A retired medical specialist in his early 70s, facing a slow inevitably painful death from cancer, plans his suicide to make it seem like an accident, but unforeseen occurrences foil his careful plan. If I had known about this novel when I wrote Mere Mortals, I could be accused of plot plagiarism, but I only discovered this book two weeks ago-honest. Is there something about medical professionals that makes them prone to deceptively take the easy way out? Or is this itself a fiction?
There are just enough plot twists here to keep the reader engaged, but there are also long passages of flashback memories that contribute little to the main plot. These include a whole long chapter describing in agonizing detail the protagonist’s grim experiences as an infantryman in the Italian frontline during World War ll. The very elaborate description of the geography, recreational pastimes, industries, climate, and culture of the area surrounding the Columbia River in Washington state in the 1990s as well as that of Italy in 1944, becomes tedious. It is as though author is keen to flaunt his knowledge and/or his research of these features. And some details seem very farfetched, including the successful open chest cardiac massage resuscitation of a soldier dying of blood loss in a makeshift military field hospital- in 1944! And a thoracic surgeon describes the risk of death from a mitral valve replacement operation as one in a billion!
I have mixed feeling about recommending this story. Those readers who relish flowery detailed descriptions of geography, wildlife, climate and even personalities, will love it. I have not read Snow Falling On Cedars, but Vera says it very similar in portraying excessive geographic detail in the same area of Washington State.
The Passionate Reader 