RaveThe Miami Herald...Being Mortal will send a shiver through anyone who would like to face old age with dignity intact and their wishes honored ... What elevates Being Mortal beyond being a mere a litany of complaints about how hospitals and nursing homes treat people is Gawande’s reporting on different approaches —– and the positive results of humane care ... These patients are much more than nameless case studies. Gawande’s story of his proud father, also a physician, and how he navigates his last years, gives Being Mortal a special poignancy. The author shares doubts about his father’s decisions, recounts family debates about what to do and expresses his deep frustrations with medical professionals who don’t listen to a patient’s wishes ... This book is an eloquent, heartfelt cry for change. We can only hope it opens a few eyes.
Fergus M. Bordewich
PositiveThe Miami HeraldBordewich’s achievement here is to demonstrate that representative government can be unappealing and inefficient and still produce good results. Some of the best strategists in the new government recognized that 'the great machine was clumsy by design,' balancing states’ rights with the national interest, and creating federal branches that often checked each other.
Jay Winik
MixedMiami HeraldThe strength of 1944 is that it covers the broad sweep of the war in one volume, with sprightly prose and a few literary touches...But the ambitious scope of 1944 is also a weakness.
