Beat the Reaper: A Novel by Josh Bazell
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Book Reviews of Beat the Reaper: A Novel
Book Review: Wikipedia With a Plot
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, Josh Bazell. I'm impressed. Blown away, actually. It's not often that I come across one of those rare novels that hooks me in the first few pages and then just won't let go, binding me to the pages and turning all plans for the day into minor obstacles getting in between me and finishing your damn book. So thanks, Josh, for trashing my day - but in such an entertaining fashion.
Dr. Peter Brown is a young intern in one of Manhattan's seedier neighborhood hospitals. But he is also Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwa, a self-described "Easter Island sculpture of a longshoreman," a former hit man for the mob currently in the Federal Witness Protection Program. When Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddie Squillante, shows up in Peter's ward dying of stomach cancer, Brown knows he's been outed and that his days of playing Young Dr. Killdare are terminally numbered. So what could have been a predictable and oft-told tale of out running the mob becomes, in credit to Bazell's brilliance, a riveting romp of nearly nonstop violence and corrosive humor spanning a couple of decades and as many continents, a yarn that on the surface may feel like just another entry in the crowded shelves of pulp fiction - until the reader defibrillated into an unexpected depths of passion, insight, and scapel-edged, uninhibited cynicism that leaves no cows sacred and few conventional wisdoms unchallenged.
Josh Bazell is Charlie Huston with quotation marks. Duane Swierczynski with footnotes. Lee Child with soul. A writer with attitude and irreverence and "puddles of blood and teeth" who takes an outrageous and seemingly absurd assortment topics that run the gamut from anatomy to shark attacks to Auschwitz - and makes it all work. Bazell carves deftly between Pietro Brnwa the mobster to Peter Brown the doctor, each plot line separated by time and competing with the other in pulse, adrenaline and, surprisingly, intellect, while rushing to the most disgustingly bizarre - but satisfying - climax I can remember. That rare novel in which the ending actually does credit to, and exceeds the expectations of, the pages that lead to it.
So thanks a lot, Josh, but hey - I'll look forward to wasting another day with your next stroke of genius.
Book Review: Sit back and enjoy a true masterpiece thriller, expertly written by one of today's most promising authors
Summary: 5 Stars
This is truly a masterfully crafted book, in which almost every detail -- even the smallest and seemingly most insignificant ones -- come back to hit you in the face in a big way. Two stories, past and present, are expertly interwoven, and the author reveals information at precisely the right time to advance the plot. By the mid-point of the book, I started to realize I was reading a masterpiece. And unlike so many other popular novels I've recently read, the book doesn't end 3/4 of the way through to be padded by epilogue fluff: the stunning conclusion to this story is a true climax; as unexpected as it is gruesome and hard-to-read.
Three of the four one-star reviews here at Amazon criticize the book's language. I, too, thought the opening chapter was overly laced with F-bombs in a way that seemed to hint at the author's lack of skill. Boy, was I wrong, though. If you're turned off by profanity in general, then maybe you won't like this book. But if it's only gratuitous profanity unskillfully used that presents a problem for you, slug through the first chapter and you will be amazed.
You probably know if you've read this far that the book is about a mafia hit man who enters witness protection as a medical student. I describe it as The Sopranos meets Scrubs. Detailed anatomy lessons, which at first seem extraneous, end up figuring centrally to the plot. There are also a slew of other interesting details, relayed from the first-person perspective of the author. For example, did you know that the corporation that ran the Auschwitz forced-labor camp was split up in 1951, but continues today as BASF and Bayer?
As I read this book, my opinion went from "eh, not so good"; to "pretty good"; to "amazing"; to "masterpiece!" I recently read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize), and I'd say Beat the Reaper easily outdoes them both. Wow!
Book Review: You Can't Beat This For a Fun Quick Debut Novel Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Beat the Reaper is a really fun, fast read. It's clever, granted far fetched and not the most realistic novel in the world but that's what makes it fun. The author through the book's narrator (main character Peter) compares those trying to kill him near the end to the Joker doing something similar to Batman then leaving the scene instead of watching him die, so you know the unrealism is intentional and the author has included it to be a more entertaining adventure for the reader. And enjoyable it is! The book also has a number of footnotes (granted not everyone's cup of tea) but they do add to the enjoyment of the novel and you do learn what some medical instruments, procedures and technology are. It funny that those who are critical of the book being unrealistic usually also criticise the inclusion of the footnotes as without them, the author wouldn't have been able to use realistic hospital dialogue. Or if he still used it you wouldn't have had a clue what was going on. Got to remember this a book where the reader's imagination lets them picture what is going on, unlike say Scrubs where you can see it on the screen.
The plot is unfolded as a narration by Dr Peter Brown of a recent events (set in a New York hospital) and in the much more distant past eventually leading up to him being placed in the hospital 7 years before as part of the witness protection program. The hospital gives you an insight into the American hospital scene through eccentric work colleagues and other characters and through his reactions to patient's, a better understanding of his morals and character. This helps you like him a bit more when he is murdering people for the mob in his previous life and understand why he only wants victims who have done something terrible and ultimately why he wanted out.
Few books these days have the must keep turning the pages, can't put the book down factor. Beat the Reaper is one of them!
Book Review: When you don't even have a pocketknife handy
Summary: 5 Stars
Do you remember when, in 2003, real-life wilderness hiker Aron Ralston amputated his own forearm with a pocketknife in order to extricate himself from a tight spot? In BEAT THE REAPER, author Josh Bazell delivers an even more excruciating image that had me cringing.
Bazell, with a BA in English Lit and writing and an MD degree, is perhaps uniquely capable of producing this, his first novel. His protagonist, Dr. Peter Brown, is an intern toiling at Manhattan Catholic Hospital. In a previous life before entering a Federal witness protection program, he was Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwa, a professional hit man for the mob. One day, a patient recognizes Dr. Brown and threatens to rat him out to his old employer. With the specter of his past catching up, Brown's bedside manner slips.
The premise of the book's plot and Brown's background are fresh and unusual enough to engage the reader from the first page. Brown's first-person, irreverent, and no-nonsense perspective and his unorthodox skill set make him a hero of the likes you haven't perhaps seen before. If Bazell continues with the character in subsequent novels, Lee Child's Jack Reacher may have to make room on the stage of contemporary literary Tough Guys.
Of course, the continuation of a character into a book series has its own pitfalls, not the least of which is fan boredom with plots that become too formulaic and a hero that fails to live up to expectations, or worse. (As an example, see the reviews - perhaps mine in particular - for a recent Reacher adventure, Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher, No. 12).) In the meantime, however, I'm going to applaud the author for the inventiveness of his creation and award an admiring five stars.
Book Review: I Almost Passed On This One--Glad I Didn't!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Josh Bazell's debut novel, "Beat The Reaper", is a fun, original, and highly innovative read. In a rollicking dark comedy, Bazell includes subjects ranging from coming-of-age and star struck lovers, to professional killings and, improbably, medical advice. In a nod to the fresh original voice of this novel about a former hit man for the mob who becomes a doctor at an inner city hospital, the reader is peppered with medical advice and factoids from the protagonist, Peter Brown (nee Pietro Brnwa), as he performs his hospital functions while dealing with unexpected business from his former life.
Pietro Brnwa, known as the Bearclaw, was raised by the Locano family after his parents were killed when he was 14. Pietro becomes friends with the Locano son, called Skinflick, and soon develops the knack for assassinations when he offs the killers of his parents. He goes to work as a killer for David Locano, who is a mob lawyer. After considerable back story of his growth, his discovery of the love of his life, and his fall from grace with the mob, Pietro (Peter) enters the Witness Protection Program...goes to med school and becomes a doctor. Unfortunately, he is recognized by an old mob acquaintance who soon tips off enemies from Peter's past pushing the narrative into high gear with some breathless page turning.
It is a powerful commentary on Bazell's skill that a protagonist so infused with both good and evil qualities becomes someone or something else to the reader--even sympathetic in an odd way--the way Tony Soprano became a sympathetic character while we ignored his vices and excesses. I strongly recommend this debut novel to those who enjoy suspenseful thrillers with dark comedy along for the ride.