{"id":63407,"date":"2016-08-30T17:33:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T06:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=63407"},"modified":"2016-08-31T18:13:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T07:13:46","slug":"podcast-book-review-easy-way-steven-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2016\/08\/30\/podcast-book-review-easy-way-steven-amsterdam\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast + Book Review: The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>If you could help someone in pain, would you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Palliative care nurse Steven Amsterdam, and award-winning author of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/things-we-didn-t-see-coming-steven-amsterdam\/prod9780733636325.html\" target=\"_blank\">Things we Didn&#8217;t See Coming<\/a><\/em> and <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/what-the-family-needed-steven-amsterdam\/prod9780733636295.html\" target=\"_blank\">What the Family Needed<\/a><\/em> visited Booktopia recently to chat his latest book, <em>The Easy Way Out.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Speaking about <em>The Easy Way Out <\/em>and its topic of assisted suicide, Amsterdam said he wanted to \u201cunpack this topic as well as I could\u2026 I wanted to interrogate the topic. I wanted to see\u2026 what are the options.\u201d And his conclusion: \u201cDignity is overrated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Caroline Baum, who reviewed the book, called it \u201cintelligent, relevant and immensely thought-provoking\u201d. Read her full review below, and listen to her podcast with the author.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/the-easy-way-out-steven-amsterdam\/prod9780733636271.html\" target=\"_blank\">Grab your signed copy of <em>The Easy Way Out<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-63407 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6426.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6428.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6432.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6437-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/IMG_6439.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"393\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/xthe-easy-way-out-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Review by Caroline Baum<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This book is intelligent, relevant and immensely thought-provoking, tackling the controversial topic of assisted dying head-on. If you want to read a serious novel that will make you question your position on the subject while being immensely engaging and entertaining, look no further. It&#8217;s got the topical bite that you&#8217;d expect from Lionel Shriver: like her, Amsterdam brings a lethally cool, rational, methodical attack to a taboo most would prefer not to tackle. In this case, the author is a palliative care nurse, so he really knows what he&#8217;s talking about.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>This book is intelligent, relevant and immensely thought-provoking, tackling the controversial topic of assisted dying head-on.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>His central character Evan is mysterious and intriguing: he grew up on a commune with his mum Viv, a gambler who has been diagnosed with Parkinson&#8217;s and is determined to maintain her independence. By day Evan is a suicide assistant on a hush-hush pilot project in a hospital. By night, he unwinds in a no-strings attached sexual arrangement with a male couple.<\/p>\n<p>Amsterdam renders each death that Evan assists with subtlety and unsentimental respect for the process &#8211; each scenario is a little bit different, testing Evan with varied challenges. After a minor stumble in the hospital program, he goes freelance with an under-the-radar volunteer group, presenting him with more people who have decided to end it all, and organises everything right down to the scented candles, the soundtrack and who will discover their death once they are gone. Amidst a flurry of calls from end of life clients, Viv suddenly goes missing, and Evan is faced with questions about her own care and intentions.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Easy Way Out<\/em> is rich with irony, a brilliant, uncomfortable but hugely important novel that I predict will be up for many prizes and deserves to win something major. It makes a significant, eloquent and humane contribution to an urgent public debate.<\/p>\n<p>[soundcloud url=&#8221;https:\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/280383443&#8243; params=&#8221;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&#8221; width=&#8221;100%&#8221; height=&#8221;166&#8243; iframe=&#8221;true&#8221; \/]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you could help someone in pain, would you? Palliative care nurse Steven Amsterdam, and award-winning author of Things we Didn&#8217;t See Coming and What the Family Needed visited Booktopia recently to chat his latest book, The Easy Way Out. Speaking about The Easy Way Out and its topic of assisted suicide, Amsterdam said he wanted to \u201cunpack this topic as well as I could\u2026 I wanted to interrogate the topic. I wanted to see\u2026 what are the options.\u201d And his conclusion: \u201cDignity is overrated.\u201d Caroline Baum, who reviewed the book, called it \u201cintelligent, relevant and immensely thought-provoking\u201d. Read her full review below, and listen to her podcast with the author. Grab your signed copy of The Easy Way Out Review by Caroline Baum This book is intelligent, relevant and immensely thought-provoking, tackling the controversial topic of assisted dying head-on. If you want to read a serious novel that will make you question your position on the subject while being immensely engaging and entertaining, look no further. It&#8217;s got the topical bite that you&#8217;d expect from Lionel Shriver: like her, Amsterdam brings a lethally cool, rational, methodical attack to a taboo most would prefer not to tackle. In this case,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":63437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,9,6678],"tags":[4310,4482,5033,6980],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SocialMediaImage-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63407"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63480,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63407\/revisions\/63480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}