Beat the Reaper: A Novel by Josh Bazell
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Book Reviews of Beat the Reaper: A Novel
Book Review: An Explosive Debut Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
What happens when you take a former mob hit man, enter him into Witness Protection, and then send him to medical school? Most likely, an accidental meeting with an old mob associate that could turn ugly. In Bazell's debut novel, this is what happens to new doctor Peter Brown. Formerly Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwa, Brown was taken in by a mob lawyer as a teenager, after his grandparents were killed during a home invasion. The lawyer was impressed by the revenge he took on the thugs and guided him into full-time killing for the local mob boss. Eventually, he becomes sickened by the violence and death, and turns to the Feds to get him out. In order to find redemption for his past, he goes to medical school, and now works at a downtown hospital trying to save lives. And, one of those lives is Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, who recognized the new Dr. Brown as the former hit man Bearclaw.
The book flashes back often from present through Brown's past. The actual action of the story takes place over about eight hours, and is pretty much nonstop. Brown's mental musings (and occasional footnote) are intelligent and humorous, providing interesting commentary on hospital procedures (Bazell being a doctor, and having written this book during his internship. After the advance he was paid for the book (reportedly in the seven figures), one may wonder if he'll pursue the writing career or the medical one. If he's as good a doctor as he is a writer, he may end up finding a cure for cancer.
Book Review: 13 Ways of Looking at "Beat the Reaper"
Summary: 5 Stars
1. As if it were a TV show: It's "House" meets the "Sopranos."
2. In historical context: It's the best comic crime fiction debut since Robert Crais's "The Monkey's Raincoat."
3. Through a mourning veil for David Foster Wallace: Greatest footnotes since he died.
4. If you are one of those who only read nonfiction: It will teach you cool stuff about medicine, the Mafia and Auschwitz.
5. In case you like dramatic irony: The violence in it is clinical, the clinical sloppy and vile.
6. As if it were on Facebook: Its friends would be Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless in Brooklyn" and Richard Dooling's "Critical Care," but it would be the funny, outgoing one.
7. On a personal note: It is only the fourth book in my adult life I stayed awake to finish once starting it that night.
8. As if it had already been made into a movie: The book is better.
9. As a bar mitzvah present: Coolest ever.
10. As if flipping through its pages randomly: Did you notice fat men have diagonal creases in their nipples? Who does Michael Corleone imitate when he drops the gun after he shoots the cop? How about an exquisite description of the Hudson in midwinter? There's at least one of these on every page.
11. If you were to judge it by its cover: Don't. It's not Dean Koontz.
12. As an investment; Get the first edition.
13. As if it were the first of many: Please.
Book Review: You Had Me Until The Fibula
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, having footnotes in a book of fiction is quite distracting; other then that the book had me flipping pages until the very end where Bazell just seemed to have jumped the shark. Well, almost literally. His main character pulled off something that has never before been done, and hopefully, will never be done again in a book that I read.
Very reminiscent of the books by Charlie Huston, Josh Bazell takes us into two very terrifying worlds. The Mafia and public hospitals - and honestly, I don't know which one terrifies me more. After his grandparents are murdered, a young Pietro Brwna is taken into a mafia family where he tries to avoid the family business but that isn't possible when he feels that he owes the family that has cared for him. He does what he needs to do, he moves on, that is until an ultimate betrayal and Pietro enters the witness protection program. He goes to medical school, works in a hospital that no one in their right might would be a patient at let alone be an attending doctor and runs smack dab into his past.
Pietro is now in a fight for his life and limb. You honestly have to read it to believe it. This is definitely a 24 hour book. It won't let you put it down. The characters are just quirky enough, the pace is unstoppable and the storyline well, let's just say, no good deed goes unpunished.
Book Review: J. Herrin review for www.thejaneellen.com
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most entertaining works of fiction I've read in a while. It starts with a bang, and it takes a few pages before you can decide whether or not you actually like the main character, someone named Pieter Brnwa. Or Peter Brown. Or is it Bearclaw? Brown (we'll call him) is a physician at the fictional Manhattan Catholic hospital, who has a somewhat colorful history. Part of the joy in this book is finding out about that history one chapter at a time. Bazell wrote this book while he was in medical school, and one hopes that the cynicism his first person narrator brings to this tale of crime and medicine is not one that he will bring to his bedside manner. But, quite frankly, it is the bluntness of Dr. Brown that should have you pulling for him to come out on top of the many predicaments he runs into. I'm not overly enamored of Bazell's habit in the early chapters of having Brown talk through footnotes, but those footnotes are often quite funny and do, at least, add to the character that you're reading about on the main page. The ending strains credibility, but by the time you get to that point, you've been on such an enjoyable ride that you almost don't mind. The title, by the way, refers to reapers of the "grim" type, but Bazell's Dr. Brown even has a few words to say about that iconic figure.
Jim Herrin
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Book Review: Explosive Debut That Could Be A Movie Soon
Summary: 5 Stars
Josh Bazell blasts into the thriller genre with a mob story narrated by a physician. Yes, a physician, who has more than a shady past. Raised by his grandparents, Pietro Brwna, is befriended by a mobster's son and then his family, the Locanos. They initiate him by sending him out to murder his grandparents' killers in cold blood. He is a big kid with great physical and amoral strength. Dr. Brwna thrusts us into the Mafia's ambitions, a seedy hospital replete with incompetent doctors and all out graphic violence.
Bazell writes an original story (screenplay) by combining unbridled passion for a young woman, bloody killing, and medical knowledge with terminology the reader can understand. Since Bazell is a doctor, he realistically and cleverly uses his medical expertise to wreck havoc on Pietro's enemies and save a few misdiagnosed patients. Pietro becomes a brillant doctor who can fight like Superman. His colorful past is an enigma and we learn about it steadily throughout the book.
I have never read a book which was so blatant when describing murder and the practice of medicine together - each field is wrought with egotists and dummies. It is so real, I wonder how Bazell knows how the mob works. A great read, give it a try.