Rating: 
Summary: Excellent from two different views
Review: As a longtime fan of EBTG, I read this book when it first came out due to curiosity. I knew nothing about the illness Watt was writing about, had never had any sort of major medical experience myself; just read it to gain more insight into the band. I remember thinking it was a quick, entertaining read and I enjoyed it as a fan. Well, about a little over a year ago I was diagnosed with wegener's granulomatosis and spent 21 hellish days in a hospital, most of which in ICU on a ventilator. Wegener's is very similar to Churgg-Strauss and I was desperate to re-read the book. Reading it again was amazing. I read the whole thing in two days and was stunned at how accurately Watt portrayed the life of a patient with a rare, chronic disease. I found it funny and painful and ultimately very triumphant - I'm dying to discuss the beautiful ending, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone!! I wouldn't call myself sentimental or romantic, but some of the most touching and tender parts of the book came from his description of his relationship with Tracey Thorn. If I can ever find a partner and share that kind of love, I will find myself truly blessed. I will admit I had written some of their songs off as "sappy," but now I find them wonderful and sincere. Watt avoids going into technical details of his illness and never falls into the trappings of melodramatic illness movie of the week storytelling. I think anyone who has dealt with an illness and hospitalization themselves or who wants to know more about Watt, or anyone who simply wants to read a finely crafted story about the human spirit would enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The songs only scratch the surface...
Review: I admit to being prejudiced when it comes to Ben Watt (and Tracey Thorn, for that matter). I was looking forward to the US publication of this book for some time and eagerly ordered it when it came available. So, my opinion was colored...so what? Regardless, I was not disappointed. As a songwriter, Watt has always been evocative. However, that writing is only a hint of the moving power of _Patient_. He tells his story with a balance of humor and pain...touching the reader, without ever leaving the impression of self-indulgence. I have long enjoyed the music of Everything but the Girl, but I will enjoy it even more now that I have had a glimpse into the souls of its members. What Watt experienced no one would wish on anyone else, but he nevers sounds resentful. I hope I never suffer the way that Watt and his loved ones did, but the strength of character he (and they) exudes in this book reminds us that we can, in his words, "keep going," even if death seems all too imminent
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for anyone.
Review: I first became interested in this book several years ago when I read an excerpt of it in the UK magazine "The Face". I'd never listened to any EBTG, but was impressed with Watt's prose. Its clean and Watt has a rare talent for description. Even a sample doesn't capture it. Like, "My eyes feel dry and crispy. Dry autumn leaves. I screw them up, trying to get them to moisten. Dry crunched-up leaves. Broken veins and capillaries. Leaf veins. Like the back of a hand with a torch shone through it...My head is an empty box. My thoughts rattle around, dry crumbs in a kitchen drawer."In a short book he covers not only his illness and experience in hospital, but also those aspects of his life which sustain him: the confused-but-determined support of his mother, the charming relationship with his hosptial-shy father (successful conversation topics include music, football and sensible footwear). There is also his relationship with his partner and bandmember - Tracey. Watt doesn't give her special treatment and doesn't presume to describe her experience. But his determinedly objective and unsentimental description of the events as they unfold gives you a very good idea of what she must be going through, and it makes for compelling reading. I read the book in one sitting and stayed up till 4.30am on a work day to finish it, partly to find out what happened to ben, partly to get the next one of the many humourous event that occurred in the Intensive Care Unit, and partly to get another clue as to how Tracey was coping. I feel so throughly drawn into his life I want to know how he and his partner are going ten years after the events in the book. The nearest book to this that I have read is Oliver Sack's "A Leg to Stand On". I can remember that book quite well, many years afterwards. I think this book is better, and I know I'll remember it for longer. BTW, if you read the book and you like it, get the best of Everything But the Girl and listen to tracks 1, 2 and 7. They make a great postcript to the book.
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for anyone.
Review: I first became interested in this book several years ago when I read an excerpt of it in the UK magazine "The Face". I'd never listened to any EBTG, but was impressed with Watt's prose. Its clean and Watt has a rare talent for description. Even a sample doesn't capture it. Like, "My eyes feel dry and crispy. Dry autumn leaves. I screw them up, trying to get them to moisten. Dry crunched-up leaves. Broken veins and capillaries. Leaf veins. Like the back of a hand with a torch shone through it...My head is an empty box. My thoughts rattle around, dry crumbs in a kitchen drawer." In a short book he covers not only his illness and experience in hospital, but also those aspects of his life which sustain him: the confused-but-determined support of his mother, the charming relationship with his hosptial-shy father (successful conversation topics include music, football and sensible footwear). There is also his relationship with his partner and bandmember - Tracey. Watt doesn't give her special treatment and doesn't presume to describe her experience. But his determinedly objective and unsentimental description of the events as they unfold gives you a very good idea of what she must be going through, and it makes for compelling reading. I read the book in one sitting and stayed up till 4.30am on a work day to finish it, partly to find out what happened to ben, partly to get the next one of the many humourous event that occurred in the Intensive Care Unit, and partly to get another clue as to how Tracey was coping. I feel so throughly drawn into his life I want to know how he and his partner are going ten years after the events in the book. The nearest book to this that I have read is Oliver Sack's "A Leg to Stand On". I can remember that book quite well, many years afterwards. I think this book is better, and I know I'll remember it for longer. BTW, if you read the book and you like it, get the best of Everything But the Girl and listen to tracks 1, 2 and 7. They make a great postcript to the book.
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational and touching...
Review: I recently re-read "Patient" by Ben Watt, which I read five years ago when it came out. It is a truly amazing and rare book, a poetic and unsentimental look at life threatening illness. In 1992, Watt nearly died after a rare disease was discovered which required the removal of 3/4 of his lower intestine. At the time, Watt was well known in Britain as one half of Everything But the Girl, a jazzy acoustic band he created with longtime love Tracey Thorn. This was before their surprise # 1 smash "Missing" put them on the map in the US and before their successful transition to techno-club music, which continues to this day. (Watt is currently a DJ and club owner in London; EBTG's last album came out in 1999.) The book is spare and uncomprimising in its look at sudden, life threatening illness. It details the two month hospital stay when Watt was reduced at times to skeletal remains and a hallucinatory state.I remember cringing my way through parts of it the first time I read it. On second review, I marvel at the lack of vanity of both Watt and Thorn as they dealt with the bodily breakdown caused by this illness. And we are talking serious bodily breakdown -- the Farrelly Brothers seem restrained by comparison! Thorn comes across valiantly through the eyes of Watt, who seems smitten with her even after a then 10 year relationship. In spare and poetic vignettes, he flashes back on healthier times for them: meeting at Hull University in 1981, vacationing on Bird Island and in Scarborough, and a final, touching sketch of a trip to Cape Cod after Watt recovered from this episode. Their relationship is truly inspiring and life affirming, and will cause any fan to reconsider the lyrics of their subsequent love songs. (They are still together.) Mainly though, the book unsparingly details the ravages of this disease, and the near miraculous recovery. I challenge anyone to read it and not be grateful for what they have. The fact that Watt does this without ever being sentimental or self-pitying is amazing. He seems like an amazing person. We would have lost a lot of great music if he had died in 1992, but more would have been lost if this book had never been written. It is a gift to those in recovery and grief.
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational and touching...
Review: I recently re-read "Patient" by Ben Watt, which I read five years ago when it came out. It is a truly amazing and rare book, a poetic and unsentimental look at life threatening illness. In 1992, Watt nearly died after a rare disease was discovered which required the removal of 3/4 of his lower intestine. At the time, Watt was well known in Britain as one half of Everything But the Girl, a jazzy acoustic band he created with longtime love Tracey Thorn. This was before their surprise # 1 smash "Missing" put them on the map in the US and before their successful transition to techno-club music, which continues to this day. (Watt is currently a DJ and club owner in London; EBTG's last album came out in 1999.) The book is spare and uncomprimising in its look at sudden, life threatening illness. It details the two month hospital stay when Watt was reduced at times to skeletal remains and a hallucinatory state.I remember cringing my way through parts of it the first time I read it. On second review, I marvel at the lack of vanity of both Watt and Thorn as they dealt with the bodily breakdown caused by this illness. And we are talking serious bodily breakdown -- the Farrelly Brothers seem restrained by comparison! Thorn comes across valiantly through the eyes of Watt, who seems smitten with her even after a then 10 year relationship. In spare and poetic vignettes, he flashes back on healthier times for them: meeting at Hull University in 1981, vacationing on Bird Island and in Scarborough, and a final, touching sketch of a trip to Cape Cod after Watt recovered from this episode. Their relationship is truly inspiring and life affirming, and will cause any fan to reconsider the lyrics of their subsequent love songs. (They are still together.) Mainly though, the book unsparingly details the ravages of this disease, and the near miraculous recovery. I challenge anyone to read it and not be grateful for what they have. The fact that Watt does this without ever being sentimental or self-pitying is amazing. He seems like an amazing person. We would have lost a lot of great music if he had died in 1992, but more would have been lost if this book had never been written. It is a gift to those in recovery and grief.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading
Review: I was a fan on EBTG before I picked up this book, and reading this really gave me an insight into why we didn't see them for a bit in the 90's. I'm happy Ben is doing fine today and making music again. The book is written very plainly, absent a plea for pity, and is very gripping. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: patient the true story of a rare illness by ben watt
Review: i was turned onto EBTG by my English boyfriend(now husband) and fought it every bit of the way because of the connection to his ex-girlfriend, but soon learned the error of my ways. the music and the pure emotion of the sounds that these two people were lucky enough to experience and talented enough to create taught me the real sense of living out a feeling with another person. I had to go through a life changing operation and it is one thing to think that you are choosing something because that is how you think you feel,yet it is another thing to have illness and medicine make that decision for you. You feel the helplessness that Mr Watt felt and you know that you and the person who has chosen to feel them with you ,what they will live with afterward. It isn't even that you think about it every day,but when you see an ad on TV or read an article in a publication, that is when you feel it,when you are alone. This book made me feel that I was in his hospital room with him and I wanted to reach out to him so badly that I found myself crying while reading ,not for his anguish aandpain, but because I couldn't be there for him. You must listen to "AMPLIFIED HEART" after reading the book for the second time and you feel the pain and the strength of the two of them and you feel so good about the fact that life goes on, even after so much pain that has affected so many people connected. You can feel how his parents were just being parents and eventually friends even if it was strained. We saw them in concert at The Vic in Chicago about a year after his surgery and you can see them as if nothinghappened yet you know that he will always be that weight and it will be a struggle and you feel so lucky to have experienced this new sense of life. We have seen them 4 times in concert,but that is the most painfully touchingexperience, like reading this book and then really thinking about life and its fragility. It makes you really appreciate the little things inlife that we take for granted,like simply looking out the window to see a tree or the moonlight as it wakes you up in the middleof your first sleepy night, so much so that you don't mind. Every person who has ever had to try to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes in a hospital or who has had to hold someone's bruised and tube filled hand will truly appreciate this book and the belief in real emotions. An absolute easy, painful,fulfilling,real and truly beautiful essay on life and love.
Rating:
Summary: Memorable, insightful
Review: I'll admit I picked this up mostly out of curiosity as a longtime fan of Everything But the Girl. What kept me reading, however, was Ben Watt's skill as a writer. His story is gripping and harrowing, but told with a dry wit and wonderful observations. This book is not just about one man coming to terms with serious illness, but how that experience affected his relationships with his loved ones and his view of himself. This would be a great book for anyone in the health care field to read; it gives you a sense of the patient as a full human being, not just a "problem" to be fixed. Ben Watt's writing skills are as strong as his ample skills as a musician/songwriter. This book has my highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: An essential read for all who work in health
Review: Nurses, doctors, and other health professionals should all read this book. Often we focus on our own problems and long working hours. This book reinforces the fact that the patient has a 24-hour working day, often unable to sleep, to carry out the smallest activities themselves. this book is also recommended to the general reader.
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