Den Dizil Dizil itibaren Бол. Аксу, Kazakistan
I love the content of this book. The message is very important and timely. There are portions of this book that are so clearly and concisely written but I am afraid not all are. Especially when Newman uses the stories of others to make his point, he rambles a bit. One of his greatest strengths lie in taking apart the obfuscations even the best journal articles use to obscure poor to ineffectual findings of medical diagnostic tests or medications. He makes the most mundane statistics come alive when he takes them apart and offers them up again without embellishments. On the other hand by offering italicized stories about specific events he has encountered, he builds the reader's expectation that he is telling us something important and something will be revealed. This tool fails every time and makes the following points always seem a bit anti-climatic. It is this and only this, that has made me give him 4 stars instead of 5. I expect more good stuff to come from David Newman. This is an important book that consumers of health care in this country should read to arm themselves with more knowledge and to navigate their doctor visits. But I really REALLY wish doctors would read this book and go back to the Hippocratic ideal.
I admit to throwing this book against the wall when I finished it. But, it has haunted me with images that I will not soon forget. It's brilliant, poignant and probably the most realistic and fanciful story about depression I've ever read.