Nicholas Anderton is an obese neurosurgeon, who, in his late 40s, is at risk of having his career curtailed because his obesity is impeding his performance. He is contemplating bariatric surgery, but his pride and shame make him reluctant to commit himself to the care of his surgical and anaesthetic colleagues. Meanwhile his marriage is in deep trouble, and he is despised by his thin — and alcoholic — wife. They have a prickly daughter, and a son who suffered a head injury that required life-saving surgery at the hands of Anderton’s colleague and arch rival. Alternate chapters seen through the eyes of Anderton and his wife fill in the details of past and present, leading up to his eventual decision to proceed with the surgery.
The portrayals of Anderton’s physical difficulties, his irresistible gourmandising, and his surgical adventures are powerful and convincing, but I found the structure and plot somewhat contrived, and the redemptive conclusion a little too pat. Still, all credit to the (non-medical) author in being bold enough to tackle the sensitive issue of obesity with great sympathy and perceptiveness, and for his bravura descriptions of neurosurgical procedures, derived, he tells us in his acknowledgements, from educational videos posted on YouTube.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2019