Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

"What could be finer, I thought, than to be a neurosurgeon?" writes Henry Marsh after seeing his first brain surgery. "The operation involved the brain, the mysterious substrate of all thought and feeling, of all that was important in human life – a mystery, it seemed to me, as great as the stars at night and the universe around us."  

In this clinical and terse memoir Mr Marsh writes about the single mindedness required to be an excellent technician/brain surgeon - his obvious entrancement with the brain, its beautiful construction, the mystery of many of its functions and its inherent softness and fragility, with only the cocoon of the skull to keep safe.  He brilliant describes the craft and beauty of the brain, the surgery and the implications of various treatments.   Mr Marsh takes us through his career, from the heady early days,  various operations, his dilemmas with and sometimes not treating people, his failures and the guilt he still bears and his recent issues with the various restructuring that has gone on in the NHS and the consequences for those doing the 'work'.  

For those of us with an interest in medical matters we loved this side of the book.  What many of us took issue with was the more 'me' side, the personal, the man which we felt could have done with some good editing - less of the person came through or maybe too much of the clinician? 
Very mixed reviews for this book. some liked it but on the whole, many found it too dry and un-engaging.

Words used to describe it:
enlightening, fascinating, clinical, instructive (twice), dry memoir

Marks out of 10:  between 4 and 8

Next Book

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Next Meeting

Thursday 2 June at 72 Kingwood Road

The other books we briefly discussed that Cindy had recommended - not all of us had read them were:

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

Comment from Carolyn - Not enough sex

and 

The Body Keeps Score