Beautifully frank take on medical dramatics

THIS IS GOING TO HURT Adam Kay Loot.co.za (R297) Picador REVIEWER: RENIER NOLTE

MEDICINE, second to crime, is possibly the most overdone subject matter to creep into our books and on to our screens.

However, Adam Kay’s beautifully frank recollection of his days as a doctor within the ranks of Britain’s NHS noticeably stands above the limp representation of this profession in fiction.

The reader is guaranteed to walk away with more knowledge of the world of medicine than 14 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy would endow you with.

Kay assuredly leads you along as he allows you into the important moments throughout his journey as a doctor.

The nonchalant honesty that is contained in this work of non-fiction has a seducing effect on the reader.

One would be forgiven if you forgot that you were reading a book and not listening to a series of incredible anecdotes from a new friend seated at a bar. Never leaving the reader out of the loop, Kay peppers you with footnotes that are informative and funny. He generates a rapport through these hilarious and intelligent asides that only serve to enrich the already unbelievable events that are shared. The multitudes of freakish ailments that Kay has treated are at times almost unreadable.

As downright gross as these incidents can be, Kay effectively manages to distance these from likewise stories that would be otherwise ghoulishly splashed across a tabloid.

The doctor turned comedian comes across as a doctor that you wish you had encountered on a trip to the hospital. However, this favourable perception is only heightened by his ease and skill as a writer.