Josh BazellCritiques

I knew I would enjoy this book from page 1. It's fast-moving, muscular, and funny. I won't get into summary, here, beyond the fact that it's about a doctor with an unusual past and skillset in a crappy hospital in New York, and the things that happen to him over the course of one day, and the ways he deals with them, will have you grinning with glee.

If you're a fan of thrillers, read it. Even if, like me, you usually can't stand thrillers because of crappy writing. This writing isn't crappy. It's the best kind of writing for a thriller: it stays out of the way of the story.

Now: READ IT!

Maru

What an excellent read. I will be looking for other books by Josh Bazell.

Grazie a Peter Brown, ex killer entrato in un programma di protezione governativo, la mafia fa il suo ingresso tra le corsie di un famigerato ospedale di Manhattan. Quando Peter va come ogni mattina al lavoro in ospedale, non sa che la Grande Mietitrice lo aspetta, sotto le vesti di un paziente moribondo che è un suo vecchio conoscente di mafia. Se il paziente muore, il passato di Peter tornerà a galla. E questo non può accadere. Perché Peter è anche Pietro Brwna detto Orso, ex affiliato (ma per bontà d'animo) alla famiglia Locano. In questi anni in ospedale Peter è diventato il medico-eroe che abbiamo sempre sognato: cinico iconoclasta dal cuore d'oro che infrange ogni regola pur di salvare una vita... La sua lotta all'ultimo sangue con la Grande Mietitrice sta per cominciare, e diventa tutt'uno col desiderio irresistibile di saldare una volta per tutte i conti con la famiglia Locano.½

Not bad, Not That Great. Gets a little too wild at the end to have any believability. Would I read another by the author, probably not.½

this was one of those books i accidentally read, and i don't ENTIRELY regret it. there were a lot of interesting facts about anatomy thrown into what was, to me, a kind of annoying mafia tale. sure, the whole episode where all poles are painted as suspicious, anti-semitic assholes really rubbed me the wrong way. the medical stuff was neat and there were actually a couple moments where his writing left me a bit in awe. as for the rest ... well, at least it went by quick.

Peter Brown es un médico interno residente en el peor hospital de Manhattan. Y también un experto en artes marciales –que no duda en usar en su trabajo–, y un tío forzudo y deslenguado, saludablemente cínico y con verdadero talento para la medicina. Pero hay que decir que Peter no es todo lo que parece y que no parece todo lo que es. Su verdadero nombre, por ejemplo, es Pietro Brnwa, y desde hace ocho años está en el programa de protección de testigos del FBI. Con su nueva identidad ha estudiado medicina, ha cambiado de vida y ahora es el doctor Peter Brown. Pero sigue teniendo un colorido pasado que jamás imaginaríamos en un médico, mayormente rojo sangre y negro muerte, porque Pietro fue un asesino a sueldo de la mafia hasta que el día en que reconoció que matar a otro también mata algo en uno mismo y, además, tiene consecuencias impredecibles. El doctor Brown tiene que atender a Eddy Squillante, un paciente con un cáncer de estómago a quien han dado tres meses de vida. Pero Eddy está firmemente decidido a burlar a la muerte y, además, él también se ha cambiado el nombre: antes era Nicholas LoBrutto, un mafioso que reconoce a Peter y le ofrece un trato: si lo mantiene vivo, Eddy no le delata a sus antiguos jefes de la mafia y, si lo deja morir (o lo mata), sus socios cogen el teléfono y empiezan a hablar... «Burlando a la Parca es una novela adrenalínica, compleja, políticamente incorrecta y llena de acción, sangre y vísceras. Con diálogos restallantes de ingenio y una trama llena de giros inesperados. Aunque todo lo que sucede es poco menos que surrealista, nos dejamos arrastrar por este maremoto literario porque es divertido, emocionante e impredecible» (Eleanor Bukowsky, Mostly Fiction Book Reviews).

Hurray for footnotes. Also, this is the second in a series? Wha? Do I have to read the first one? Because I really don't want to, because I liked this one because of the Boundary Waters lake monster whatnot.

Peter Brown started life as an orphaned kiddo being raised by his loving, Holocaust-survivor grandparents, but when they're randomly and brutally murdered in their own home, Peter sets out for revenge and ends up as a very competent hitman for the mob, then as a very competent MD intern in the Witness Protection Program. And then his past comes calling during a hospital shift from hell.
This isn't my usual fare at all, but my friend, Rob, has been wanting me to read it for years and I finally gave in. I'm so glad I did. It's fantastic even as it's also very much not what I usually go for. It's dark and downright brutal in parts, but somehow Bazell manages even so to keep it light and funny. Most of that is because of the narrator, who ticks a lot of the right boxes for me: smart, *very* good at pretty much everything he does, but also very matter-of-fact about it and with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, and chock full of charisma. The plot is great, too: lots of interesting twists as the story plays out both in the present and in flashbacks that unfold his hitman past. Definitely recommended, even if, like me, this might not be your usual jam.

Despite the hooplah, I did not like this book at all. Author tried to write humorous thriller, and I found his perpetual attempts to showcase his Ivy League education annoying, and the basic story line was preposterous.

adult fiction; crime/thriller. A pretty good mafia/escape from mafia story, though it does get a bit more graphic towards the end (actually, a lot more graphic).

Wild Thing, by author and physician Josh Bazell, is a sequel to his thrilling debut Beat The Reaper, which introduced former mob hitman Pietro Brwna as he tried to make up for his crimes by working as a doctor. Beat The Reaper was essentially Brwna's origin story, and spent much of its time flashing back over his life up to that point. It was simultaneously an intensely personal story and a breakneck thriller full of black-as-night gallows humor. For example, in one particularly nerve-wracking scene, Brwna uses one of his own bones as a weapon. As soon as I finished reading it, I wanted more, but I also couldn't quite picture where the story might go next. Beat The Reaper would be a hard act to follow for any author, and I'm glad that Bazell took up the challenge even if I don't think the results quite hit the mark.

We catch up with Brwna on a cruise ship three years after the events of the first book. Now he is going by the name Lionel Azimuth and pulling rotting teeth for crew members as part of his catch-all position as ship's doctor. Brwna hates life on the boat, so when his old mentor hooks him up with a job working for a reclusive billionaire (referred to only as Rec Bill), he jumps at the chance. At least, he does until he finds out that the job involves going to Minnesota and hunting for a mythological lake monster as part of what may or may not be a scam or criminal operation. Softening the blow is the fact that his companion for the trip will be Violet Hearst, a paleontologist who is both a knockout beauty and a firm believer in the inevitable apocalypse due to ecological catastrophes. Much to Brwna's surprise, Rec Bill is willing to pony up a steep payment for his cooperation in the trip, and soon enough he gives in despite his misgivings and Violet are on their way.

A lot of Wild Thing's reviews focus on the fact that the subject matter is so different from the first book that it feels strange that it has the same main character. However, I don't agree with the argument that this doesn't feel like a Pietro Brwna book; I think Bazell just does as good a job with Brwna's voice and sense of humor in Wild Thing, and I couldn't picture any other character taking the lead. I love the character, and definitely laughed out loud more than once. I also don't necessarily think that the cryptozoological angle doesn't fit with a story about Brwna, although I could see how hints of possible fantastic elements might raise the hackles of people who like things to stay "realistic".

What I do think is that Bazell actually wrote himself into a corner with Beat The Reaper. As good as it was, how do you write another book about the same character when you've a) revealed his entire backstory and b) established that he can't keep working in a big public hospital? Any kind of follow-up would have to shake things up. I think the real reason people say that Wild Thing doesn't feel like a Pietro Brwna book is that it isn't actually about him as a person. Beat The Reaper was entirely focused on Brwna's fall and redemption. All of the action and tension in the first book originated from events in his life both past and present, which meant that the stakes were exceedingly high and very personal.

In Wild Thing, the personal connections are more tenuous, although they are still present to some degree. Brwna has a fear of open water and sharks because the only woman he ever loved was killed in a shark tank, and he also has a fear of intimacy for much the same reason. Naturally, being in close quarters with a beautiful woman as they search for a lake monster means that some of his issues are going to come to the forefront. However, the stakes never feel very high in Wild Thing - either they find the lake monster or they don't, and Brwna can probably get on with his life either way. Maybe he goes back to the cruise ship, maybe he makes enough money to take care of his problem with mobsters trying to kill him. Compare that to Beat The Reaper, where Brwna is fighting for his life and for personal redemption all while trying to save patient's lives and barely sleeping, and it just doesn't sound quite as compelling.

However, my biggest problem with Wild Thing is that the plot basically unravels near the end of the book. A lot of time is spent building up to the camping trip and search for the monster, but when it finally gets to that point, the monster's reveal is over and done with in no time flat, and it feels very anticlimactic. It doesn't help that the camping trip feels vague and unmotivated once the characters are actually in the middle of the wilderness; after so much time spent discussing the dangers of the trip, very little time is actually spent on the trip itself.

There are also several characters introduced early on that never end up amounting to much. A fundamentalist couple show up at the lodge before the camping trip only to have a one-sided argument about religion with Violet Hearst before storming off-stage and never returning in any meaningful fashion. A Las Vegas magician is mentioned and then subsequently forgotten about until the end of the book as an offhand explanation for a plot point. Bazell misses a great opportunity to have these characters interact with each other and Brwna on the trip, and it's a damn shame.

It's frustrating that the book ends up basically trailing off at the end, because until that point I was definitely enjoying it. I actually liked it more when I first finished it than I did after thinking about it for a few minutes, which is always particularly disappointing. To me it's a sign of a great writer who perhaps bit off more than he could chew; once I was no longer distracted by his fantastic main character, the holes in the plot were far too easy to see.

However, the end of the book very clearly sets up a sequel that could end up bringing the focus back to Brwna's life; rather than continuing to live in hiding, Brwna decides to go on the offensive and strike back against the mob and his former employer. I'm definitely looking forward to it despite my misgivings about this book. Everything I liked about Wild Thing tells me that Bazell is a great author to watch. The problems I had may just be the symptoms of the dreaded sophomore slump that seems to affect so many great artists.

Fun read... a lot of tough guy wish fulfillment... and the end is pretty callous on one end and ridiculous on the other, but overall pretty solid for what it is.

Caí en esta novela sin saber que es la segunda del mismo prota. Y suerte que tuve, pues según todas las fuentes consultadas ésta es peor que la primera. Aún así, me pareció entretenida, por lo que ya estoy leyendo la primera.

Cosas que no molaron nada: el alegato projudío antirrepublicano que, independientemente de lo bien o mal argumentado que esté, no encaja en la novela ni con calzador. Meter a un político americano real en la novela que no aporta nada. Cosas que sí molaron, un montón de documentación al final contando de dónde saca el autor cada cosa de la que habla en la novela. Interesante.

En cuanto a la historia, es entretenida. Un mafioso arrepentido y en el programa de protección de testigos es contratado por un multimillonario para ir a una expedición que pretende buscar al monstruo del lago Ness, solo que en Minessota. El monstruo del lago White.

El autor es ingenioso en los diálogos y hace que la novela sea entretenida, aunque se intuye que un par de veces o tres se quedó sin ideas. En general aceptable.

Novela desquiciada, frenética, grosera y divertidísima sobre un médico residente que es también un antiguo matón de la mafia metido en el programa de protección de testigos. Si tuviéramos que hacer de periodistas diríamos que es una mezcla de House y los Soprano, pero con Tourette. En realidad es el médico Pietro "Garra de oso" Brnwna, cuya historia pasada y presente conoceremos intercaladas en un libro delirante.

Me ha encantado, con los fallos de narración que tiene (que los tiene, incluyendo los alegatos políticos en la visita a Auschwitz que no encajan nada con el resto de la novela). La historia es interesante (a la vez que delirante, triste, violenta, todo mezclado y en alternancia) y el ritmo no decae.

O sea,que la recomiendo. No es para almas amantes de Coelho, eso sí.

Vaya como muestra de la sapiencia médica mezclada con la brutalidad y la grosería el comienzo del libro:

De modo que voy camino del trabajo, me paro a ver cómo una paloma se pelea con una rata en la nieve y un gilipollas intenta atracarme! Naturalmente tiene una pistola. Se me acerca por detrás y me la clava en la base del cráneo. Está fría, y en realidad produce una sensación agradable, como de digitopuntura.

–Tranquilo, doctor –me sugiere.

Lo que lo explica todo, al menos. Incluso a las cinco de la mañana, no soy la clase de tío al que se suele atracar. Soy como una estatua de estibador plantada en la Isla de Pascua.
Pero el capullo me ve bajo el abrigo los pantalones azules del pijama sanitario y los zuecos de plástico verde perforados, así que piensa que debo de llevar drogas y dinero encima. Y que a lo mejor he hecho alguna especie de juramento de no patearle su culo de tonto del culo por tratar de asaltarme.
Apenas tengo drogas y dinero suficiente para pasar el día. Y el único juramento que he hecho, según recuerdo, es el de no tener propósito de hacer daño. Me parece que ya hemos pasado de ese punto.

–Vale –digo, alzando las manos.

La rata y la paloma se han largado. Cobardes.
Me doy la vuelta, movimiento que me aparta la pistola de la nuca y me deja con la mano derecha levantada por encima del brazo del capullo. Lo agarro del codo y tiro bruscamente hacia arriba, haciendo que sus ligamentos salten como tapones de champán.
Detengámonos un momento a contemplar el prodigio que llamamos codo.

Los dos huesos del brazo, cúbito y radio, se mueven por separado, y también giran. Lo que pueden comprobar poniendo la palma de la mano hacia arriba, posición en la cual el cúbito y el radio se encuentran en paralelo, y volviéndola luego hacia abajo, postura en que se cruzan formando una equis. Necesitan, por tanto, un complejo sistema de anclaje en el codo, con los ligamentos envolviendo los diversos extremos óseos en unas tiras rebobinables semejantes a la cinta pegada en el mango de una raqueta de tenis. Es una pena romperlos.

OK so here's what you know if you are reading a [a:Josh Bazell|1351359|Josh Bazell|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1229722532p2/1351359.jpg] book. He's going to pause the narrative (sometimes naturally, sometimes in a somewhat strained manner) to pass on some history/gangster life information/science/political commentary. It sometimes felt in this particular novel that he was more interested in passing along that information than in providing a coherent story. Woe to you if you might disagree with the author's opinions on anything because you (a character that represents that viewpoint) will be treated like an idiot with no redeeming value. This book also pointlessly introduces a real life political figure only to mock them and imply that they are corrupt. I might read another one of his stories but I'm not sure I'd miss it if I didn't.

A very mature take on the whole hero/anti-hero genre popularized by Lindsay's "Dexter". Page turning and exciting but definitely for adults.

This is a half-assed review because interning with a literary agency means all I do is read manuscripts and write reviews on them, page-long summarizations of plot, character, and strengths and weaknesses that will determine whether an agent actually looks at the thing or if I write the author a nice 300-word pass saying no thanks and here's why, or worse, copy and paste the their name into a polite but generic form letter.

However. I don't know how I feel about this yet. I don't know if I would've written a nice report for this, or recommended that my agents read it, because my agents take on nice books about family conflict and interpersonal dynamics, not horrific, insane and sometimes self-inflicted violence. I've been to the darker side of the internet. I've seen some shit.

I could not read what happens near the end of this bitingly hilarious novel. I love the main character. I love his voice, and unlike some reviewers I was fascinated by his flashbacks. The medical jargon was ridiculous and off-putting and so bad it gains the ring of truth... but oh man. This was 127 Hours level bad, guys. This is not a fun, light-hearted book. This is not light-hearted reading, at least at the end.

Does this mean it's a bad book? Not really. It's well-written and it's entertaining. Just... also horrifying. Keep that in mind if you decide to read it.

This book goes to the extreme, then takes that over the top, then goes over the top a little more. It is the most profane, irritated sounding, attitude-heavy, outrageous book I've read in a long time. Actually, I listed to it, and the reader's voice will stick in my head for a long time. Mostly he was superb, especially in the voice of the first person narrator. I liked him less as Magdalena, the Romanian girlfriend.

This book has the mob, it has sex, it has hospital antics--it has more than you would think is even possible to put into a book of this size. I went between loving it and feeling irritated, but I certainly had to hear it out to the end. The plot jumps deftly between the protagonist's present predicament and the story of how he got there, going back to his childhood. The book is filled with so many strong opinions about so many things (medicine, Poland, treatment of Jews, the mob, etc. etc. etc. etc.) that it makes John D. MacDonald's works look like those of a man without an opinion in the world. So your taste for this book will depend on your tolerance for its opinions. I don't know if they are the author's--so I won't say they are. There is a disclaimer at the end of the book that basically tells the reader to disregard any facts, particularly medical ones, the book seems to promote.

In the end, it was the sheer unbelievability of whole story that caused me to downgrade the book a notch or two. But I remain intrigued and may try this author again. (What do you know--there's a sequel.)

BTW, the author is a doctor. I'm kind of relieved and kind of scared to know that.½

Hi-fucking-larious. I officially have a huge crush on Mr. Josh Bazell. Please write more books!

For those who want some ultra-violence with their ultra-funny. A truly unique voice in contemporary crime fic.

Pietro Brnwa -- aka Peter Brown -- is a former mafia hitman who has entered Witness Protection and is now a doctor in an appallingly terribly hospital. And someone from his past has just checked in as a patient.

It's a fun story, full of cynical humor and violence and weird bits of medical trivia, but I found it just a little too over-the-top (particularly one especially grotesque scene towards the end), and it's maybe trying just a little too hard to be clever. The result is mostly enjoyable, but not quite as thoroughly so as I'd hoped.½

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell is a wildly funny mashup of a medical and gangser thriller. Peter Brown is an overworked medical resident trying to get through his day at the worst hospital in Manhattan. Between keeping his medical students in line, overseeing the care of patients, covering up the medical mistakes he routinely comes across, and trying to keep communications open between himself and other medical workers, the last thing he needed was to recognize a patient as a mobster. You see, in another life Peter Brown was a mob hit-man known as Bearclaw Brown.

He entered the witness protection program and is hiding in plain sight as a trauma physician. His former accomplice threatens to rat him out if he doesn’t save his life. The day that follows is both thrilling and hilarious as it includes the doctor making a clever diagnosis, chasing down a runaway wheelchair patient and getting accidentally stuck with a needle full of infected pus. We are also treated to Brown’s backstory which includes plenty of gun and knife play as well as a harrowing encounter with a shark tank.

Fast, original and darkly funny, I found Beat the Reaper an absolute blast. This book will not appeal to everyone as it is very violent and quite improbable but for those who like dark and twisted stories as much as I, this is a great read.

Really liked it, although it went over the top at the end.

This is highly entertaining.