Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Publication Date: September 14, 2009
Reviewed by Josh Olds
Dr. Peter Brown isn’t your normal everyday doctor. That much is clear within Beat the Reaper’s first paragraph, when the good doctor is mugged on his way to what must be the world’s worst hospital. Not only does Dr. Brown disarm the mugger and do some serious damage to the guy’s arm in the process, Bazell also stops the story—told in the first person—to have the Doctor recount just how it was that the mugger’s arm came apart so easily.
Dr. Brown proceeds to the hospital and, as it turns out, this encounter would be the most normal part of his day. Some of this is because he practices*medicine at an incredibly dysfunctional hospital, but most of it is because Dr. Peter Brown has a former life as Pietro “Bearclaw” Brynwa, a hit man for the mob.
Part of the book tells Peter’s back story. He grew up in the home of a mob lawyer and was best friends with his son Skinflick (a nickname, don’t ask), joined the mob, and killed some people. The reader sees Peter come of age, find love, and desire to get out of the mob.
The other part takes place in the present. One of Dr. Brown’s patients is a mob lowlife that recognizes Brown as the infamous Bearclaw. With his cover blown, Peter has to survive his shift, save his patients, outwit the mob, and in the end, face down a friend turned foe.
One thing I’ll say for Bazell is that he’s got something unique with Beat the Reaper. Section breaks were denoted by the picture of the grim reaper carrying his sickle. At one point in the book, Peter muses that this imagery is antiquated and that the reaper should drive a tractor, and thenceforth that is the image the reader sees for every section break.
The first person narration lends some impact to the book, as it allows Bazell, a real life doctor, to inject bits of medical descriptions into the book while adding to his character’s development and personality, rather than it coming from a dispassionate third person narrator. But this isn’t to say that Bazell is without flaw. Some of the events of both storylines seem randomly thrown in and don’t really contribute to the overall storyline. There’s also a lot of unnecessary profanity (OK, we get it, mobsters…and doctors…swear a lot). If it was contextual, I wouldn’t care so much, but there are places where it really detracts from the story.
Overall, after reading Beat the Reaper, I had a “meh” feeling. After thinking on it for a bit, I decided that I really liked the plot, but not always the execution. Rumor is that this is going to be a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the lead. I wonder if the movie will have footnotes too.
*Somebody please express abject horror at the fact that doctors call their profession a practice! Bazell also incorporates footnotes, just like this one here, for either medical clarification or humorous effect. It’s up to reader to decide which I’m trying to do with this footnote. Sometimes they’re a little distracting, but overall it’s unique and effective.
3 Responses
I enjoyed reading your review on Josh Bazell’s, “Beat the Reaper”. Just goes to prove that everyone has a different opinion on the same book. I really didn’t have a “meh feeling” after reading Bazell’s book.
I read the book not long after it first came out and really liked it. Maybe one reason is because I have a son that was interested in studying about the mafia when he was in high school so I watched all these “Godfather”-type movies with him and scanned the books he checked out and purchased. Okay, some were a bit too violent for my tastes and the language…well, had my mother raised these guys when they were baby mobsters they’d still be spitting soap out of their potty-mouths and would have grown up to be model citizens or, at least, wouldn’t have used profanity…especially around my mom. So, basically, I had a brief ‘mafia education’ in book and film and wasn’t too surprised by the language or violence in “Beat the Reaper”. Given that it’s been last spring since reading this title, I’d have to re-read it again to remember how much gratuitous profanity is in the book. Guess I just breezed over it and figured it was a given as you commented for doctors and mobsters.
Bazell writes with a great sense of humor and has a unique take on a storyline…a doctor/hit man that wants to get out of the mob for good. I don’t recall reading one quite like this before. And although I thought it a bit bazaar and possibly a stretch of the imagination, especially when Peter rips out his own lower leg bone to use as a weapon, Bazell’s got something different here with a very wry/dry sense of humor that I appreciate and a great stretch of imagination. All I could think of while reading the story was that my son would really like this book. Okay, so maybe I’m a bit nuts.
I wouldn’t recommend this book for everyone but I think Josh Bazell really has something going for him with his first novel and look ahead to reading more from this author. Hopefully, he’ll continue Peter’s story and find a way for “Bearclaw” to finally escape his past in the mob and become the doctor he wants to be.
*You youngsters, if you’ve never had your mouth washed out with soap, I can guarantee you it is a very unpleasant experience…and I don’t even know what I said! What’d I say?!
**No, I don’t use the type of profanity found in this book, at least, not out loud and especially around my mom.
***Yes, I did buy the book for my son and he liked it, too!
Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I agree with your reservations.* I think there is a certain brio to the narrative voice and the story, but I had problems with some of the logic of the plot (How many times does this guy need to have an epiphany causing his redemption? And Bazell hasn’t even gotten to the sequel), and I think the author wants us simultaneously to love the narrator for his brashness and frank crude speech, actions and thought, while condemning everyone else for their frank crude speech, actions and thought. Humor is I suppose a matter of taste; while I might call this entertaining, I wouldn’t call the author’s relentless sarcasm and superior attitude to his characters and their world funny.
And it would be nice if the author could imagine a female character with a reason to exist other than to screw the narrator and let the narrator demonstrate otherwise hidden (and thoroughly unconvincing) humanity.
*Though I like fictional footnotes.
Posted on November 19th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Jane,
I appreciated your opinion…you made some really good points…especially your last one about female characters with more reasons to exist besides providing sex.*
Guess Bazell tried to present the protagonist’s story from a mobster’s pov in crude speech, thought and actions as he thought Peter should be portrayed.
I will be interested to see what the author writes next. I did say I might be nuts…right?
*I agree completely…and that can be said about several books out these days!
Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
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