Review: How to Amputate a Leg

How can you resist a title like that? I mean, wouldn’t you look foolish if you put it back on the shelf instead of buying it, and then one day …

Nathan Mullins is one interesting guy. Having worked as a soldier, private security consultant, policeman and Australian Aid International volunteer (AAI), he has seen and done some amazing things.

From his time on the beat, in war zones and in disaster areas, Mullins felt he had gathered some good stories to tell — but rather than just set out to amuse or shock as some adventurer/writers try to do, he wanted them to be about something.

This seems to be a key feature from his life, too — the desire to be about something, about making a difference for the better in the world. So the same drive that led him to work as a volunteer with AAI, providing medical aid in the mountains of Kashmir after the 2005 earthquake (where the book’s title comes into play), provides the structure for his writing. He seeks to distil advice from his experience that we can all apply in our own lives.

This ranges from the benefits of paying attention to your surroundings, through to dealing with the mentally ill, and on to a call for us all to engage in community service. And the approach largely works. Sure, we may not all be likely to find ourselves pinned down by mortar fire at Baghdad Airport, but we can take his point about noting whether we are standing by the big glass windows and why it might be a good idea to move away — and maybe extrapolate from there to our own lives.

The lessons may not always be pleasant, however. You might find that you unfortunately fit into Mullin’s “wanker” category, derived from his time in the police (it all depends on whether you have a particular item on display somewhere in your house).

The book is not presented chronologically. You are invited to dip into it where you will, or simply start at the front “for lack of a plan”. Each chapter contains stories pulled from various situations that help demonstrate a point Mullins is trying to make.

The writing is very conversational in tone — and also very funny at times — which helps make the book easy to pick up and hard to put down. Despite the warning on the back for pregnant women, children and people with heart or breathing problems to steer clear, it is never as nasty as the title makes it sound.

There is a nice line of self-deprecating humour running throughout, which humanises Mullins and stops the lessons coming across as lectures. He is quick to point out his own immaturity, and prove it. He describes a great bit of self-discovery achieved while engaging in a bit of one-upmanship with a fellow soldier in Bougainville, which led to hunting crocodiles in waist-deep water armed only with a pointy stick. It seemed like a good plan until the crocodile showed up …

A terrific bit of light summer reading ... with perhaps a few ideas to take away and ponder.

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