What do you think?
Rate this book
Histories
Histories is a hypnotic portrait of life in one hospital, over one week. In the corridors and consulting rooms, by the bedside, through the open curtain, we witness charged encounters within the emotional and physical world of medicine. Old insecurities surface as junior doctors try to save a man from dying; an enraged chaplain picks a fight with a consultant; a porter waxes lyrical on his invisibility.
These are only some of the stories that so seamlessly connect, collide and create an unforgettable panorama of being. Sam Guglani's vivid prose has the raw intensity of poetry that pulls the reader in on every page.
These are only some of the stories that so seamlessly connect, collide and create an unforgettable panorama of being. Sam Guglani's vivid prose has the raw intensity of poetry that pulls the reader in on every page.
164 pages, Paperback
First published November 2, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
June 16, 2018
3.5* rounded up, or 7/10
This book about one week in a modern day hospital in England’s NHS is very well written, and clearly the author does have insight into the workings of a hospital. He also impresses with his insight into human nature and motivation, with his short chapters written from multiple different points of view always convincing. Where it could have been better though, was a coherent story-line connecting all the characters together (other than the hospital itself). Although many characters and story lines are loosely connected, it is actually quite hard to keep track of them all, due to the multiple switches of narrative. Another minor irritant was the lack of punctuation in a book that was very dialogue driven.
Overall a well crafted novella which certainly conveyed a sense of life in a hospital, even if a somewhat depressing and cynical view of the medical profession and hospital system. I found myself wanting more, as the book was just starting to hit its stride just as it finished. Certainly this a better book than the most well known portrayal of hospital life, The House of God (although admittedly different era -1970s, and country-US). Would recommend to anyone who has ever worked in or been a patient in a hospital
This book about one week in a modern day hospital in England’s NHS is very well written, and clearly the author does have insight into the workings of a hospital. He also impresses with his insight into human nature and motivation, with his short chapters written from multiple different points of view always convincing. Where it could have been better though, was a coherent story-line connecting all the characters together (other than the hospital itself). Although many characters and story lines are loosely connected, it is actually quite hard to keep track of them all, due to the multiple switches of narrative. Another minor irritant was the lack of punctuation in a book that was very dialogue driven.
Overall a well crafted novella which certainly conveyed a sense of life in a hospital, even if a somewhat depressing and cynical view of the medical profession and hospital system. I found myself wanting more, as the book was just starting to hit its stride just as it finished. Certainly this a better book than the most well known portrayal of hospital life, The House of God (although admittedly different era -1970s, and country-US). Would recommend to anyone who has ever worked in or been a patient in a hospital
August 25, 2018
I greatly enjoyed Histories, a slim volume of linked stories set in a hospital over a week, told from the p.o.v of different characters (I think those told from medics' p.o.v are the strongest). I loved Dr Sam Guglani's economy of words and clarity of thought: the chaos and grind of medicine meets fragility and beauty. There are moments of unexpected humour too. I didn't know before I read the book that Dr Guglani is also a poet, but this makes sense as there is poetry in every sentence.
February 25, 2018
I loved the premise of this book but found the large cast of characters, all of whom referenced each other, confusing - much like Game of Thrones before you realise who everyone is. For a book so about the emotional part of medicine I also found it very hard to engage emotionally with. It was interesting and made you think, but I expected something more.
April 7, 2018
Couldn't finish it. Poetic writing but the stories are so disjointed that it doesn't make it an easy read. Some of the stories are connected but there is so little background on each character that o struggled to remember who each character was. Also, the book contains several typos which is quite annoying.
February 19, 2019
This is quite dull, has mediocre writing and there were many times within each vignette where I felt that piece was disjointed and confusing. It really isn't worth the effort to try and sort out the pieces or the whole.
March 10, 2025
If I must describe this book in one sentence it would be something like this: “An unexpectantly pleasant short stories collection about the life of a hospital”. After my previous books, I wanted to get distracted in something with less than 400 pages. I know this sounds trivial, especially given the age-old truth that every reader knows better than to judge a book by the number of pages and not the quality of work.
However, me, being a free and conscious individual, I chose a book to finish in less than one month, which (funny enough) is a book I picked from my library on random - S. Guglani’s “Histories”.
After these brief ruminations on the act of choosing the book, let me say how it achieves the goals it sets for itself, mainly to describe the life of humans in the busy and chaotic world of medicine. The prose is eloquent and easy to read, allowing you to immerse in the feeling of dance between life and death. Days of the week, mornings and evenings shift in the everlasting sequence of events, painting the paper-white hospital with watercolors of human life.
Even though the main protagonists of the stories are doctors, nurses and other medical staff, I’d say that there is just one protagonist, and his name is human nature, rather than some specific occupation. We are led to believe that doctors, nurses and medical personnel are somewhat distant from the feelings and emotions of the patients, yet the overarching stories here show us, life is more complex than our initial black & white perception of them.
Every story shows us one individual viewpoint and as we jump from one story to the other, the characters become familiar. Everything happens in just one week, thus giving us the timeline and different stories placed somewhere on it. Thus, the more we read the book, the more we SEE all the people who appear as strangers at first, giving us a subtle sense of belonging, without pushing it on us. It is almost as if we are there with them and it’s the everyday interactions and relationships, which may seem superficial, but hold deep scars, memories and principles unseen to the naked eye, while beautifully highlighted by the author. Without a doubt, my favorite dialogue was between the hospital chaplain Tom and consultant oncologist Nathan, giving me goosebumps, whilst placing me as a listener at their table, casually overhearing a conversation at the hospital cafeteria.
Overall, I did quite enjoy the “Histories” for a 4/5 rating, but sometimes the stories and dialogue felt incomplete, some elements were missing. This can in some way be attributed to Guglani’s vision, which I respect, but cannot accept fully as a reader.
However, me, being a free and conscious individual, I chose a book to finish in less than one month, which (funny enough) is a book I picked from my library on random - S. Guglani’s “Histories”.
After these brief ruminations on the act of choosing the book, let me say how it achieves the goals it sets for itself, mainly to describe the life of humans in the busy and chaotic world of medicine. The prose is eloquent and easy to read, allowing you to immerse in the feeling of dance between life and death. Days of the week, mornings and evenings shift in the everlasting sequence of events, painting the paper-white hospital with watercolors of human life.
Even though the main protagonists of the stories are doctors, nurses and other medical staff, I’d say that there is just one protagonist, and his name is human nature, rather than some specific occupation. We are led to believe that doctors, nurses and medical personnel are somewhat distant from the feelings and emotions of the patients, yet the overarching stories here show us, life is more complex than our initial black & white perception of them.
Every story shows us one individual viewpoint and as we jump from one story to the other, the characters become familiar. Everything happens in just one week, thus giving us the timeline and different stories placed somewhere on it. Thus, the more we read the book, the more we SEE all the people who appear as strangers at first, giving us a subtle sense of belonging, without pushing it on us. It is almost as if we are there with them and it’s the everyday interactions and relationships, which may seem superficial, but hold deep scars, memories and principles unseen to the naked eye, while beautifully highlighted by the author. Without a doubt, my favorite dialogue was between the hospital chaplain Tom and consultant oncologist Nathan, giving me goosebumps, whilst placing me as a listener at their table, casually overhearing a conversation at the hospital cafeteria.
Overall, I did quite enjoy the “Histories” for a 4/5 rating, but sometimes the stories and dialogue felt incomplete, some elements were missing. This can in some way be attributed to Guglani’s vision, which I respect, but cannot accept fully as a reader.
December 14, 2020
This was okay but I didn't feel like all the character's varying chapters were very cohesive in the end but there were some nice sentiments.
November 9, 2018
Absolutely beautiful.
February 12, 2018
“Only this morning, brushing her teeth, she’d listened to a young woman on the radio announcing that her father was being denied treatment, then an interview with a minister about rationing and resources and so on. As though every drug, every penny, has to be made available for every treatment. All the while printers breaking, then nurses, then doctors.”
Histories, by Sam Guglani, is a set of interlinked stories – histories – of the nurses, doctors, patients, porters and cleaners who populate the oncology department of an NHS hospital during the course of one week in October. It is a humane, devastating exploration of the effect of sickness on those who suffer, observe and treat it. Beautifully written it offers an empathetic observance of the many types of people encountered and their coping strategies when dealing with death.
Unlike other books written by doctors this one does not emphasise the stresses caused by the long hours worked. Rather it looks at the relationships between medical staff at all levels, their expectations, and those of patients. Doctors are not homogeneous; they each cope differently with a job that demands they save lives when what they are doing on a daily basis is trying to postpone death.
The consultants featured are at different stages in their careers. One is wealthy and arrogant, believing that patients want their doctors to appear confident and professional, even on days when they may feel crumpled and rushed. He is growing his private practice, the status conferred by the cost of treatment making certain patients consider him the best.
“It’s no big secret. The more elusive or expensive or glamorous a medical opinion, the more hope a patient invests in it, the more trust. He’s convinced of it. Desire and trust are so perfectly aligned in the practice of medicine.”
He talks of the need for self-care, that he always ensures he takes breaks. He is accused of not caring for those requiring consultations, of finding time for his private patients when those coming through the NHS must wait.
“Look. I get that you’re clever. Busy, capable. All that
And so?
I know you can do it all, Nathan. But you give nothing.
What do you want me to give?
It’s just a set of tasks for you, isn’t it? Medicine. While you stay intact.
You want us – what? You want us to break?”
Another consultant becomes frustrated when patients demand tests and treatments that she does not consider necessary. They accuse her of withholding due to their age. They ask for a second opinion from someone more senior. She feels relief and then guilt when she signs them over to someone else.
The junior doctors are still finding their way, struggling to deal with the daily experiences and fear of missing signs of illness progression, or of being blamed for unnecessary escalation. The nurses and other staff members at times resent the doctors with their sometimes acerbic discussions of patients in their care. Yet all are affected by the age and demeanour of the never ending stream of patients.
“We’re drawn to the young and the beautiful in hospitals. We flock to them. We meet them differently to the elderly, say, or the obese, the vast majority of mentally and physically fraying persons that fill these buildings. […] As though, at some level, we really do believe that beauty renders us invulnerable to suffering.”
Patients’ loved ones talk of the unfairness of this suffering, asking why them? as if illness should be deserved. The medical staff have learned what is almost a script in order to deal with the human pain that daily surrounds them. They may care but cannot survive the job if they care too deeply.
In spare yet emotionally unsparing prose the author presents a cast who are at moments of medical crisis. Their stories are told with sympathy but also realism in an environment where patients are demanding miracles. This is a powerfully understated, beautifully written portrayal of life in a hospital, from many perspectives. A recommended read for anyone who may one day require medical treatment.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, riverrun.
Histories, by Sam Guglani, is a set of interlinked stories – histories – of the nurses, doctors, patients, porters and cleaners who populate the oncology department of an NHS hospital during the course of one week in October. It is a humane, devastating exploration of the effect of sickness on those who suffer, observe and treat it. Beautifully written it offers an empathetic observance of the many types of people encountered and their coping strategies when dealing with death.
Unlike other books written by doctors this one does not emphasise the stresses caused by the long hours worked. Rather it looks at the relationships between medical staff at all levels, their expectations, and those of patients. Doctors are not homogeneous; they each cope differently with a job that demands they save lives when what they are doing on a daily basis is trying to postpone death.
The consultants featured are at different stages in their careers. One is wealthy and arrogant, believing that patients want their doctors to appear confident and professional, even on days when they may feel crumpled and rushed. He is growing his private practice, the status conferred by the cost of treatment making certain patients consider him the best.
“It’s no big secret. The more elusive or expensive or glamorous a medical opinion, the more hope a patient invests in it, the more trust. He’s convinced of it. Desire and trust are so perfectly aligned in the practice of medicine.”
He talks of the need for self-care, that he always ensures he takes breaks. He is accused of not caring for those requiring consultations, of finding time for his private patients when those coming through the NHS must wait.
“Look. I get that you’re clever. Busy, capable. All that
And so?
I know you can do it all, Nathan. But you give nothing.
What do you want me to give?
It’s just a set of tasks for you, isn’t it? Medicine. While you stay intact.
You want us – what? You want us to break?”
Another consultant becomes frustrated when patients demand tests and treatments that she does not consider necessary. They accuse her of withholding due to their age. They ask for a second opinion from someone more senior. She feels relief and then guilt when she signs them over to someone else.
The junior doctors are still finding their way, struggling to deal with the daily experiences and fear of missing signs of illness progression, or of being blamed for unnecessary escalation. The nurses and other staff members at times resent the doctors with their sometimes acerbic discussions of patients in their care. Yet all are affected by the age and demeanour of the never ending stream of patients.
“We’re drawn to the young and the beautiful in hospitals. We flock to them. We meet them differently to the elderly, say, or the obese, the vast majority of mentally and physically fraying persons that fill these buildings. […] As though, at some level, we really do believe that beauty renders us invulnerable to suffering.”
Patients’ loved ones talk of the unfairness of this suffering, asking why them? as if illness should be deserved. The medical staff have learned what is almost a script in order to deal with the human pain that daily surrounds them. They may care but cannot survive the job if they care too deeply.
In spare yet emotionally unsparing prose the author presents a cast who are at moments of medical crisis. Their stories are told with sympathy but also realism in an environment where patients are demanding miracles. This is a powerfully understated, beautifully written portrayal of life in a hospital, from many perspectives. A recommended read for anyone who may one day require medical treatment.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, riverrun.
January 24, 2021
1.5/1.75⭐️
Can’t really say much about this short novella because I just didn’t enjoy it at all.
The prose was poetic and there was some aspects that I enjoyed but mainly it was just very confused and bizarre and abstract.
I wanted to love this story but unfortunately I just couldn’t.
Can’t really say much about this short novella because I just didn’t enjoy it at all.
The prose was poetic and there was some aspects that I enjoyed but mainly it was just very confused and bizarre and abstract.
I wanted to love this story but unfortunately I just couldn’t.
May 10, 2018
Just wow. What a wonderful book. It’s very short and in incredibly readable small sections.
It is just about the best thing I’ve read this year and I’ve read a lot and been blown away by some of them.
I’d be fascinated by the non medic viewpoint. For me as a doctor this hit me with such a powerful sense of connection. That inner world that we know is there. The people, each tiny bit-parts in a vastly bigger whole. The messiness of humanity. The fact that real life is never simple and people are always complex.
I loved it!
And I’m pretty sure im going to use an extract for it at a conference session next week.
It is just about the best thing I’ve read this year and I’ve read a lot and been blown away by some of them.
I’d be fascinated by the non medic viewpoint. For me as a doctor this hit me with such a powerful sense of connection. That inner world that we know is there. The people, each tiny bit-parts in a vastly bigger whole. The messiness of humanity. The fact that real life is never simple and people are always complex.
I loved it!
And I’m pretty sure im going to use an extract for it at a conference session next week.
October 26, 2018
Histories got me interested as soon as I read the blurb. It's a series of interlinked stories set in a hospital over the course of one week. More specifically, it's set around the oncology department. We witness events from the points of view of consultants, junior doctors, a chaplain, a cleaner, patients, a porter and so on.
Each story is intriguing, some are heartbreaking, some are hard-hitting. This is not a particularly emotional or sentimental book, but you can't help but imagine the feelings evoked. For instance, what hit me hard whilst reading this book was a sense that some doctors are so fatigued by the day to day routine that they no longer see patients as people. It wasn't necessarily something that I didn't know, rather something I would prefer not to know. The author is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist himself so I imagine he's writing from experience and from witnessing others' experiences.
Do you know, I've been meaning to write this review for a while but now I'm doing so I find that it's bringing out all kinds of emotions in me. I think it hit harder than I realised. As I say, it's not that it's full of emotion so much as it's about real life, something that any of us could face.
It's a short book but I think it was just the right length and gives just enough of each character, each viewpoint. It's a book that spoke to me of life and death, of needing to feel like you are more than just a name above a bed, that you are flesh and blood, with complex feelings.
Guglani's writing is pared back, raw, honest and true. It puts us right in the heart of the NHS and gives us an insight into the components that make the whole. It's profound and thought-provoking and I found it to be a compelling read.
Each story is intriguing, some are heartbreaking, some are hard-hitting. This is not a particularly emotional or sentimental book, but you can't help but imagine the feelings evoked. For instance, what hit me hard whilst reading this book was a sense that some doctors are so fatigued by the day to day routine that they no longer see patients as people. It wasn't necessarily something that I didn't know, rather something I would prefer not to know. The author is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist himself so I imagine he's writing from experience and from witnessing others' experiences.
Do you know, I've been meaning to write this review for a while but now I'm doing so I find that it's bringing out all kinds of emotions in me. I think it hit harder than I realised. As I say, it's not that it's full of emotion so much as it's about real life, something that any of us could face.
It's a short book but I think it was just the right length and gives just enough of each character, each viewpoint. It's a book that spoke to me of life and death, of needing to feel like you are more than just a name above a bed, that you are flesh and blood, with complex feelings.
Guglani's writing is pared back, raw, honest and true. It puts us right in the heart of the NHS and gives us an insight into the components that make the whole. It's profound and thought-provoking and I found it to be a compelling read.
September 1, 2018
DO YOU HATE DOCTORS?
Do you particularly hate when doctors do such egregiously terrible things as:
HAVE LUNCH BREAKS
PRIORITISE EATING DURING THEIR WORKING DAY
ATTEMPT TO FINISH WORK AT A REASONABLE HOUR SOME DAYS
DON'T ACTUALLY LIVE 24/7 IN THE HOSPITAL
HAVE LIVES OUTSIDE OF WORK?
Then you will love this book, which in every chapter shits on doctors for doing the above. I don't know what the fuck happened to this author while they were waiting in a doctor's office one time, but it must have been truly traumatising. Maybe the doctor WENT TO GET A COFFEE INSTEAD OF IMMEDIATELY SEEING SEVENTEEN PATIENTS AT ONCE?! Who knows. God forbid we ever take a break, I mean, what an unbelievably spoilt attitude that would be on our part, it's not like we used to work 36 hour shifts until recently when we suggested maybe that WASN'T GREAT.
Also, the writing was atrocious, for some reason he's allergic to dialogue markers, I never knew who was thinking from one chapter to the next, and was everyone seriously fucking that one medical student? Did no one think it weird and inappropriate that she was CANNULATING AT ARRESTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? GUGLANI, SHE'S A STUDENT, SHE HAS NO FUCKING INDEMNITY, THIS IS HOW HOSPITALS GET SUED AND CAREERS GET RUINED ALKSDJFHSLKDJHAKLSJDHFLASK this book is SO BAD.
Do you particularly hate when doctors do such egregiously terrible things as:
HAVE LUNCH BREAKS
PRIORITISE EATING DURING THEIR WORKING DAY
ATTEMPT TO FINISH WORK AT A REASONABLE HOUR SOME DAYS
DON'T ACTUALLY LIVE 24/7 IN THE HOSPITAL
HAVE LIVES OUTSIDE OF WORK?
Then you will love this book, which in every chapter shits on doctors for doing the above. I don't know what the fuck happened to this author while they were waiting in a doctor's office one time, but it must have been truly traumatising. Maybe the doctor WENT TO GET A COFFEE INSTEAD OF IMMEDIATELY SEEING SEVENTEEN PATIENTS AT ONCE?! Who knows. God forbid we ever take a break, I mean, what an unbelievably spoilt attitude that would be on our part, it's not like we used to work 36 hour shifts until recently when we suggested maybe that WASN'T GREAT.
Also, the writing was atrocious, for some reason he's allergic to dialogue markers, I never knew who was thinking from one chapter to the next, and was everyone seriously fucking that one medical student? Did no one think it weird and inappropriate that she was CANNULATING AT ARRESTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? GUGLANI, SHE'S A STUDENT, SHE HAS NO FUCKING INDEMNITY, THIS IS HOW HOSPITALS GET SUED AND CAREERS GET RUINED ALKSDJFHSLKDJHAKLSJDHFLASK this book is SO BAD.
January 24, 2018
This scalpel-sharp debut takes place over one week at an NHS hospital, with a revolving door narrative that spotlights various patients and staff members, from a put-upon porter to a moonlighting oncologist schmoozing private clients. Linking what is effectively a series of short stories loosely gathered around events such as a consultant’s heart attack, the device might seem convenient yet feels appropriate for the setting. And while you might sometimes wonder if the book’s melancholy, ever-so-slightly plaintive tone could use a shot of dark comedy along the lines of, say, Jed Mercurio’s 2002 novel Bodies, Guglani – a doctor himself – draws a highly compulsive panorama of hospital life as a cauldron of guilt and suppressed desire.
April 17, 2018
Sam, a colleague, paints a powerful picture of the tensions of the workers and patients in a district general hospital in the NHS today. He writes well too about the difficulties of being doctor and the shortcomings of many. I took many quotes from the book and plan to try to weave them together in a blog that I hope the BMJ will post. I thought it a better picture of modern health care than that described in most other books, both fiction and non-fiction.
I enjoyed the book, but I wasn't convinced it was a novel. It might better be described as a collection of short stories with links between some of the characters. There was a technical problem in that there were so many characters, many of whom appeared only once, that it was hard to make the connections when they came.
I enjoyed the book, but I wasn't convinced it was a novel. It might better be described as a collection of short stories with links between some of the characters. There was a technical problem in that there were so many characters, many of whom appeared only once, that it was hard to make the connections when they came.
September 1, 2019
This is a collection of interlinked short stories set in an NHS hospital. I loved the way you get to see from the perspectives of lots of different people in the hospital – the doctors and nurses, the cleaners, the patients and the receptionists. Each person had their own story to tell but in the background or on the periphery you see other people’s stories. Later you see some of the background from the perspective of the person involved and it feels like being really close to a story and then slowly pulling back from it to make a fuller picture. I really enjoyed this book and found it’s one that is really staying with me. I highly recommend it!
This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com
This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com
October 4, 2021
Written from perspectives of multiple people in the hospital. It felt a little disjointed at first, but as you read the book the people become more familiar and you learn more about them through the perceptions of others - their relationships, thoughts, tendencies. All individuals are criticized and are seen through a lens of imperfection and shortcomings - whether this be through themselves or through other people.
January 25, 2018
The lyrical prose in this book make it a joy to read. Each sentence holds meaning and the more I read the more enchanted I became. There is a hypnotic effect to the poetic language and it is no surprise to learn that the author is a poet.
For my full review please visit my blog at: http://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogspo...
For my full review please visit my blog at: http://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogspo...
July 19, 2018
Even though I heard about this book only through others' reviews, it was quite different to what I expected it to be. It is a collection of characters' stories from across a week in a hospital. The stories are intertwined, with several characters mentioned by other characters. Despite being a short book, this felt like a complete world which existed before the period contained in the book and continues afterwards.
This felt like a true reflection of life in the NHS. It felt real, current, and somehow strangely complete.
One tangential reflection. I recently read one of Henry Marsh's autobiographies, and was (perhaps unfairly) struck by the degree to which he disparages his juniors. There was a similar theme in this book: the senior medical staff are often critical of the motivations and level of commitment of their junior colleagues.
I can honestly say that this has not been a prevalent feature of my medical career, either as a junior or as a consultant. Of course there are odd exceptions, but I have almost always felt a genuine sense of teamwork and mutual respect across the medical hierarchy.
Maybe I've just been lucky. Maybe this is related to specialty. I wonder if my experience is influenced by my training being largely in the North East. The North East is almost always a positive outlier in training surveys, and when I reflect on my relatively short time working in London as a trainee, I think I experienced more of a rigid hierarchy and condescension (but maybe this is just confirmation bias).
This felt like a true reflection of life in the NHS. It felt real, current, and somehow strangely complete.
One tangential reflection. I recently read one of Henry Marsh's autobiographies, and was (perhaps unfairly) struck by the degree to which he disparages his juniors. There was a similar theme in this book: the senior medical staff are often critical of the motivations and level of commitment of their junior colleagues.
I can honestly say that this has not been a prevalent feature of my medical career, either as a junior or as a consultant. Of course there are odd exceptions, but I have almost always felt a genuine sense of teamwork and mutual respect across the medical hierarchy.
Maybe I've just been lucky. Maybe this is related to specialty. I wonder if my experience is influenced by my training being largely in the North East. The North East is almost always a positive outlier in training surveys, and when I reflect on my relatively short time working in London as a trainee, I think I experienced more of a rigid hierarchy and condescension (but maybe this is just confirmation bias).
August 21, 2020
The premise of this book is very compelling, but sadly the execution didn't work for me. This is a collection of vignettes from characters in a hospital over the space of one week. The language is quite lyrical and I felt that I should have been very moved by it. In reality the vignettes were too short to really get under the skin of the characters, the result being that I was confused a lot of the time by the various names mentioned, and the timeline (as the vignettes weren't always in chronological order), so my emotions couldn't really be engaged to care (or even fully understand) what was happening. The lack of speech marks is a common choice these days, sometimes it works really well in blending the lines between the interior and the exterior, but in this case it was another element that made it harder to follow what was happening. 2.5 stars.
December 11, 2017
A hospital is an emotional cauldron: the high stakes and the tedium; the fear of pain, illness and death; the disgust, embarrassment and/or eroticism of intimate touch that would, in other circumstances, be taboo. Such potential for human error in how this is managed, patients cared for and sometimes cured. Despite the popularity of TV hospital dramas, it’s not something I come across often in fiction, apart from the clichéd doctor-nurse romance. So the buzz around Sam Guglani’s poetic portrait of a week in the life of an English hospital is not surprising, especially when it’s so well written.
Full review
A day / week under the skin of a community: Johannesburg & Histories http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
Full review
A day / week under the skin of a community: Johannesburg & Histories http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
March 12, 2018
I am mesmerised by the life of hospitals and those involved, which is usually presented as non-fiction. Somehow this "true" fiction, up close and personal just didn't do it for me. Beautifully written and carefully crafted in multiple voice interlinked "stories". Yet, whilst the cast shown were all flawed and human, I sensed them being manipulated under a fisheye lens to force a novel of every kind of people.
I was disappointed and feel almost apologetic that I didn't like it. Wanted to like it. Tried to like it but just didn't.
I was disappointed and feel almost apologetic that I didn't like it. Wanted to like it. Tried to like it but just didn't.
September 23, 2019
A short collection of interwoven narratives which disappointingly makes for an incoherent, disjointed and surprisingly difficult read. The author has clearly done his research but he endows his many different characters with an identical stream of consciousness so it lacks any real depth. It tries so hard to be a touching and humane portrayal of the idiosyncrasies of life in an NHS hospital but feels tepid at best.
August 5, 2022
“Empathy seems to him such a narrow possibility, like close-hauling a dingy into the wind. Just a degree or two either side and the sail loosens, flapping uselessly into sentiment or self-regard.”
“The loneliness, he is sure, is less a function of being single and more one of being human.”
“Life’s breakable, but tended well, tended properly, it will flourish.”
“Is there a place that hasn’t held, or mustn’t one day hold, some or other suffering?”
“The loneliness, he is sure, is less a function of being single and more one of being human.”
“Life’s breakable, but tended well, tended properly, it will flourish.”
“Is there a place that hasn’t held, or mustn’t one day hold, some or other suffering?”
February 2, 2025
Extraordinary: prose poem about a week in the life of some of the staff and patients of an NHS Hospital. Devastating at times in its portrayal of the impact when for whatever reasons, personality, overwork, overwhelm, doctors stop caring about their patients. It’s so beautifully written. Ultimately it’s about the importance of seeing and listening to others : their stories and their histories are what really matters.
September 21, 2018
This was a beautiful book and one that offered a lot of insight. I found myself asking questions about how we actually treat our healthcare professionals. No wonder the NHS is in a state of emergency.
I loved the writing style and how we were offered a perspective from very different hospital workers, from consultants to porters to patients.
It was a genuine pleasure to read and I’d definitely recommend to other people.
I loved the writing style and how we were offered a perspective from very different hospital workers, from consultants to porters to patients.
It was a genuine pleasure to read and I’d definitely recommend to other people.
May 1, 2018
Web of souls interwoven in the (ab)normality of hospital life
Captivating, left you wanting to know more of each character. Sadness and hope, real life.
A journey through hospital existence: terrifying but hopeful.
Captivating, left you wanting to know more of each character. Sadness and hope, real life.
A journey through hospital existence: terrifying but hopeful.
October 23, 2018
A book with a different layout. It is set in a hospital over the period of a week. Each chapter is about a different person from consultan to cleaner. I need to re read this book to fully understand each of the people in the book. I would recommend the book even though it can be a bit confusing.
February 8, 2019
A story which gives a good overview of the interconnected lives of people within a hospital. I'd have liked a bit more detail and depth so that there is more to it. Overall an interesting read though.
March 9, 2020
captured my attention from the first page. guglani has a way of making even the most painful & disgusting parts of life sound important & (distantly) beautiful. definitely will come back to this book time & time again.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews