With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Patient: the True Story of a Rare Illness,” by DJ and alt-rock musician Ben Watt, one half of the duo Everything But The Girl.
About the Book: A memoir of Ben Watt's hospital days after being diagnosed with the rare auto-immune disease Churg-Strauss syndrome – just before his world tour. Told in sparse, poetic prose with candor and a lack of self-pity, this novella-length work expertly captures the gulf between the healthy and unwell.
Reasons to Read: If you like stories of novel medical situations, if you savor great observational details (of his experience and ICU neighbors: a gallery that wouldn't be out of place in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) or understated tales of romantic devotion, or if you simply seek insight into the detachment, uncertainty, and unexpected clarity that can come from illness.
Bonus reason: if you're nostalgic for the 90s (and casual mentions of floppy disks).
Reasons to Avoid: If you hope for information about Ben's music – or how his illness inspired or impacted Everything But The Girl's breakthrough albums – you'll find almost no information about it. Similarly, if you want a medical-mystery à la House, be warned the mystery is backseated to the patient-experience, which could prove disappointing.
Further Listening/Reading:
As soundtrack to the memoir, check out Everything But the Girl's most successful albums, which released in the years following his diagnosis:
Or read the memoirs of Watt's bandmate and partner, Tracey Thorn:
- Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star
- Naked at the Albert Hall: the Inside Story of Singing
