Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt

[musicalfrog]

I haven't even finished the book yet but I'm getting more and more annoyed with him the further in I go. I didn't mind him initially but then the more he progresses in his career the more insufferable he gets!

Is he really such an arrogant *** or is he just writing for laughs? Whichever, I'm glad he's not a practicing doctor now, but unfortunately I recognise his attitude in a couple of doctors I had the misfortune to encounter during my first birth experience.

Just wondering if anyone else had the same reaction as me? I've not seen him on TV or anything, the book is all I have to go on.

Oh, and Mumsnet gets a mention a few chapters in!

I listened to it rather than read it and I listened to the Christmas one too but I quite liked him overall.

I remember reading a thread about him before, and many felt the book was misogynistic (I tend to agree)

I hated it, I found him to be very sneery. I'm baffled that people found it hilarious.

I felt exactly the same as you OP. I only read it as my book club was going to discuss it, it's not the type of book I'd normally go for. I found him sneery and unpleasant and very keen to mock his patients.

I have recently read if. I didn't like the swearing and the rude bits. I couldn't really believe all he said was true. I also thought what a waste of time and money in training to throw it all away to be a writer. I know he has a terrible experience but he must have known things like that would happen.

I thought he came across as sneery and misogynistic. I did not enjoy the book at all.

I’m a retired hospital doctor, and Kay’s book reminded me of quite a few arrogant young registrars.
It’s telling that when he had a medical disaster (not his fault), he couldn’t cope with the realisation that he wasn’t God and wasn’t in control of everything. He ended up leaving his career, whereas most trainees, going through similar bad experiences, find their humility and become much better doctors afterwards.

Totally loved this book. Found it hilarious. And cried like a baby. Didn't find him sneery at all. And I totally understand him not sticking with it after his experience - some experiences just break you.

I read it when it first came out, so a while ago now, but I remember thinking it was very funny and I really enjoyed reading it!

I'm with you OP. I grew increasingly uncomfortable with his tone and found him unpleasant and unsympathetic.

Found it really sexist and surprised so many didn’t. Have seen a lot of discussion on twitter where midwives and other professionals and drs in maternity care have criticised the book and called it misogynistic which is heartening, hopefully shows that the attitudes in the book will decline over time. I think (hope) in a few decades it will age badly and seem horribly outdated and sexist to most readers.
There were a few funny bits but it’s mainly a posh white male dr mocking and sneering at predominantly women.

I thought about buying it for my dd (aspiring doctor) but I decided not to after reading a lot of comments on the book saying that he was misogynistic and disrespectful towards his patients.

Found it funny in the early chapters, but found him increasingly arrogant and unnecessarily crass as the book went on. It's been a long time since I read it (actually, I gave up before the end), but I seem to remember him describing being on call and having to attend an emergency with an erection?? WTH? How is that an appropriate or interesting thing to include in a story about someone's medical emergency? I felt a lot of it was written for "shock factor" laughs, but actually really missed the mark and was crude, crass and made me a little disgusted by him.

I enjoyed it. However I live in a family of medics, and am one, so much of it resonates. I can understand for a patient perspective it could be harsh!

I quite enjoyed it.

Just started reading this and I'm curious to see these reactions. I haven't found it irritating yet but maybe I will now that it has been pointed out to me.

I had the same issue with this book. He just comes across as unbearably arrogant and a nasty misogynist to boot. It's all played for laughs but there is a really poisonous undercurrent there.

I remember on a previous thread someone pointed out that good comedy punches up and whereas he very much punches down, you have the privileged male doctor sneering and mocking female patients often at an extremely vulnerable and intimate time. I just don’t see what’s particularly witty or clever about that? The power dynamics are way off.

Medics have a dark sense of humour. It helps with much of the hideousness of the job.....and I say that as one. When people ask me about the book I always say that the reality is much much worse. If I was to write my memoirs ‘this is going to hurt’ would come across like tea and cake in comparison. I honestly didn’t see any mysogeny in the book.

I thought this was laugh out loud funny and have had it recommended several times to me by junior doctors. Loved it! Obviously a lot of it is tongue in cheek so can't be taken too seriously.

Hated it.

Wildly misogynistic, and if it is the "tea and cake" of medical experiences, then someone somewhere needs to address the training when it comes to treating patients, particularly birthing women and gynaecological situations, like they're actually humans.

No wonder so many women have birth trauma.

I liked it and didn’t find him sneery or arrogant at all

@daisyjgrey excellent point. If medics find it lighthearted compared to what THEY would be doing, saying, thinking, and all of us mere non-medics find Adam Kay appalling, I honestly dread to think what the medics I've come across when I've been vulnerable are laughing at about me and my situation. And what they're telling their medic friends and laughing about together. Sobering.

I often feel doctors need more training in compassion, but I kind of assumed that AK was up there with the worst. Seems not.

I thought it was an awful read, deeply misogynistic, sexist and a gruesome reflection of what most of us have been subjected to first hand. I binned my copy when I was done with it.

I think it must be a work of (partial) fiction. I've worked in A&E for almost 20 years and have only a small handful of "stories", certainly not enough to fill a book.