ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Richard Kay is a British comedy author, former doctor, and comedian. He belonged to a family of doctors – his father, cousins, siblings were all medics. Hence studying medicine was an obvious choice for him. Kay’s first novel, titled This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, was published by Picador in September 2017. The book became an instant Sunday Times bestseller, a position it held for more than a year. The novel went on to sell over a million copies. It received not one but four National Book Awards.
SYNOPSIS
This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor is a compilation of diary notes that Kay recorded throughout his medical-training years. He started keeping a diary as a House Officer in 2004, after obtaining his medical degree from the Imperial College School of Medicine. He finished the diary six years later, after he became a Senior Registrar. Little did he know that the diary would become the voice of the junior doctors at the NHS, an umbrella system consisting of the four independent public healthcare providers from England, Scotland, Wales, and North Ireland.
Kay worked for several years as an obstetrician and gynecologist, writing several textbooks on the subject before leaving medicine for a career in writing. Under different dates, we read about the long nights Kay spent in the emergency department and his attempts to save other people’s lives sprinkled with the witty humor that gently pinches the heart, all at once.
He left the field he had loved, saying that he was done with it – the only reason he ever gave to his close ones. For many of his friends and family, this book was the first time they understood Kay’s actual reasons for quitting.
Despite the ordeals he went through, Adam Kay sums up his feelings, saying the job was definitely worth it. According to the author, doctors have one of the most mentally and physically exhausting, accountable, and blamable professions of all. And whatever they get, they certainly deserve more.
WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT THIS IS GOING TO HURT
This is Going to Hurt is hilarious and comical with just the right amount of wit and humor to balance the emotional turmoil that it puts the readers through. It sheds light on the oft-unseen side of doctors, who sometimes burn the midnight oil to make our lives better. Given the current pandemic (COVID-19), the book is undoubtedly an eye-opener for us to treat not just our doctors, but other healthcare professionals such as nurses, midwives, attendants, and caretakers with utmost respect.
WHAT WE DID NOT LIKE ABOUT THIS IS GOING TO HURT
Though you cannot have your cake and eat it too, This is Going to Hurt keeps you wanting more at times.
QUOTES
A great doctor must have a huge heart and a distended aorta through which pumps a vast lake of compassion and human kindness.
I’ve not sat down for twelve hours, let alone rested my eyes, my dinner’s sitting uneaten in my locker, and I’ve just called a midwife ‘Mum’ by accident.
CONCLUSION
This is Going to Hurt is a funny and heart-warming read. It warrants nothing less than 4 stars out of 5. The words from the book linger on in the readers’ minds long after they have put the book down.
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