especially to our hearts)."
This book is broader in scope than expected and I enjoyed the chapters on fairytales, and creating dollhouses first for his daughter, then his granddaughters. I also appreciated learning his thoughts on assisted death, and the inclusion of descriptions of flora and fauna and various animals. Marsh talks a lot about how doctors treat their patients and how they communicate bad news in particular. He also explores theoretical physics and philosophy. Interspersed with all this is his own treatment for prostate cancer and his experience at the hands of various healthcare givers.
Standout quotes:
"We accept that wrinkled skin comes of age but find it hard to accept that our inner selves, our brains, are subject to similar changes."
"Hope is one of the most precious drugs doctors have at their disposal."
"Hope is a state of mind, and states of mind are physical states in our brains, and our brains are intimately connected to our bodies (and especially to our hearts)."
September 4, 2022
This short book chronicles Henry Marsh's life after retiring from neurosurgery and being diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer, as he looks back on his career from the perspective that age and illness gives him. I've read Marsh's two previous memoirs, Do No Harm and Admissions, and frankly I wouldn't recommend this to anybody who hasn't at least read Do No Harm; much of the poignancy here is lost if we don't first encounter Marsh as a practicing surgeon. Meanwhile, Admissions, while not quite as essential, contextualises Marsh's references to his work in Ukraine. And Finally is perhaps the weakest of the three books, but I thought it was still worth reading. Marsh flits between the story of his cancer diagnosis and treatment to reflections on his career to detailed scientific explanations of some of the technologies and biologies that occur in his life story: he talks about brain development, radiotherapy, MRI scans etc., often using basic chemistry to explain their workings. Much of this material did not contribute to the book for me, especially that which lay outside Marsh's specific professional expertise, although I loved his final words on theoretical physics and time: 'Physicists talk of "block time" - that the past, present and future are all equally real... There is nothing inevitable about time always moving irredeemably forwards... The present is a place, and the past and future are simply other places.' However, Marsh is typically (for him) and unusually (for most writers) honest about his experience of ageing and facing mortality, and that alone made And Finally worthwhile for me. Alongside Paul Kalanithi and Atul Gawande, Marsh remains one of the best doctors-turned-writers I've read. 3.5 stars.
I received a free proof copy of this book from the publisher for review.
I received a free proof copy of this book from the publisher for review.
February 8, 2024
For those of you into philosophy, so many times we are instructed how to live. Exist in the now. Cease your life and make it matter, yet on the other hand, no one talks about death or how to prepare for this inevitable reality that will afflict everyone we know. There are many paradigms found in nature. Though the process is one we may become recognizant of, yet its only when it sits on your doorstep ---like a 8 month pregnant woman in labor---we realize it's too late. The cancer had grown for years and Dr. Marsh has advanced metastatic prostate cancer.
“Reflecting on the hallmarks of his life, lessons and paradigms of immortality (thinking he was invincible) only to find Dr. Marsh had experienced prostate symptoms for the last 25 years of his career. A mirror may assist us, yet a PSA level of 127 is no matter to shirk and with it comes a 70 percent chance of cancer metastasis. We laughed (unknowingly) with "pecunia" and two elders named "simia and ego."
—India M. Clamp
We don’t need to learn the biological mechanics of dying in order to die. But it may help to know them in facing death. If the philosophers haven’t figured out how to do that —at least not to everyone’s satisfaction — might a physician have more luck? Henry Marsh is an author and retired doctor, in whom, said The Economist, “neuroscience has found its Boswell.” In his most recent book, the physician becomes a patient, confronting a diagnosis that could end his life.
“Reflecting on the hallmarks of his life, lessons and paradigms of immortality (thinking he was invincible) only to find Dr. Marsh had experienced prostate symptoms for the last 25 years of his career. A mirror may assist us, yet a PSA level of 127 is no matter to shirk and with it comes a 70 percent chance of cancer metastasis. We laughed (unknowingly) with "pecunia" and two elders named "simia and ego."
—India M. Clamp
We don’t need to learn the biological mechanics of dying in order to die. But it may help to know them in facing death. If the philosophers haven’t figured out how to do that —at least not to everyone’s satisfaction — might a physician have more luck? Henry Marsh is an author and retired doctor, in whom, said The Economist, “neuroscience has found its Boswell.” In his most recent book, the physician becomes a patient, confronting a diagnosis that could end his life.
July 9, 2022
Rounding up to three stars.
I didnt find myself as drawn to this one, as his previous book.
It felt too rambling. Or maybe just not what I expected.
Unfortunately didn't grab my attention.
I didnt find myself as drawn to this one, as his previous book.
It felt too rambling. Or maybe just not what I expected.
Unfortunately didn't grab my attention.
September 28, 2023
Famous surgeon becomes a patient himself and is torn between the fear of deteriorating brain and fear of his prostate cancer. Ponders life and patients.
February 13, 2024
Дуже сподіваюсь, що це не остання книга Генрі Марша, і ми ще його почитаємо.
Неймовірно поважаю його за людяність і таку щиру любов до України ❤️
Сама історія дуже чесна та відверта сповідь лікаря, який перейшов у статус пацієнта, коли йому діагностували рак простати.
Деякі епізоди/роздуми дублюються з попередніх книг автора.
Як на мене, особливо влучна назва книги, бо передає цей його меланхолійний настрій завершеності, підсумків, побоювань щодо майбутнього, яке очікує нас та наших нащадків у цьому світі.
Неймовірно поважаю його за людяність і таку щиру любов до України ❤️
Сама історія дуже чесна та відверта сповідь лікаря, який перейшов у статус пацієнта, коли йому діагностували рак простати.
Деякі епізоди/роздуми дублюються з попередніх книг автора.
Як на мене, особливо влучна назва книги, бо передає цей його меланхолійний настрій завершеності, підсумків, побоювань щодо майбутнього, яке очікує нас та наших нащадків у цьому світі.
April 11, 2023
“No me ha sido fácil reconciliarme con la proximidad de mi propia muerte, ya sea provocada por el cáncer que me están tratando o -si el tratamiento tiene éxito y me curo- por la demencia a la que temo más que a la muerte.”
Interesantes reflexiones de vida y muerte de un neurocirujano que ha visto a muchos pacientes morir de enfermedades letales y que ahora, una vez jubilado, se encuentra al otro lado de la mesa.
Así como sus anteriores libros se han enfocado en sus experiencias laborales, viajes a hospitales de otros países, reflexiones sobre el papel de la medicina en la enfermedad, casos concretos que le han marcado… en este libro hace una revisión de su vida, de su actitud con sus pacientes, de sus errores, de su vida familiar y de su situación actual de vulnerabilidad hacia la incertidumbre de su enfermedad y de la situación actual del mundo.
Un ejercicio de reflexión de vida y de aceptación de lo inevitable que pasa por distintas etapas de duelo en la que Henry Marsh no tiene problemas en mostrar sus sentimientos en el proceso, incluso los de desesperación y miedo.
(4/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ siempre es interesante escuchar lo que personas mayores tienen que decir acerca de la vida y de lo que han aprendido.
Interesantes reflexiones de vida y muerte de un neurocirujano que ha visto a muchos pacientes morir de enfermedades letales y que ahora, una vez jubilado, se encuentra al otro lado de la mesa.
Así como sus anteriores libros se han enfocado en sus experiencias laborales, viajes a hospitales de otros países, reflexiones sobre el papel de la medicina en la enfermedad, casos concretos que le han marcado… en este libro hace una revisión de su vida, de su actitud con sus pacientes, de sus errores, de su vida familiar y de su situación actual de vulnerabilidad hacia la incertidumbre de su enfermedad y de la situación actual del mundo.
Un ejercicio de reflexión de vida y de aceptación de lo inevitable que pasa por distintas etapas de duelo en la que Henry Marsh no tiene problemas en mostrar sus sentimientos en el proceso, incluso los de desesperación y miedo.
(4/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ siempre es interesante escuchar lo que personas mayores tienen que decir acerca de la vida y de lo que han aprendido.
September 13, 2022
There is no denying that Henry Marsh is an interesting man, and this extends far beyond his clinical achievements. It's clear that he has written for a long time - in fact he tells you so in his book - so it's a compelling read, but largely this is because he writes beautifully, rather than because of the content. His first book, Do No Harm, was such a sensation (at least for me!) because he shared interesting and uniquely told moments or anecdotes from his neurosurgical career which absolutely captivated the audience and, in truth, satisfied some morbid curiosities. Many of us will never know the inside of an operating room, at least awake or lucid enough to remember much of it, and those of us that do often don't have the opportunity to regularly see many specialities - neurosurgery in particular is, for most of us, too complex to truly engage with. Do No Harm made it accessible - it made stories we only see on TV come to life and it made the realities of such a diagnosis easier to imagine and understand. I still don't want a brain tumour, obviously, but it was nice to see what some of those people who do have a brain tumour struggle through, and conquer.
However, this book is not that book. This book, the third now of this narrative, is intended for the author to share his own diagnosis - advanced prostate cancer. In actuality, the story has very little focus on this and instead contains the inner musings of a really worried man. I think there is something really vulnerable and honest about this - wouldn't we all be utterly terrified, but especially so if we knew just a little too much about quite a lot of horrific diagnoses of this kind. So whilst very humbling and authentic at first, the tangent to discussing types of book and crafting of doll houses (combined with repetition of older details of Henry Marsh which he shared in his previous two books - deliberate or bad editing?) means that he loses his way quite a lot. I would say that 75% of the book sits comfortably in the wood chopping, doll house making narrative and the remaining 25% may touch upon his harrowing diagnosis and how he deals with that. Perhaps it's just me, but that 25% was why I picked up the book, so I was quite disappointed to find it was such a small feature (in an otherwise short book as it is!).
I am really saddened to hear of Henry Marsh's diagnosis. A brilliant mind and undoubtedly a brilliant surgeon, and I can really resonate with his fear of death and all the questions which come with that. But I don't want to read about wood chopping, doll houses or random things - I want to read about him, his career and the challenges he now has to overcome, bravely. I'm not sure if there will be another book, I hope so, but I think I will take a look at the reviews for content before immediately purchasing this time and of course, most importantly, hope that he beats the battle with the enemy in the meantime.
However, this book is not that book. This book, the third now of this narrative, is intended for the author to share his own diagnosis - advanced prostate cancer. In actuality, the story has very little focus on this and instead contains the inner musings of a really worried man. I think there is something really vulnerable and honest about this - wouldn't we all be utterly terrified, but especially so if we knew just a little too much about quite a lot of horrific diagnoses of this kind. So whilst very humbling and authentic at first, the tangent to discussing types of book and crafting of doll houses (combined with repetition of older details of Henry Marsh which he shared in his previous two books - deliberate or bad editing?) means that he loses his way quite a lot. I would say that 75% of the book sits comfortably in the wood chopping, doll house making narrative and the remaining 25% may touch upon his harrowing diagnosis and how he deals with that. Perhaps it's just me, but that 25% was why I picked up the book, so I was quite disappointed to find it was such a small feature (in an otherwise short book as it is!).
I am really saddened to hear of Henry Marsh's diagnosis. A brilliant mind and undoubtedly a brilliant surgeon, and I can really resonate with his fear of death and all the questions which come with that. But I don't want to read about wood chopping, doll houses or random things - I want to read about him, his career and the challenges he now has to overcome, bravely. I'm not sure if there will be another book, I hope so, but I think I will take a look at the reviews for content before immediately purchasing this time and of course, most importantly, hope that he beats the battle with the enemy in the meantime.
January 11, 2023
Henry Marsh started out as a student of philosophy at Oxford, but “fled to the more practical world of medicine,” partly (perhaps) because he feared he was “not clever enough to understand philosophy.” For the next forty years he was a neurosurgeon, but modestly explains that he is not a scientist - to claim so would be “like saying that all plumbers are metallurgists.” He became a man of practical action: he cuts open people’s heads and brains; he is a devoted woodworker and builder of things by hand (even though his roofs may leak). He runs. He bicycles. He hikes across mountain ranges. He keeps bees. He also keeps a journal, and - as his previous books (Admissions: A life in brain surgery and Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery) suggest - ponders questions personal, intellectual, and philosophical about his life and career.
Which is, apparently, coming to a close. After retiring from medicine, he volunteers for a study of brain scans in healthy people. He assumes his scan will be a fine example of a 70-year-old brain kept lively, supple, and unchanged from his long regimen of activity. But when he receives the copy of the scan, he is afraid to look at it. When he finally does, it shows him a shrunken brain speckled with “white-matter hyperintensities,” typical of aging. “…My brain is starting to rot. I am starting to rot. It is the writing on the wall, a deadline,” he says. But he feels fine, lives normally, so learns to shelve the distress.
As he does with some other symptoms, which he ignores or minimizes for years, choosing to think they indicated common older-man benign prostatic hypertrophy. When he at long last seeks medical attention, he initially wants to attribute his sky-high prostate-specific-antigen to pressure on the prostate from his bicycle seat as he rode to his appointment. However, what it really is is advanced prostate cancer. Strangely mixed with his dismay at this dire diagnosis is relief that he has likely been released from a greater fear of dementia, triggered by his father’s decade-long suffering and the ominous “pox” on his brain scan.
George Eliot’s magnificent novel Middlemarch describes a moment when the rigid, lonely, self-absorbed, and bitterly disappointed old scholar Causaubon has been diagnosed with an incurable heart ailment. “Here was a man who now for the first time found himself looking into the eyes of death—who was passing through one of those rare moments of experience when we feel the truth of a commonplace, which is as different from what we call knowing it, as the vision of waters upon the earth is different from the delirious vision of the water which cannot be had to cool the burning tongue. When the commonplace “We must all die” transforms itself suddenly into the acute consciousness “I must die—and soon,” then death grapples us, and his fingers are cruel…” Henry Marsh movingly explores that moment and the months that follow.
At this point, And Finally morphs into a more or less typical health-professional-gets-sick memoir. Theresa Brown’s recent Healing: When a nurse becomes a patient is one such - an expert oncology nurse is diagnosed with breast cancer, and discovers that being at the other end of the radiation beams is a revelation: all the things she never noticed or understood about what her patients actually felt or thought or experienced as she briskly gave treatments and managed complications while tut-tutting “Hey, we saved her life!” if they complained. Similarly, Marsh undergoes uncomfortable, embarrassing, and frightening procedures. Like many other patients, he frantically googles for information on survival rates, treatment options, complications. He, of course, is well equipped to understand the technicalities and statistical probabilities… and he still freaks out at times. Will he die of his disease, or with it? Will he see his granddaughters grow up? (Probably not, he concludes.) He cries. And he looks back on patients he realizes now he did not serve as well as he could have. He recalls a patient (an actor) whose delicate and difficult surgery left her with a permanently damaged face. He meets her again some years later, and she tells him: “I could see that you were so upset when you saw me after the operation, that I forgave you.” He muses on the difference between telling a patient he has a 5% chance of surviving versus a 95% chance - regardless of the actual number used, if there is any chance at all, they will take hope from it. He endures the indignities and depersonalization of the modern healthcare system: his anthropologist wife remarks that hospital patients ask each other the exact same question prisoners do when they meet: “What are you in for?” Information and instructions are provided in the form of generic printed handouts rather than conversation. Hospital balconies with lovely views are locked and off-limits to patients. Radiation departments are often deep in the lower levels, but those who have managed to place a sunlit window or even a mural of a beautiful landscape bolster their patients’ morale. (He got funding for and oversaw the creation of a garden for the use of neurosurgical patients at his hospital, and considers it one of the prime accomplishments of his career.)
This is a smallish book, but Marsh packs a lot into it. His voice is serious, clear, and steers well away from any sort of “inspirational” revelations or triumphant acceptance of his cancer as any sort of “gift.” There are detailed technical explanations of prostate cancer radiation treatments and brachytherapy, which may overwhelm a patient seeking a layperson’s understanding. Marsh’s personal beliefs do not include any sort of afterlife, and his discussion of the life-extension movement is bitterly critical. Even as he so longs to live, he pleads passionately in support of accessible, compassionate assisted-dying services. This is personal and powerful. A reminiscence about the elaborate doll houses he built for his beloved granddaughters is touching; a very long description of fairy tales he has written for them, overstuffed with dragons and unicorns and magical objects of all kinds, is less so. The book rambles and swerves at times, jumping back and forth from memory to contemplation of the future, from former patients to current doctors, from woodworking to brain surgery, from medical journals to children’s stories, from London to Ukraine (where he volunteered for many years, and his heart aches for that country’s woes now), from hope to terror and back again.
In a lovely passage, Marsh muses over his hoard of exotic woods with beautiful names he has collected - burr elm, spalted beechwood, cocobolo, sandalwood - and the places they came from, and what he planned to make with them. What will become of all of it? For “I am constantly having new ideas of things to make with all this wood – but the fact of the matter is, whatever happens, I will not live long enough to use even a fraction of it. I would look at my hoarded wood with deep pleasure, but as old age and decline approach, this pleasure is starting to fade and instead is replaced by a feeling of futility, and even of doom – of the future suggested by my brain scan. Besides, anything I now make will outlive me, and I should only make things that deserve to survive in their own right. I no longer have the excuse of the craftsman – who sees all the faults, often invisible to others, in what he has made – that I will do better next time.”
As it happens, Marsh’s cancer responds well to his therapies. He likely has more time ahead of him than he feared - but perhaps no more books. This rambling, effusive, thoughtful exploration of the mind of a man facing down the “commonplace” that he must die, and soon, is useful and moving.
** Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. **
Which is, apparently, coming to a close. After retiring from medicine, he volunteers for a study of brain scans in healthy people. He assumes his scan will be a fine example of a 70-year-old brain kept lively, supple, and unchanged from his long regimen of activity. But when he receives the copy of the scan, he is afraid to look at it. When he finally does, it shows him a shrunken brain speckled with “white-matter hyperintensities,” typical of aging. “…My brain is starting to rot. I am starting to rot. It is the writing on the wall, a deadline,” he says. But he feels fine, lives normally, so learns to shelve the distress.
As he does with some other symptoms, which he ignores or minimizes for years, choosing to think they indicated common older-man benign prostatic hypertrophy. When he at long last seeks medical attention, he initially wants to attribute his sky-high prostate-specific-antigen to pressure on the prostate from his bicycle seat as he rode to his appointment. However, what it really is is advanced prostate cancer. Strangely mixed with his dismay at this dire diagnosis is relief that he has likely been released from a greater fear of dementia, triggered by his father’s decade-long suffering and the ominous “pox” on his brain scan.
George Eliot’s magnificent novel Middlemarch describes a moment when the rigid, lonely, self-absorbed, and bitterly disappointed old scholar Causaubon has been diagnosed with an incurable heart ailment. “Here was a man who now for the first time found himself looking into the eyes of death—who was passing through one of those rare moments of experience when we feel the truth of a commonplace, which is as different from what we call knowing it, as the vision of waters upon the earth is different from the delirious vision of the water which cannot be had to cool the burning tongue. When the commonplace “We must all die” transforms itself suddenly into the acute consciousness “I must die—and soon,” then death grapples us, and his fingers are cruel…” Henry Marsh movingly explores that moment and the months that follow.
At this point, And Finally morphs into a more or less typical health-professional-gets-sick memoir. Theresa Brown’s recent Healing: When a nurse becomes a patient is one such - an expert oncology nurse is diagnosed with breast cancer, and discovers that being at the other end of the radiation beams is a revelation: all the things she never noticed or understood about what her patients actually felt or thought or experienced as she briskly gave treatments and managed complications while tut-tutting “Hey, we saved her life!” if they complained. Similarly, Marsh undergoes uncomfortable, embarrassing, and frightening procedures. Like many other patients, he frantically googles for information on survival rates, treatment options, complications. He, of course, is well equipped to understand the technicalities and statistical probabilities… and he still freaks out at times. Will he die of his disease, or with it? Will he see his granddaughters grow up? (Probably not, he concludes.) He cries. And he looks back on patients he realizes now he did not serve as well as he could have. He recalls a patient (an actor) whose delicate and difficult surgery left her with a permanently damaged face. He meets her again some years later, and she tells him: “I could see that you were so upset when you saw me after the operation, that I forgave you.” He muses on the difference between telling a patient he has a 5% chance of surviving versus a 95% chance - regardless of the actual number used, if there is any chance at all, they will take hope from it. He endures the indignities and depersonalization of the modern healthcare system: his anthropologist wife remarks that hospital patients ask each other the exact same question prisoners do when they meet: “What are you in for?” Information and instructions are provided in the form of generic printed handouts rather than conversation. Hospital balconies with lovely views are locked and off-limits to patients. Radiation departments are often deep in the lower levels, but those who have managed to place a sunlit window or even a mural of a beautiful landscape bolster their patients’ morale. (He got funding for and oversaw the creation of a garden for the use of neurosurgical patients at his hospital, and considers it one of the prime accomplishments of his career.)
This is a smallish book, but Marsh packs a lot into it. His voice is serious, clear, and steers well away from any sort of “inspirational” revelations or triumphant acceptance of his cancer as any sort of “gift.” There are detailed technical explanations of prostate cancer radiation treatments and brachytherapy, which may overwhelm a patient seeking a layperson’s understanding. Marsh’s personal beliefs do not include any sort of afterlife, and his discussion of the life-extension movement is bitterly critical. Even as he so longs to live, he pleads passionately in support of accessible, compassionate assisted-dying services. This is personal and powerful. A reminiscence about the elaborate doll houses he built for his beloved granddaughters is touching; a very long description of fairy tales he has written for them, overstuffed with dragons and unicorns and magical objects of all kinds, is less so. The book rambles and swerves at times, jumping back and forth from memory to contemplation of the future, from former patients to current doctors, from woodworking to brain surgery, from medical journals to children’s stories, from London to Ukraine (where he volunteered for many years, and his heart aches for that country’s woes now), from hope to terror and back again.
In a lovely passage, Marsh muses over his hoard of exotic woods with beautiful names he has collected - burr elm, spalted beechwood, cocobolo, sandalwood - and the places they came from, and what he planned to make with them. What will become of all of it? For “I am constantly having new ideas of things to make with all this wood – but the fact of the matter is, whatever happens, I will not live long enough to use even a fraction of it. I would look at my hoarded wood with deep pleasure, but as old age and decline approach, this pleasure is starting to fade and instead is replaced by a feeling of futility, and even of doom – of the future suggested by my brain scan. Besides, anything I now make will outlive me, and I should only make things that deserve to survive in their own right. I no longer have the excuse of the craftsman – who sees all the faults, often invisible to others, in what he has made – that I will do better next time.”
As it happens, Marsh’s cancer responds well to his therapies. He likely has more time ahead of him than he feared - but perhaps no more books. This rambling, effusive, thoughtful exploration of the mind of a man facing down the “commonplace” that he must die, and soon, is useful and moving.
** Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. **
December 5, 2023
In "And Finally," Henry Marsh looks back on his life and life's work. As a doctor turned patience he muses about, second-guesses, and re-thinks what and how he did as a doctor, husband, father, home-tinkerer, and human being.
This is the memoirs of a man facing death and decline. His thoughts, philosophies, and insights are those of a man who's content with the life he has lived, but with the sadness and sometimes regrets that comes from knowing he's not long for this world.
The book is strongest - in terms of possible improvements to society - when he reflects on his life in medicine, questioning the system and pondering potential improvements - systemic, personal approach, and something as simple as wall art and windows in hospitals. His musings about life in general and his own interpretations of meaning and philosophies are peaceful meditations. They are enjoyable to read but merely a layman's personal reflections.
It's a feel-good book, almost meditative. But it may have given the author more than it gives the reader. Yet, I really enjoyed reading it, so again, maybe not?
Recommended.
This is the memoirs of a man facing death and decline. His thoughts, philosophies, and insights are those of a man who's content with the life he has lived, but with the sadness and sometimes regrets that comes from knowing he's not long for this world.
The book is strongest - in terms of possible improvements to society - when he reflects on his life in medicine, questioning the system and pondering potential improvements - systemic, personal approach, and something as simple as wall art and windows in hospitals. His musings about life in general and his own interpretations of meaning and philosophies are peaceful meditations. They are enjoyable to read but merely a layman's personal reflections.
It's a feel-good book, almost meditative. But it may have given the author more than it gives the reader. Yet, I really enjoyed reading it, so again, maybe not?
Recommended.
![Profile Image for Amy [adleilareads].](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1652548137i/91470664._UY200_CR0,0,200,200_.jpg)
December 23, 2023
And Finally explores what happens when Dr Henry Marsh, who has worked on the frontline of life and death as a neurosurgeon, faces his own health problems and begins to question what his own death sentence will be.
As he transitions from doctor to patient, Marsh reflects on his own journey, detailing the signs, diagnosis and treatment of prostrate cancer and also exploring studies of the brain - which were incredibly interesting.
I adored Do No Harm and thought Dr Marsh was a truly wonderful human - a national treasure. The profound, raw, honest accounts of his life as a neurosurgeon, working under the NHS, moved me to tears. I was overjoyed to hear the release of And Finally to be in the company of his magnificent mind again. Despite the underlying theme of death, there are many moments of joy and humour as Marsh “illuminates the gift of life.”
This is a book for everyone. Highly recommend both if you haven’t read yet.
As he transitions from doctor to patient, Marsh reflects on his own journey, detailing the signs, diagnosis and treatment of prostrate cancer and also exploring studies of the brain - which were incredibly interesting.
I adored Do No Harm and thought Dr Marsh was a truly wonderful human - a national treasure. The profound, raw, honest accounts of his life as a neurosurgeon, working under the NHS, moved me to tears. I was overjoyed to hear the release of And Finally to be in the company of his magnificent mind again. Despite the underlying theme of death, there are many moments of joy and humour as Marsh “illuminates the gift of life.”
This is a book for everyone. Highly recommend both if you haven’t read yet.
January 2, 2023
Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the ARC and audioARC of this!
This was an interesting insight into the author's dealings with medical issues after having been on the other side of the interaction for most of his life, perfect for fans of When Breath Becomes Air. Dealing with it himself made him reflect on how he had delivered hard news to patients and their families and how he could've done things differently as a doctor, but also on the good he had done and the why behind it. At 70, he sounds more active and healthy than I am at 30, which is both inspiring and a little depressing. Overall, I found this very engaging and conversational, and easy to understand.
This was an interesting insight into the author's dealings with medical issues after having been on the other side of the interaction for most of his life, perfect for fans of When Breath Becomes Air. Dealing with it himself made him reflect on how he had delivered hard news to patients and their families and how he could've done things differently as a doctor, but also on the good he had done and the why behind it. At 70, he sounds more active and healthy than I am at 30, which is both inspiring and a little depressing. Overall, I found this very engaging and conversational, and easy to understand.
May 21, 2023
A more down to Earth book where worldly renown neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Marsh dives into his past years during his medical training and also reflects back on his humanitarian missions training surgeon in third world countries. Henry Marsh has recently been diagnosed with prostatic cancer, he reflects on his career and his life change from doctor to patient. The book also dives deep into thoughts of mortality and death in a more philosophical manner. It is a great read that will hop briefly from subject to subject with much enthusiasm. I highly recommend “Admissions” and “Do No Harm” by Henry Marsh to any readers who like medical memoirs.
March 6, 2023
A candid and well-written memoir about a surgeon's confrontation with his own mortality through his own cancer diagnosis and treatment. This would be a good book for anyone going through a recent cancer diagnosis. Uplifting and down to earth. Totally immersive.
June 12, 2024
Not to diss the words of a (slowly) dying man, but this book was all over the place!
Marsh has lost the focus and succinct writing of his previous works. In this title, there are digressions aplenty, ramblings and meanderings and not in a good way. Marsh jumps from the pandemic to the Ukraine to thinking over previous cases of his to getting ripped off by dodgy roofers (an experience we both share, incidentally!)
Honestly I was bored for a lot of this title, when he was re-hashing discussions of axons and dendrites, consciousness and anaesthetics, I found myself drifting then speed reading to get through it!
The only part I found very valuable was Marsh's very sensible discussion of and his compelling case for assisted dying. This man, like myself has seen far too much suffering in his healthcare role to deny the sensible option of being allowed to have control over one's own destiny and check out of life if pain/suffering/despair become too much. Marsh's discussion is comprehensive, compassionate yet objective. Let's hope the next lot of goons in charge of the country agree with him and pass the law 🤞🤞
2 stars.
Marsh has lost the focus and succinct writing of his previous works. In this title, there are digressions aplenty, ramblings and meanderings and not in a good way. Marsh jumps from the pandemic to the Ukraine to thinking over previous cases of his to getting ripped off by dodgy roofers (an experience we both share, incidentally!)
Honestly I was bored for a lot of this title, when he was re-hashing discussions of axons and dendrites, consciousness and anaesthetics, I found myself drifting then speed reading to get through it!
The only part I found very valuable was Marsh's very sensible discussion of and his compelling case for assisted dying. This man, like myself has seen far too much suffering in his healthcare role to deny the sensible option of being allowed to have control over one's own destiny and check out of life if pain/suffering/despair become too much. Marsh's discussion is comprehensive, compassionate yet objective. Let's hope the next lot of goons in charge of the country agree with him and pass the law 🤞🤞
2 stars.
January 31, 2023
2 random stars.
“Hope is one of the most precious drugs doctors have at their disposal.��
Even though my father had advanced prostate cancer, and I had breast cancer twice and regularly read ‘cancer stories’, Marsh’s narrative did not grab me. Here’s what I would have titled some of the chapters: Ch. 2 – Brain stuff (interesting, but not new to me as an educator.) Ch. 3 – Early covid shutdown. Ch. 4 – Random rambling and musings about former patients. Ch. 5 – Altitude, sleep, and sleep apnea. (At 20% through, I wish he’d move one.) Ch 6 – His home and junk. Ch. 7 – Ukraine, a sniper, a former patient. (My response good grief, the book is one third over, nothing happened and there is no focus.) Ch. 9 – Diagnosis, hospital environment, book picks up a tiny bit. Ch. 10 – Waiting. Ch. 11- Litany of aging symptoms and chemical castration. Ch. 12 – Evolution and sciency stuff. Ch. 13 – Consciousness and other things you might not want explained. Ch. 15 – Poop and pee (IMHO – TMI!). Ch. 16 – Assisted dying. Ch. 18 – A Derivative fairytale Marsh creates for his granddaughters (Me – really, why? The editor thought this was a good idea? You needed this much filler?)
A quote: “The storage space became completely filled with redundant possessions.” My response: I don’t care.
I give Marsh credit for sharing a very personal story and reading his own narrative. Sometimes there are dribbles of humor. “It had become increasingly difficult to deny that my body was past its Best Before date.”
In the Acknowledgements Dr. Marsh thanks his editor for “sorting out the muddle with which I presented her.” “I am fascinated by how much of my past I have forgotten, as well as how boring is much of what I have written.” (Why would the editor keep this sentence in?!) And Finally is a book that rambles along the towpath he mentions several times. I wish the editor would have enlivened it or the publisher would have said “No thanks.” This book needed more hope and less dreariness.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Hope is one of the most precious drugs doctors have at their disposal.��
Even though my father had advanced prostate cancer, and I had breast cancer twice and regularly read ‘cancer stories’, Marsh’s narrative did not grab me. Here’s what I would have titled some of the chapters: Ch. 2 – Brain stuff (interesting, but not new to me as an educator.) Ch. 3 – Early covid shutdown. Ch. 4 – Random rambling and musings about former patients. Ch. 5 – Altitude, sleep, and sleep apnea. (At 20% through, I wish he’d move one.) Ch 6 – His home and junk. Ch. 7 – Ukraine, a sniper, a former patient. (My response good grief, the book is one third over, nothing happened and there is no focus.) Ch. 9 – Diagnosis, hospital environment, book picks up a tiny bit. Ch. 10 – Waiting. Ch. 11- Litany of aging symptoms and chemical castration. Ch. 12 – Evolution and sciency stuff. Ch. 13 – Consciousness and other things you might not want explained. Ch. 15 – Poop and pee (IMHO – TMI!). Ch. 16 – Assisted dying. Ch. 18 – A Derivative fairytale Marsh creates for his granddaughters (Me – really, why? The editor thought this was a good idea? You needed this much filler?)
A quote: “The storage space became completely filled with redundant possessions.” My response: I don’t care.
I give Marsh credit for sharing a very personal story and reading his own narrative. Sometimes there are dribbles of humor. “It had become increasingly difficult to deny that my body was past its Best Before date.”
In the Acknowledgements Dr. Marsh thanks his editor for “sorting out the muddle with which I presented her.” “I am fascinated by how much of my past I have forgotten, as well as how boring is much of what I have written.” (Why would the editor keep this sentence in?!) And Finally is a book that rambles along the towpath he mentions several times. I wish the editor would have enlivened it or the publisher would have said “No thanks.” This book needed more hope and less dreariness.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
October 4, 2022
One of my personal heroes and a true inspiration, yet this book feels redundant and somewhat content-thin. The previous volume hadn’t had much more to say and this one hasn’t either. Some nice insights and beautiful parts remain and save this book at least a bit.
January 5, 2023
I accepted the request to read/review this book simply because I love medical books that are also memoirs and this seemed very intriguing. I had no expectations and since I have not read any of the author's previous books, I didn't know if I would even like the writing. I am here to say I did. Whew! ;-)
This book is, for lack of a better word, cerebral and often-times disjointed. The author tends to flit from thought to thought, interspersed with his retirement and subsequent terminal cancer diagnosis, creating a jumble of memories and present time. For me, it worked. I didn't try to get anything out of this book except enjoyment and listening to a man who has lived a very full life [as he is very willing to tell you throughout the book] and I found it was like having a face-to-face conversation with someone who was just telling a story and how things they were talking about reminded them of something from the past and they add that into what they are currently telling you. Typically, I am not a fan of this, but for whatever reason, in this case, it worked for me and I really ended up enjoying this book immensely and I am so glad I was given the opportunity to read it.
The author narrates this and with his excellent diction and delicious [posh] English accent, it made this book even more of a joy to listen to. You can hear the emotion in his voice when he talks about difficult subjects and his pragmatism when he discusses his cancer diagnosis and it truly adds to the overall feeling of the book. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to listen to this book; for me, it made for a much better reading experience.
I was asked to read/review this book by St. Martin's Press and I thank them, NetGalley, Henry Marsh and Macmillan Audio for providing both the ARC and the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book is, for lack of a better word, cerebral and often-times disjointed. The author tends to flit from thought to thought, interspersed with his retirement and subsequent terminal cancer diagnosis, creating a jumble of memories and present time. For me, it worked. I didn't try to get anything out of this book except enjoyment and listening to a man who has lived a very full life [as he is very willing to tell you throughout the book] and I found it was like having a face-to-face conversation with someone who was just telling a story and how things they were talking about reminded them of something from the past and they add that into what they are currently telling you. Typically, I am not a fan of this, but for whatever reason, in this case, it worked for me and I really ended up enjoying this book immensely and I am so glad I was given the opportunity to read it.
The author narrates this and with his excellent diction and delicious [posh] English accent, it made this book even more of a joy to listen to. You can hear the emotion in his voice when he talks about difficult subjects and his pragmatism when he discusses his cancer diagnosis and it truly adds to the overall feeling of the book. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to listen to this book; for me, it made for a much better reading experience.
I was asked to read/review this book by St. Martin's Press and I thank them, NetGalley, Henry Marsh and Macmillan Audio for providing both the ARC and the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 22, 2023
Ahora entiendo bien por qué este libro le gustó tanto a mi amiga Violeta. Es una reflexión terriblemente triste (a mi parecer) de la muerte de alguien que no cree en nada más que en este mundo terrenal. Entiendo que siendo neurocirujano pueda ser complejo creer en algo más, y a la vez, justo por tener el privilegio de mirar de cerca la perfección y la maravilla del cuerpo humano, es que uno podría creer en algo más.
Todo el libro es triste, obvio, él pasa a ser el paciente en lugar del doctor, y a la vez, es sensible y es tierno, como lo es él.
Pero es cuando me topo con su ateísmo cuando me cimbra. Es un poco irónico y en tono burlón dice justo lo que yo considero como verdades y él, no.
¿La muerte como algo trascendente? Pues sí, lo es.
¿La muerte asistida como una trampa? Puede ser, depende del caso.
Dice que para las personas religiosas existe además de la muerte un miedo añadido a que su fe haya sido una farsa y que no haya alma ni escencia que perdura. ¿De veras? ¿no será al revés, que el miedo es de los que no nunca creyeron?
En fin, reflexiones teológicas.
Me pareció increíble que el libro lo termine hablando sobre lo terrible que es la guerra sobre Ucrania, y dice:
"jamás soñé que viviría para ver como se repite la historia de un modo tan espantoso".
Un año después, estalla esta espantosa guerra en Israel. Tampoco yo creí, como muchos, que la historia pudiera repetirse.
Todo el libro es triste, obvio, él pasa a ser el paciente en lugar del doctor, y a la vez, es sensible y es tierno, como lo es él.
Pero es cuando me topo con su ateísmo cuando me cimbra. Es un poco irónico y en tono burlón dice justo lo que yo considero como verdades y él, no.
¿La muerte como algo trascendente? Pues sí, lo es.
¿La muerte asistida como una trampa? Puede ser, depende del caso.
Dice que para las personas religiosas existe además de la muerte un miedo añadido a que su fe haya sido una farsa y que no haya alma ni escencia que perdura. ¿De veras? ¿no será al revés, que el miedo es de los que no nunca creyeron?
En fin, reflexiones teológicas.
Me pareció increíble que el libro lo termine hablando sobre lo terrible que es la guerra sobre Ucrania, y dice:
"jamás soñé que viviría para ver como se repite la historia de un modo tan espantoso".
Un año después, estalla esta espantosa guerra en Israel. Tampoco yo creí, como muchos, que la historia pudiera repetirse.
May 23, 2024
Ця книга ніби дійсно прощання з Маршем, хоч я сподіваюсь його чекає ще дуже багато хороших років, лекцій і казок для онучок. Тут погляд ізсередини на досвід лікування від раку, роздуми про сенс життя, про внесок у розвиток своєї сфери, прийняття минулого, прийняття скінченності життя і неминучості своєї смерті. Я ніби тримала автора за руку, поки він проходив усі стадії прийняття. Дуже хороша книга, хоч і не можу її зараз радити всім в Україні. Генрі чудова людина, якій дійсно болить тяжка доля України і яка зробила що могла аби допомогти нам, тож вже навіть за це заслуговує на вдячність і повагу.
October 30, 2023
Gjenial si perhere. Historia e nje njeriu qe ideal ka pasionin per punen permblidhet ne kete trilogji.
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December 5, 2023This felt like a conversation with a friend. We’re talking larger than life topics like consciousness, prolonging life, euthanasia, etc. His journey through the cancer diagnosis is just a fraction of the storytelling & brain-picking here.
“…often it is the patient who is ready to die but the family who cannot let go. It is they, after all, who will be left behind. Death is not just about the end of an individual life, but also the grieving lives of those left behind.” (Marsh, 193).
“…often it is the patient who is ready to die but the family who cannot let go. It is they, after all, who will be left behind. Death is not just about the end of an individual life, but also the grieving lives of those left behind.” (Marsh, 193).
April 25, 2023
Having listened to the memoir in audio, it turned out to be a tad more informative than I expected. I know very little about physics so some informative parts didn't sink in as well as a story of Henry Marsh, the doctor-turned-patient. A perfect mix of hopeful and realistic with deeply moving personal touch.
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