Can't you just see the male students sitting around wondering if they haven't given up their masculinity by choosing a career that involves helping people and using their brains to do so? How will they ever marry and be daddies? Will women see them as caregivers instead of men? No, I don't see those questions rolling around in the male students' heads. They aren't worried about being "neuter". Yet here we have a woman who has been described as a brilliant scholar and dedicated and determined to become a surgeon, with ideas of discovering new diseases and coming up with new ways to save lives, actually wondering if she can still be a woman if she uses her brain, talents, and skills as a doctor.
I know a lot of female doctors and they tell me no such thoughts ever crossed their minds. Also, she is sent right away to start an IV on a patient being prepped for surgery without ever having started an IV before. I quizzed a few doctor friends about this and was told that no medical student would ever be sent to start an IV unsupervised on their first day without having been trained to do so.
The first two years of medical school comes after earning a 4 year bachelor's degree and involves book study and lectures. When they get into a hospital, they still attend lectures, go on rounds, and have procedures demonstrated to them.
No hospital, clinic, or doctor would send someone still in medical school to do a procedure on a patient who had never even seen a patient before and who had never seen the procedure done and practiced it under supervision.
While doing this IV, Susan actually flirts with the male patient! Unethical, inappropriate, and enough to get you drummed out of medical school. Believe it or not, on her FIRST day at the hospital, Susan then ditches the rounds, the lectures, etc to begin to research comas to find out why. She makes accusations to the head of the anesthesia department, fraudulently obtains medical records through forged requests, lies, breaks into an office to steal records, and does a plethora of unbelievable things in her first 3 days all while not attending any lectures, rounds, surgical viewing, etc that she is there to do.
What is even more unbelievable is that the resident in charge of the 5 medical students, Dr. Mark Bellows, is so dumbfounded by the gorgeous Susan's big breasts, he aids and abets her on this then invites her over for dinner and sex even thought this would get him thrown out of the residency program and lose his opportunities for a better future. She talks to him like he is beneath her. In fact, she is a big mouth bitch who acts like she is in charge of everything and not just a third year medical student.
As the bodies rack up, someone seems to commit suicide, a hit man chases her through the dead human locker, and people are killed so their body parts can be harvested, Susan never once calls the police. I mean, if someone tried to murder you, wouldn't you even call the police?!!!
I like the concept- chasing down people who would bump off healthy people so to harvest and sell their organs- but there is much here that is not believable or even offensive that I had to deduct stars for that. Mark Bellows' apartment. Mark has a neat, tidy clean apartment which is cozy and he is obviously a good cook but Susan is thinking that she wishes she could have a wife who would stay at home and keep the house clean, the laundry done, and do the cooking.
She then gets upset and thinks that if she married she would be expected to be the wife and thinks that is "unfair". As women, we know that our gender has been held back and has been exploited in just that manner. We do not sit around thinking it is unfair that we have to be the wife and that we can't exploit someone else. That is a male author making a female character think like an exploitative and sexist male.
Women actually think of having what I have, a husband or a wife, in the case of lesbians who shares the cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, and family business evenly so neither of us is exploited or if we are not in a relationship, of hiring and paying someone to do that work. Why did it never occur to Robin Cook that if two doctors were married, they could HIRE people to do that sort of work for them? Or that they can share the load? Why presume that you must do that work for free if you have a vagina?
Many of the characters are openly hostile to Susan being a woman in medicine and this is true to life. Even the patient she made a date with told her she should be a dancer instead of a doctor and she even entertained the thought!
Less than a year after this book came out and I had read it, I was looking for a part time job. I was in college and wanted extra money. At the time, I was a psychology major and thought I would become either a psychologist 4 years of college ending with a bachelor's degree, followed by 4 years of graduate school and earning a master's and a PhD which would make me a Dr.
In the end, I chose the PhD route as I finally decided that I did not need to become a medical doctor to get to my goal and it would take way too much extra time not to mention having to learn surgery, autopsies, etc. I went on a job interview at a dermatology practice to get a job as a secretary.
I was still learning about medical school and had visited Emory University's med school and studied the requirements. I was an all A student in college in all subjects just as I had been in high school and I had the academic skills to do anything I chose to do.
The young male dermatologist who interviewed me was excited by this and encouraged me, saying the field needed a lot more female doctors. He was all set to hire me but said the final decision rested with the senior partner. When I met the senior partner, I knew I would not get the job. What I didn't know is that I would get a lecture and an insult. Didn't I know that god meant for me to be a wife and mother no, not really.
I am an Atheist? We "girls" had no business being so uppity as to go to college, let along think we should go to medical school.
Maybe I could be a nurse or a teacher until I found the right man. And he wasn't going to have any uppity potential doctors or potential PhDs of the female gender in his office.
When I left, I saw the shocked look on the younger doc's face. I had a feeling he would not be staying there very long. I also looked out in the waiting room, filled entirely of girls and women. His money came from females. He entered the world through a female body. Yet there was no respect for women as human beings capable of doing or being anything but a maid, cook, and vagina. View 1 comment. Every male in this book is a a sexist and a chauvinist.
So it makes it difficult to circumvent their attitudes to get the feel and fuel of the story. In the middle of the mystery the author has taken liberty to create an unimaginable romantic relationship with the hero , and one of these misogynists very unlikely.
However there is some really nice action sequenced moments that allow you to keep on reading. But unfortunately the author ruins the ending by trying to do the unexpected. I like th Every male in this book is a a sexist and a chauvinist. I like the idea Robin Cook has created it's just that he lays it out there and then ends the story. So it was ok. Kudos for being short, and for not having enough substance to lose any detail if you feel the need to skip every other paragraph for a few chapters.
Apr 29, Asghar Abbas rated it it was amazing. I am not even hesitant to grant it a well-deserved five-star rating. What a truly scary book this was, about what humanity does best; subject their own kind to man-made horror, and that's the worst kind. A frightening tale Herr Docktor had cooked for us tell me you saw what I just did there, hehe anyway because not only it's possible but probable that we are capable of this.
It's all about the possibilities, isn't it? No, wait. It's all about the endings. Parallels could be drawn that trusti I am not even hesitant to grant it a well-deserved five-star rating.
Parallels could be drawn that trusting a doctor is almost akin to trusting God, so what happens when that trust is betrayed? Coupled with the fact, some doctors think they are God and here they are playing God.
Really spine-chilling. Sure, for the rest of his career Cook more or less copy-paste this theme but the First Time around it was special. Here is an odd little fact, the movie directed by the celebrated novelist Michael Crichton who in turn is a doctor, well was. See Trish, I'm full of trivia too, haha.
Aug 29, Cynthia rated it it was amazing. Read it years ago. One of my fave movies - have seen it many times. Okay, who hasn't read this book or seen the movie? It was a phenomenon in its day. And it was a decent suspense, thriller novel. But the only Cook novel I ever read. Organ harvesting, black markets and controversial medical philosophy abound in this bizarre medical-thriller.
This wasn't as good as Mortal Fear, but still enjoyable. The first 12 pages hook you, but then the book slows down until about midway.
Half way through, the book picks up speed and hooks you again. After reading two Robin Cook novels in a row, his books sounded formulaic, so I don't recommend reading his novels back to back if you're easily annoyed by formulaic writing.
I still love his novels and plan to read more, but now I need something else. If you're in a reading rut, a medical thriller is This wasn't as good as Mortal Fear, but still enjoyable. If you're in a reading rut, a medical thriller is a great choice. Revolutionary for its time. This book and the derivative movie actually changed the culture and direction of an entire Nation of people.
As a result, it should be considered a land mark work - regardless of "literary" merit. Not so science fiction now that violent and nonconsensual organ harvesting is taking place in China on a very real and massive scale. They are the number one importer of organ transplant anti-rejection drugs yet also one of the lowest for voluntary organ donation due to the m Revolutionary for its time.
They are the number one importer of organ transplant anti-rejection drugs yet also one of the lowest for voluntary organ donation due to the masses traditional social and cultural traditions of whole body burial.
No one voluntarily donates their body after death in China. Most organs and body parts are harvested from prisoners via the the prison and hospital system - both run by the Military. The Body Exhibit is rife with non-documented Chinese bodies! Thanks to this science fiction horror "story" a nation of people The US citizens and their European relatives were made aware by a pop culture book and derivative movie of all too real potential and impending organ harvesting abuse issues.
This novel actually changed the emotional and mental outlook of a nation regarding potential abuses of organ harvesting and propelled its citizens and sister European countries to enact protective legislation. Sadly, not so for many third world countries where this story is almost quaint in comparison to the reality of an impoverished population who are considered "resources" and who's organs are worth far more in parts than they are as a whole.
Jan 30, Nicholas rated it did not like it. Okay, after three books I'm calling it. Time of death is hours. How on Earth is Cook a best-selling novelist instead of someone printing up stories in his garage to send to family at Christmas?
Coma is a wretched book. Cook couldn't write an interesting, strong, or likable character if you held a gun to his head. The words in the book repeatedly tell us how beautiful and more importantly how smart the protagonist, Susan, is.
But the actual words that represent what she thinks and says te Okay, after three books I'm calling it. But the actual words that represent what she thinks and says tell us that, in fact, she's a god damn paranoid moron. She's a terrible doctor-in-training and a pretty unpleasant, manipulative, whiny person.
And that's not even considering the stuff about how hard it is to be a doctor as a woman a legitimate topic, especially for the time frame in which this was written. He doesn't save the horrible writing for just the protagonist though. Every character in this book is poorly conceived and executed, except for one nurse, one security guard and a dead guy that we never actually hear from. In this novel, Cook demonstrates a terrible grasp of character, plotting, pacing, feminism, descriptions, decent endings, phrasings, and writing in general.
Which, I suppose, is why he relies so very heavily on medical jargon. It's the only thing he really understands. And you know what, he may be a great doctor.
And should stick with that instead of delivering an onslaught of tripe like this. I'm going with 3. Well conceived story that is truly a scary thought. The ending was brilliant. My only knock is the technical jargon; for example, you do not need to name the bones of the hand when you are using a pair of sizers as a weapon and you drive it through the hand. But other than that the characters were believable and well developed.
Also, my days of BBQ in an apartment was spot on and did bring back some fond memories. Robin Cook pretty much owned the medical thriller. Hmm, I wonder who owns the genre now? This was perhaps his best book. May 12, Stacy rated it it was amazing. Couldn't put it down. May 17, Paul Ataua rated it liked it. Could she be both a woman and a doctor? How could one look at breasts excitedly in a nonsexist way? Reading it now, 45 or more years after publication, it grinds, but I guess those things must have seemed important questions at the time.
Solid thriller with a strong female lead, but remember that this is the seventies and even the strongest of women often needs a helping hand.
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Used paperback. Used - Softcover Condition: Gut. From Germany to U. Condition: Gut. Sprache: englisch, Ex-Bibliotheksausgabe, Seiten. Also find First Edition. Published by signet, Used - Softcover. Published by Little, Brown and Company, Used - Hardcover Condition: Very Good.
Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. Coma is the novel that propelled Cook to fame. He had a prior book published. Published by Macmillan, From South Africa to U. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. Our orders are shipped using tracked courier delivery services.
First edition copy. Very Good dust jacket. In protective mylar cover. Published by signet book, Used - Softcover Condition: Akzeptabel.
Condition: Akzeptabel. Signet - 1st. Published by Macmillan, London, From Australia to U. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good.
Don Brautigam Cover Art illustrator. Red coloured boards with gilt coloured titles to the back strip. Illustrated dustwrapper, by Don Brautigam, with red and white coloured titles to the front panel and red coloured titles to the back strip black-and-white photograph of author to the rear panel.
A series of, seemingly unrelated, outbreaks of virulent, hugely contagious and untreatable virus occur throughout continental United States. The only common factor, that the locations are always at healthcare facilities and the victims are doctors and their patients. Is this a natural occurrence? Rubbing to the back strip edges along with a little fading, and the spine is quite cocked.
Rubbing of the book corners and lower book edges with age toning of the text block edges. Black remainder stripe to the lower text edge. A little rubbing of dustwrapper edges and panels. This is the first UK edition. Please refer to accompanying picture s. Illustrator: Don Brautigam Cover Art. Quantity Available: 1. Inventory No: Published by Little Brown, Boston, Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine.
First edition, assumed first printing "First Edition" stated. A very good plus book some scattered small places on the upper edges of the covers where the paper has been worn - or eaten - away, exposing the boards beneath - none on the sides or bottom, else fine in a near fine dustjacket with a small vertical chip at each lower flap fold less than 1 cm.
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