Adventures in Human Being

By: Gavin Francis

Narrated by: Thomas Judd

Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

We have a lifetime's association with our bodies, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory.

In Adventures in Human Being, Gavin Francis leads the listener on a journey through health and illness, offering insights on everything from the ribbed surface of the brain to the secret workings of the heart and the womb; from the pulse of life at the wrist to the unique engineering of the foot.

Drawing on his own experiences as a doctor and GP, he blends firsthand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over the millennia. If the body is a foreign country, then to practise medicine is to explore new territory: Francis leads the listener on an adventure through what it means to be human.

Both a user's guide to the body and a celebration of its elegance, this audiobook will transform the way you think about being alive, whether in sickness or in health.

Gavin Francis is an award-winning writer and doctor and a contributor to The Guardian, The New York Review of Books and London Review of Books.

©2015 Gavin Francis (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic Reviews

"A sober and beautiful book about the landscape of the human body: thought-provoking and eloquent." (Hilary Mantel)
"Wonderful, subtle, unpretentious...produces a kind of complicity between the author, the reader, and the subject." (John Berger)

The anecdotes in this writing are entertaining.

The anecdotes in this writing are entertaining. It seems that the author has has had a very interesting medical practice. I had no expectations going into this but after the first chapter I was hooked. I was intrigued by the author's ability to link classical writings to modern medical knowledge and practices. I would recommend this book and I will probably give it another listen at some point.

The reader's voice is pleasant and had a good pace.

35 people found this helpful

Unfiltered stories about doctor-patient relationsh

Contrary to widely held beliefs, doctors are mere human beings. Most doctors are driven by a passion for helping patients, but some are more curious about diseases and chose their profession because they want to explore the human body. For the latter, helping patients is just part of the job. The brutally honest author of this book seems to belong in the latter category. He is impressed by the human body as a system or a machine. Dealing with the humans inhabiting those machines is just a necessity, albeit sometimes an interesting one.

This book describes a number of meetings between the author and patients suffering from a wide spectrum of diseases/problems. Sometimes the stories have happy endings; sometimes they end in death. As a reader, you get the feeling that the author is describing his encounters with the patient exactly as they happened, without trying to romanticize or diminish any details. In doing so, he comes across as very human.

In chapter four, for example, the reader is told the story of a woman who was afflicted with Bell’s palsy. Bell’s palsy is a disease which causes paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face, causing an asymmetrical, and consequently abnormal appearance to the extent that, in this particular case, the woman's’ children became scared of her. When the author first met her, he explained that Bell’s palsy usually goes away by itself (which is true) and that she shouldn’t worry. However, in this case, it did not go away. Instead, it got worse. Even with anti-inflammatory treatment, the palsy did not go away, and the patient seems to have suffered profoundly as a result. She did not, for example, go to work for several months. The second line of treatment, which the author admits to being sub-optimal, is to paralyze the other side of the face as well, using the celebrities favorite tool - botox. This treatment worked in the sense that the patient got a more symmetrical face and people around her did no longer react badly. I guess most books would have left it here - with a happy ending due to the ingenuity of medical science, but this book is not like that. The patient eventually decided she did not want the Botox injections, in part because she felt that not being able to express emotions with facial muscles seemed to reduce emotion. Also, the patient felt it was not her face following the botox. So, the patient decided to stop the botox and then simply live with her palsy. The main reason was apparent that the inability to use facial muscles to express emotions had a dimming effect on the emotions which the patient didn’t like. I suppose the kids got used to it.

There are many other stories, focused on all parts of the body in this book. Indeed the book starts with the head, working its way down to the feet. There are fascinating descriptions of brain surgery and what happens when you apply electricity onto the brain surface of an awake patient. Going further down there is a story about an elite member of society who came in with a dire problem - having a glass ketchup bottle stuck inside his large intestine.

I usually take notes when I read the book, but for this book I just sat back and enjoyed it. All in all, if you like short stories that are often quite unpredictable. And if you are fascinated by the human body and diseases that can afflict it. Then this book is an excellent choice.

8 people found this helpful

Ok but I have read better books about the bod

The author takes the reader on a tour of body. He clearly excels when talking about the colon/gut/ OB stuff. The rest of the book doesn't quite measure up to that one exceptional part of the book.

While talking about the bowels and related areas of the body, this author was able to find beauty in what most people find disgusting. For me, that was the highlight of this book.

Interesting perspective

35 people found this helpful

Fascinating

It just ended and I'm going to listen again! Every aspect was amazing. Enjoy!

20 people found this helpful

Anatomy at it's Clearest!!

Being from the States, I always enjoy hearing readers from Briton.
This is especially true of the subject matter. Both the author with the reader voice were able translate such an incredibly hard subject with such clarity that I am sure that I will listen to this book possibly 2 more times!!
BRAVO!!
Thank You!!

21 people found this helpful

Great Book

Great book, but much shorter than I had expected. wish it had been longer. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

18 people found this helpful

Head to Toe Analysis

I listened to this on audible, and the narration was fine. I tend to enjoy nonfiction books more in audio than print format.

This started a little slow for me, but it became more interesting as the book progressed. I wasn't too keen on the literary references and some of the historical information at first, but then it became a bit more interesting. The book was set up in sections starting a the head and ending with the feet. While there wasn't a lot of new medical information, I did learn some things here and there. I did enjoy listening to the case studies and their application to the particular body part under discussion.

There was some humor in the book; I LOL during the rectum discussion when a patient's x-ray was stolen (I won't spoil it, but it is good!!!). I also realized that perhaps I shouldn't be listening to the placenta part during my lunch hour; as I was eating my lunch and listening to the book, the author was discussing cultures where placenta was eaten for various reasons.

1 person found this helpful

More like "A doctor's adventure in human being"

Such a lovely book. I think it is well written for people who don't work in the medical field. It describes part of the routine doctors go through and provide insight to the relationship between doctors and patients. All that while talking about some of the marvellous things in the human body.

This book is really good for anyone thinking about enrolling in a medical carrier.

1 person found this helpful

Some new info, some old; British accent adds a little

As I have been in the medical field for some forty years, I did not really expect anything terribly new. I did thoroughly enjoy the reader's British accent, especially when there were differences in pronunciation, such as saying 'carcinoma ' with a hard 'c' as in "car-kin-oma. That one pulled me up short!
There were many interesting and personally touching items, such as the original fabrication of a dialysis machine with an orange juice carton, plastic sausage wrappers, and a motor from a Ford truck. I presently have a beloved friend who is on dialysis, so that meant a lot to me.
The history anecdotes were fascinating and worth the book for sure!
A delight, which I will probably revisit from time to time. Highly recommended!!!

1 person found this helpful

A fantastic journey

I really enjoyed the fabulous journey from head to toe of the human body. It was an excellent and engaging tale weaved by a doctor with such diverse experiences. The narrator was also an exemplary voice to listen to for the full tale. Highly recommend.

1 person found this helpful

More adventure?

What is here is good, is fine, is clever and well-put, but it is a bitty book and not wholly satisfying or well-shaped. There are better books on similar themes - 'Gut' for example, and, not on Audible, the essays of Gonzalez-Crussi - but the reading is clear and expressive, and there is something in every chapter to consider and surprise.

2 people found this helpful

Brilliant

A clear journey through the body from head to toe, describing the wonderful workings of the human body. Highly recommended!

1 person found this helpful

Fantastic

Highly, highly recommend this book. A clever mix of history, superstition and anecdotes. As a student nurse I found this style to be incredibly informative and enjoyable.

1 person found this helpful

Super book

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was like the
James heriot of human medicine. Very interesting facts and engaging moving human stories

1 person found this helpful

Brilliant

Read this over two days as I couldn’t put it down

Dr Francis you are a truly amazing human being

I will never look at a bottle of tomato ketchup in the same way!!!

Highly recommended

Very enjoyable read!

Would you listen to Adventures in Human Being again? Why?

I really enjoyed the narrator of this book as well as the content. A really enjoyable read and I finished it in two sittings. Recommended if you enjoy medicine.

What about Thomas Judd’s performance did you like?

I really like his performance and his easy to listen to voice.

1 person found this helpful