I remember when I read it that something struck me as strange about that comment too. But I don't remember what it was now. Or what I even thought about it now... I'd probably have to read the whole book over so I could be in the same frame of mind.

I had one that I felt like I was missing something on too. It's when he asks his mentor how he knew about his interns accidentally poisoning that guy. And his mentor says something like, "Isn't it obvious?"

Mirk seemed to think it was because he was so distracted with everything else that he didn't notice the obvious. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm looking in to it too much.

Every so often I find a book that I recommend to people that I don't general recommend books to. In fact I don't recommend books to that manner people outside of the cult. But like I said - every so often I come across one. The last one was The Gargoyle. And then there's Beat the Reaper. I've recommended it to a lot of people. I think it's an enjoyable read no matter what your reading preferences are. Or how much / often you read.

yeah, i agree. i think that's why if his next book goes well he could very well end up sky rocketing to a Palahniuk-esque fame. maybe. the reaper is very accessible, i think.

i haven't read The Gargoyle yet, but i think i'll pick it up. Mirka said it was pretty awesome, and i read the first couple of pages at the book store last time, but for some reason or another, didn't buy it.

as for that bit at the end of reaper that you're talking about, it goes:

"Wait," I say. "Squillante?"

"Still Dead."

"Who killed him?"

"Your med students."

"What?" I say. "Why?"

"He went into ventricular fibrillation. They tried to stop it by giving him potassium. They thought they were doing him a favor."

"That's my fault. I gave them way too much responsibility."

"That's what they're off claiming now."

"I was asleep when it happened."

He looks at his watch. "They weren't. And they knew better than to try to handle a code on their own. Anyway, it's not our problem: they'll either get thrown out or they won't"

"How did you find out it was them?"

Prof. Marmoset looks uncomfortable. "It...seemed kind of obvious. Anything else?"

now, i think those dirty little ellipsis' might be the answer to the mystery. it's a pause, and depending on how you read it, it can be interpreted at least a couple of different ways. one: he pauses because instead of telling him the real reason, he hides it and just says, it was kinf obvious. and because Pietro is so tired he just accepts that. too, Pietro obviously has alot of respect for Prof. so, when he says something, he believes him. and; two: the pause is genuinely the Prof. pausing, in an almost condescending way. maybe?

but if we go with the first one a whole new thing open up. what actually happened. because stacey (was that her name? the drug rep) said she doesn't normally carry potassium vials, but they were sent to her, for her to carry on that day. so, if that is so, maybe it wasn't the kids, and maybe the family or whatever purposely killed Squillante?

oh, shit. i don't know. i'm just talking myself in circles now.

But that's exactly what I was thinking there. And the book is no longer fresh in my mind so I couldn't remember my reasoning. Good job.

He pauses. And it's with the potassium. It just seemed fishy to me.

i think we may be on to something here.

MIRKA! get in 'ere!

Remember, he thought that somebody intentionally poisoned Squillante, that's why he didn't notice the obvious. Everything at that point in the book depended on him saving Squillante, so he thought he was being set up, I guess.

Also the whole "it seemed obvious" comment from Marmoset, to me, was more of showing how genius/great the Prof. was, nothing else. I could be wrong, though.

you may be right there, man. i think we may be looking into this too much. but how would the two med students get hold of the potassium so quickly when Squillante is dying? and why did the drug rep get sent the potassium in the first place? and the specific ammount needed to kill him good.

i'm posting here to remind me to post here when i'm sober.

in case i forget: easily the best new book i've read in the past year.

hahahahah, in case you forget. classic. look forward to hearing what you've got, Des.

Just finished the book and really liked it. Plenty of action and very fast paced. One of those books you just want to keep reading to find out what's going to happen next. And the main character was great too. Very easy to like.

I did think the ending was a bit rushed though. I would have liked an epic battle at the end. Everything kind of finished and got summed up in just a couple of pages at the end.

Perhaps, Bazell was just adding in things as he wrote the book (the bat bite and the potassium) to keep the action going and then couldn't think of how to make them fit and just summed it up or forgot about it at the end. Kind of felt a bit rushed there.

Overall, probably in the top three most enjoyable books I've read this year so far. The others being Twilight by William Gay and Last Days by Brian Evenson. It's too hard to put them in order.

Does anyone think there's potential for the story to continue? Maybe Pietro has to go on the run from/kill David Locano. Maybe involve the girl who was going to get her leg chopped off. Fill in some more past events.

I was just reading through the one star reviews at amazon which is something stupid I like to do sometimes. Some people thought the book was boring and couldn't finish it etc and some people "find curse words disgusting". Hilarious.

...

OMG!!!! ME TOOOOOOOOO!

OKAY, sorry, it was there to be done. but seriously, i have to agree with you, man. it did feel a bit rushed at the end. it was, like you said, almost as if all these loose ends just didn't get to evolve and as a result were just forgotten as the story wrapped up. i loved how fast-paced the story was, buti would've loved it a whle lot more if he breathed for a few pages at the end, wrapping it up, slowly and nicely, and yeah, mybe even leaving it open in the right places for a sequel.

maybe there was something there withe rats and bats and pigeons etc,., but it just wasn't plotted out well enough.

i definitely see room for a sequel, too. in fact, i welcome the shit out of it.

I like to read the 5 star reviews and the 1 star reviews. Sometimes they are both hilarious in their extreme-ism (word? no? whatever).

How could anybody say that this book was slow paced?

honestly, i have no idea.

if you had only one thing to say good about it, it would be that it was fast paced. which i thought was one of the best things going for it, authenticity-wise, because the whole present-tense story was only set over a 24-hour time period. so, having the pages fly by really added to that fast, quick thinking tension that Pietro was under.

I agree. Also, he is working on sequel, like right this minute! (Well, maybe not right this minute, but in general)

really? well, well, well, Mirka the insider.

that's great news. i'm sure there's plenty of people plenty excited about the prospect of that.

i'm suprised you haven't got more to add to this thread, Mirka. i was looking forward to your input, seeing as though you're a big lover of this book.

matthew.odonnell wrote:

really? well, well, well, Mirka the insider.

that's great news. i'm sure there's plenty of people plenty excited about the prospect of that.

i'm suprised you haven't got more to add to this thread, Mirka. i was looking forward to your input, seeing as though you're a big lover of this book.

I've been very busy! I will be back!

You better be!

What did everyone think of the footnotes? i liked the info but did it have to be in footnote form? Kind of made things start/stop a bit too. I think it could have been a bit tidier anyway.

the footnote info was good, overall. and i buy that if a doctor was actually telling a story, rather than segueing into general and pointless information, he'd footnote the shit outta it. so in that regards it holds up, for me. but yeah, in the long run, it slowed the flow for me, at times. thankfully, there wasn't too many.

Man Pete is a genius. He posted something in another thread that just seemed to capture exactly what I was thinking. I couldn't put it in better words myself - so I'll just quote it here. This is referring to the ending of the book:

hahahahaha.

the ending sure is he weakest part of the book, in my opinion. i just hated how fucking quickly it wrapped up. all of a sudden there was all this gore and violence and fighting and then bam, done. over.

Matt don't you have a question coming out soon?

what?

For Josh - Afraid you Asked?

I thought he was gonna answer one of your questions.

oh, yes. of course. he is he is.

should be fun. you'll all get to hear my ridiculous, fantastic australian accent.

Awesome Matt!

not sure when my question will be addressed though. but it's all accepted and the video has been sent and what not, so, now we play the waiting game.

totes!

Do you sound like Crocodile Dundee and if so, where you live do you guys where snake skins and wear big ass muthafucking knives?

(and yes I'm just kidding)

don't kid. you wait til you see my shit. i'm all up in the cameras grill with my machete saying, "that's not knife, this is a knife!" and jabbing people in the gums with it. oh, and i'm wearing snake skin on my face. it's heavy.

I think the pigeon and the rat were that, not two rats in NY parlance. Just a weird random thing to pause him, you know?

I'm not sure if the Prof was implying that he took care of the problem or if the students were responsible. Maybe it will revealed in the second book? Maybe you're over-thinking it. Maybe I'm under-thinking it, but I didn't dwell on the ellipse or him being uncomfortable.

I simply LOVE this book. I've read it twice now, and I think it's amazingly crafted and hilarious. I like the footnotes a lot and I really like the narrative style; it's bad-ass and authoritative, kind of like a lot of Elmore Leonard's work. I felt the same way when I read SURVIVOR and IM; amazed, and surprised. Bazell doesn't create new territory like those two books did, but I think he does for his chosen genre.

i loved it, too, mirka. i flipped through the pages like i was gonna die by morning, but too, there was something missing, for me.

i think it was the ending. seriously, it wrapped up way to quick.

I just started the book so I didnt want to read the thread yet!

However I hear Leonardo DiCaprio is said to be the producer of the film version. I guess it got picked up fast.

True or not this could be intresting. Ill read and Post here when I am done the book!

As far as the randomness of the bat comment goes, I think it was really just something interjected into the story to make the reader step back and be like, what? I mean, the main character is not only a resident, but has two separate lives, so maybe the comment was used to show how strange and chaotic his life was/is and also to further pronounce the randomness of Squillante's return into his life.

Seriously? That shit is everywhere in a hospital. If someone is coding, you have all the necessary medicine and tools within two steps. Sometimes it's even locked away in the same room as the patient. Same thing with drug reps. She may have said she doesn't usually get potassium, but that changes all the time. Then again, this could also be just another device to cause confusion in the reader, so they can put themselves in the shoes of the main character more easily. Whereas the reader is sort of omnipotent in a lot of book, you're putting the pieces together the same time as Peter.

I liked the footnotes. It reminded me of Choke a little bit and of House of Leaves alot. I think it's perfect the way it is because he's a doctor. He has to note things in charts and through dictation constantly. I don't think there would've been a better way to portray this literarily. (Yes I know that's not a word.) So he was literally dictating sidenotes of the story while narrating.

I can't believe I haven't posted here yet. Reaper was one of the best books I read last year. I really enjoyed the pace like most of you, but I think that caused me to read it faster. Too fast, probably. At least that will make it that much better the second time around.
I enjoyed the footnotes and all of the medical stuff. It reminded me of Choke in that regard also.
And he's working on a sequel you say? Amazing. Let's hope it lives up. I can't believe he finds the time, it makes me feel shitty about how slow I write.
Anyway, great book, highly recommended. It's one of those books that you can recommend to non-readers.

great input, Timb.

but i don't know. if those things don't matter. if they're just throw-away thoughts, then why put so much emphasis on them? because he definitely highlihts these things and revisits them throughout the narrative.

I definitely don't think they're throwaway thoughts. I think they're an integral part of the story, just not in a way we'd normally assume. It's kind of like The Road. The narrative put me off a bit at first, but by the end, the starkness... the stripped-down dirtiness of the text felt almost like a character in itself.

I think a lot of books use hidden devices like these that don't get much/any credit when, really, they're just as important as the rest of the story.

Sorry if that makes no sense. I've done too much formal literary analysis!!!

well, your literary analysis is welcome here anytime!

i honestly just feel like there is something ther that none of us are picking up on. maybe i'mjust convincing myself of this. i think i might read it again with a highlighter and pencil.

I just sat the book down! I loved it! I dont care that he wraped the book up so fast if he is makeing a second part to it! Just more for the next book! I did enjoy the hell out of it.

His writing style was awesome and the book moved so fast I was sad when it ended. But I dont recall his chickie dieing I remember her haveing her face smashed up but it never said in the flashback that she diad. Maybe I missed it!

I dont know what was going on it also said that assman had a wife in the hospital who is she?

Terrific book! As you all mentioned the pace makes you just fly through the pages. The part in the freezer really made me twist and turn while I read it, I could really visualize the pain of having to go through what he did.

I also really enjoyed the part were he went to Poland and Auschwitz.

I agree wih the ending being a bit too sudden, but since the whole book was so fast paced, why not have the ending fast paced as well? I thought it worked for this book actually, but I can imagine being pissed off if it happened in another book haha.

My favorite quotes have to be:

"The tattoo on my left shoulder - winged staff, two snakes - turns out to actually be the symbol of Hermes, and therefore of commerce. The symbol of Asclepius, and therefore of medicine, is a nonwinged staff with one snake. Who knew?"

and

"Scrub suites are reversible, with pockets on both sides, in case you need to run to anesthesia or whatever but are too tired to put your pants on correctly"

There are many more, but the first one about the tattoo really cracked me up!

Bump.

I just finished this and I think I have answers to the questions posed here:

Assman and the bat are a mystery intentionally as a contrast to the girl whose leg Pietro saves. It ties in with "It's like the alcoholics say. Any time you can tell the difference between something you can do something about and something you can't, you should thank God. Particularly if it turns out to be something you can't."

If you can't figure out the reasoning for something being in a story think about how it may relate to the last page. Pietro's failure to save Assman is an acknowledgement of his limitations. He may have personally beat the reaper, but as a physician not all of his patients can.

Concerning "It . . .seemed kind of obvious." - this ties into Freed's claim that Marmoset is such an excellent judge of character that he barely has to know someone to understand them. Like Assman, it underscores Pietro's limitations.

I don't know how you guys thought the ending was rushed. I thought it dragged on. I think a more appropriate criticism of the ending is to say that it's weak. The novel's prose is great, the humor is great, the head authority is great, and then the ending is pointless. Complete style over substance, which I found disappointing. It seemed rather obvious that Bazell pussed out of making Pietro the tragic character he was set up to be. Rather than allowing Pietro to die for the sake of saving the girl's leg he made him even more of a superman/superdoctor. The failure to save Assman and realize how Squillante died are too weak to counterbalance this. He went for over the top cleverness and head authority rather than realistic heart authority. Which was really my biggest problem with the book overall. The connection between the Locanos and Pietro's grandparents was just too convenient, too contrived. There were just too many coincidences.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable read. Just a bit too pulpy for my tastes. 3/5 stars.

Long delayed bump. I just finished the book, and it won me over in the beginning, lost me in the middle, and won me back by the end, and then the ending kind of let me down, but not too much.

My main problem in the middle was the whole Angry about Anti-Semitism section, which felt ham-handed and unnecessary, until the twist at the end about his parents. Once I read that revelation, it took the pressure off of the other stuff.

The final fight was a bit anti-climactic, which is fine, it didn't need to be drawn out, but the Deus ex Machina of Marmoset showing up and explaining how he beat everyone else via Hulk rage and passed out was a little too neat of a bow. Obviously he can make a series of this, and the trick of it will be trying not to make a retread and take the story somewhere new. I think he has the tools to pull it off.