Michael Fox has hit very hard times. He lost his wife and son in an accident (which he blames himself for), his daughter no longer talks to him, and he lives under a bridge with a couple of bums. But he's not completely beaten – he hatches a plan to have an “accident” in the hope that the insurance money will benefit his estranged daughter and give him some sort of post-mortem redemption.
But before he can hurl himself in the path of a train, he's stopped by an imposing man named "Drake" who has a money-making proposal that doesn't involve being turned into mince meat by several tonnes of rolling steel. Drake represents Doctor Marshall, a surgeon on the cutting edge (pun fully intended!) of transplant science. The deal? For one arm, the doctor is willing to pay two million dollars.
Fox goes along with it, and needless to say, things go a lot further than he could ever have imagined. The arm is just the beginning...
What follows is a story about medical experimentation gone too far. On the surface it's a fun, lunatic ride with plenty of blood, guts and thrills. Deeper than that it touches on more heady themes such as loss, guilt, and redemption, and subject matter such as medical ethics (do the ends justify the means?). The pacing for the most part is spot-on, and the central character's motivations are convincing.
It seems a shame that I do have some mild criticisms for a book I enjoyed so much; but hey that's the review game.
Overall the writing does not seem to be quite as polished as it could be. Some sharp editing could have improved things a little. For example, the final chapter is entirely unnecessary. I know what the intention was – to hammer home the emotional impact – but it's a credit to Gord's writing that Fox's character and motivation is already well rounded enough that a more succinct ending would have had more impact.
There is an overuse of “lucky” moments. I can accept a single occurrence - a variation on the “bullet hitting the bible/hip flask/lucky charm in the top pocket” cliché, but also having something one-in-a-million such as a door being jammed open by a discarded apple core... well, it's a bit much.
The slight lack of polish is more than made up for by memorable villains and sheer audacity. Drake is convincingly threatening, with obscene sexual appetites that match his penchant for physical and psychological cruelty. The doctor is in many respects just as twisted – but his motivations (as revealed to the reader) twist and turn throughout the book. Is he more driven by personal tragedy than sadism? You'll have to find out for yourself!
This book brings out the visceral – in both the figurative and literal sense. Given that the subject matter is vivisection, it's not recommended for the squeamish. Let us just say that it is quite impressive how little a victim can get whittled down to, while still retaining conscious thought!
Essentially it's a modern take on the Frankenstein story, with a little bit of The Re-animator thrown in (well, minus the zombies). In fact, someone needs to give Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna a call, because this is a story that they would be well suited to bringing to the screen. It just had that Gordon/Yuzna insane seedy gore-movie feel to it, which is possibly why it appealed to me so much.
Overall, this a fun ride that bodes well for Gord Rollo's future as a novelist.
No comments:
Post a Comment