Another masterful memoir from Marsh.
The latest compelling memoir from the British neurosurgeon.
In 2014, Marsh published the excellent Do No Harm; in 2017, he followed it up with an equally fine sequel, Admissions. Now past 72 and retired, he writes about becoming a patient. Doctor writers produce a steady stream of such books, but this is among the best. Despite being retired, Marsh “continued to think that illness happened to patients and not to doctors.” He assumed that the urinary difficulties he had been experiencing for years were the result of benign prostatic enlargement, which affects most men as they age. In fact, he had prostate cancer, which had probably spread. The author does not hide his terror at this news. He reviews his life, finding much to applaud but plenty of regrets, and he capably describes his experiences as a patient. Like anyone, he hoped for good news, perhaps even that he may be cured, but it never came. More unnervingly, listening to his doctors revealed that he (like they) held too high an opinion of himself. Patients who love their doctors tell them so, while disappointed patients mostly keep quiet. Doctors who write memoirs admit flaws, but lack of compassion is rarely among them. To his distress, observing how the doctors dealt with him, Marsh realized that he could have done better in the compassion department. This is not a denunciation of the medical profession; almost everyone he encountered treated him kindly. Accepting that he would die but fearful that he might suffer, he reserves his hatred for opponents of assisted suicide: “It is as though they think that assisted dying is cheating” or “that there is something ‘natural’ about dying slowly and painfully.” The author offers a fascinating account of his often disagreeable treatment but remains entranced by the wonders of the natural world, science, and love for his family. The conclusion finds him still alive and, readers will hope, writing another book.
Another masterful memoir from Marsh.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-28608-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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