“Words are never, ever, just words.” Joanna Cannon writes this in the context of giving a diagnosis but it could equally apply to her writing. There is no spare word in this book, no word which doesn’t carry the reader forward on their journey as they join her on a retrospective reflection on her life as a medical student and junior doctor.
This is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read in a long time. Dr Cannon lays herself as bare as the cadaver that accompanied her through medical school, exposing her own vulnerability that readers might learn the brutal reality of her chosen profession for someone who is clearly so innately compassionate and empathetic.
As a former nurse, I found this to be quite a painful read at times as it triggered memories of the medical students I encountered who didn’t have the wherewithal to complete their studies because they were too caring of their patients but couldn’t apply that same compassion to themselves – how they would have benefitted from the wise words in this slim volume.
Although it makes for harrowing reading at times, it is ultimately a compulsive and emphatically positive book and should be compulsory reading for every medical and nursing student – or anyone considering those paths. I would also recommend the book to patients (that’s most of us at some time!) as it takes any apparent glamour out of a doctor’s job and replaces it with compassionate reality in a very accessible and humane form.
“I strongly believe in the power of words, to heal and mend,” Cannon writes, and in this book she does exactly that, transferring her skills from the wards to her words.
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