the reluctant fundamentalist

Enjoyed, quick read. Probably won't stick with me very strongly. I wonder how someone who does not already accept that other people in the world have reasons to be angry at the US would react to this story. 9/11 was horrifying, but morally speaking I don't think it's that different from the CIA remote bombing a wedding in FATA. Group A has decided that Group B is the enemy, and must be attacked violently. Group A knows that civilians will be killed in the attack. Group A has decided that killing people who are minding their own goddamn business is okay. Group A is morally repugnant.

My guess is that many Americans, including some I know personally, would want to punch me for even raising that possibility. And most Pakistanis would nod.

Interesting to have read two books in such quick succession written in the second person (the other being, of course, Gilead). 

being mortal

A call to action at all levels, from the upper reaches of the health system to medical schools to individual doctors and health care workers, to every day individuals. I feel like it should be part of medical school curricula. C and I spent some time in the park yesterday reading and enjoying the sunshine and we talked a bit about how physicians have gone from being paternalistic deciders to informers who let their patient/customer make health decisions. This is a theme Gawande addresses throughout the book, and he confesses that he himself is most comfortable in the "informer" role. He brings up the Zeke and (??? forget her name) Emanuel piece where they describe a third way for doctors to be, in which the doctor's role is to find out what the patient most desires, and then guide the patient to that outcome to the extent possible.

System broken -- amazing the extent to which Gawande makes this case, he says outright that the medical approach to end-of-life care has "failed." Needs fixing. Fixes are simple but not easy. The end.

Written so much in the New Yorker house style. 

gilead

Finished late last night, after Duke beat Wisconsin for championship number five. Go Duke.

Gilead was wonderful, I'm not sure why it took me so long to read it. Beautifully written and so deep I couldn't quite make out the bottom. Very, very much to ponder with respect to god and religion and our place in the universe, without ever feeling pedantic or obvious. And what a device, to set the entire book as unaddressed letters from a dying father to his young son! How did she do it? More Marilynne Robinson in the future.