Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bringing Out the Dead
Book Review: highly recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent book that became an excellent movie. I recommend this to every paramedic student I mentor. Connelly provides a look into the abyss that many of us in EMS have seen more than once.Book Review: no plot at all. and that's a good thing
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is quite simply a 3 day look at a man's life through the eyes of his job. It's intense and personal. From front cover to back you watch Frank and his life as an EMS worker in NY. Simply AmazingBook Review: psychotic paramedics in hell...
Summary: 3 Stars
Bringing Out The Dead is the sort of book I really wanted to enjoy. Firstly, it has won accolades as a great first novel (by Joe Connelly). Even a film has been made based on the story. And judging by the other amazon.com reviewers, the style of the book is supposedly Chuck 'Fight Club' Palahniuk-esque; I am a fan of Chuck Palahniuk. Was I disappointed? Er.., yes.Bringing Out The Dead is, as one understands by reading the dust jacket, the story of a burned out ambulance driver in a seedy section of Manhatten. It is indeed written in the first person, and has the punchy/neurotic feel of Fight Club and Survivor (both by Palahniuk). However unlike these (very good) novels Bringing Out the Dead has no clever message or plot twists, let alone any humour. The reader is plunged on to a rollercoaster of absolutely horrific ambulance rides with paramedics who should be institutionalized. However judging by the frightening patients they treat in endless succession one can understand why they've turned into monsters. I pray such a story doesn't remotely portray reality. While individual vignettes within the novel are indeed interesting, the overall feel of the book is one endless succession of horror. In the end I didn't understand the point of it all.
Having said this, Bringing Out The Dead isn't a bad novel - indeed, it is an impressive first novel. The characterizations are very interesting, and there are elements of brilliance in between the repetitive scenes of horror. Perhaps Joe Connelly can produce a fine novel if he had better focus, and tried to deliver some meaning to words.
Bottom line: a ghoulish reading experience which both fascinates and horrifies, yet it ultimately bored this reader. A near miss.
Book Review: stunning, devastating completely real debut
Summary: 5 Stars
nope, couldn't put this book down. had to see what the next call would be. had to know if frank would crack or make the "big save". i was an emt and found the book evoking many emotions and feelings i hadn't felt for many years. it is a dark and grim book. it is haunted by the sirens wailing, the wig-wags, the red and blue light shows bouncing off all the too close buildings. the book is a ghost story about people who want to be ghosts but cannot and ghosts who know that they cannot go back, no matter what they do. it is a stunning first novel. connelly has written the medics' dark chronicle. i'm not sure i even want to see the movie that is being made (but i probably will) as there is just no way it could be as good as the book. well done, joe. well done, frank. let's get some rest now.