Recension av Barry

Fantastic piece of work, or a disaster

30 juli 2020

I think it's possible to read this autobiography either as a fantastic piece of work, or a disaster. The narrative is occasionally formal, occupational and technical, but at other times sensation-seeking and brute on the verge of being rude and unpolished. Is Adam Kay totally losing his ethical stance as a former medical doctor? Or is he just open-mindedly facing the bloody truth in a realistic and uncensored manner? Perhaps humorous, but the jargon is more mocking than fun.

But, the book is sometimes funny, really funny, and perhaps it could had been an interesting biography, but the text is more ironical than authentic. He is tired to the bones of the institutional bureaucracy, poor working conditions, low wages, half-weird colleagues and hierarchies. In short, he seems to be more fatigue, disappointed and disillusioned than honest. The narrative is mixed with tragic patient cases and their various ridiculous (?) manners, and their even more tragic misconceptions, their googling, their sometimes odd moral standards, their personal obscene wrongdoings. Some are really heartbreaking.

Adam Kay is perhaps trying to reveal the truth "behind the scene", but is he turning out to be sarcastic instead? There is no reason to believe that he wasn't a skilled doctor. And, or but, beside the distanced diaries of his, he seems to be both dedicated and committed: a nice friendly and concerned hardworking guy. His shortcomings make him human in a beautiful way, and that's a really nice read. His freewheeling jargon is perhaps meant to be disarming and non-sexistic (and sometimes it is), but as in every collegiality at a pub night, together with friends, he is saying things only meant for a drunken ear and perhaps telling more shit than was needed....

Maybe I should point out that the book is absolutely worth reading! Adam Kay has many points and there are a loads of identification possibilities for junior doctors, especially the stress, understaffing, hopeless working conditions, low pay and unrestricted working hours with the unbeatable combination of the feelings of loneliness and the demands for personal independence, and constantly all these new cases that eventually slowly turn into some kind of tired realism. The book is very British and with English insider abbreviations and filled with NHS-related jokes and problems. As I'm from Sweden my impression is, after all, that the understaffing and working conditions in Sweden are not satisfying, but not quite that bad as described by Adam Kay.