Bad Medicine [Hardcover]

Ron Querry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Dr. Push Foster takes a 2-year job at the Lukachukai Health Station with no thought that he will soon be plunged into a medical mystery and crisis: the outbreak of a pneumonia-like illness whose terrible swiftness makes it almost impossible to treat. And most mysteriously all the victims have been Navajo, and young. With contacts at the CDC in atlanta, push calls in all the expert help he can. But the scientific answers to what is eventually identified as the rodent-borne hanta virus are unsatisfying, even irrelevant, to the Navajo, who believe something far more frightening is at work--an imbalance with far-reaching effects. And ultimately push himself comes to see the limits of what doctors can accomplish, and the liberating power of accepting other forces at work in the world. Full of wonderful imagery and scenes both moving and frightening--a hand-trembler trying to save a young life, a skinwalker changing form on a lonely road at twilight--this is a colorful and finally gripping novel of modern plagues and timeless evil.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The search for bigger and better bugs pushes this uneven Hot Zone clone into supernatural territory. Set in northern Arizona, the novel follows the efforts of two Native American medicos?part-Choctaw physician Push Foster and Navajo Health and Human Services official Sonny Brokeshoulder?to arrest the spread of "Navajo flu," a virulent respiratory inflection that targets reservation dwellers and kills in hours. Although their biological investigation throws the men together (giving them plenty of time to banter and learn Hopi and Navajo lore from their patients), by the end of the novel it hasn't contributed much to their understanding of the epidemic, which, according to Hopi Elder Clifford Lomaquaptewa, is caused by witchcraft, "the most heinous of all Navajo crimes." Querry (The Death of Bernadette Lefthand) can't seem to make up his mind whether the Navajo history, mythology and spiritual beliefs included in his novel are the real story or window dressing for the buddy tale of Foster and Brokeshoulder. Small wonder that, at the novel's end, his heroes and readers are equally baffled by the mysterious Navajo flu.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This second novel by the author of The Death of Bernadette Lefthand (LJ 7/93) is an odd mix: Tony Hillerman meets The Hot Zone meets Stephen King. A mysterious virus is killing young Navajos on their Arizona reservation. Dr. Push Foster, newly commissoned into the U.S. Public Health Service (and a mixed blood Choctaw like his creator) seeks a scientific solution to the deadly epidemic. Although the illness is finally identified as a hantavirus (the novel was inspired by actual events that occurred in Arizona and New Mexico in 1993), Clifford Lomaquaptewa, a Hopi medicine man, senses a more sinister cause: the theft of a sacred Hopi tablet has unleashed an evil force, a Navajo witch practicing bad medicine. While Querry's description of Navajo and Hopi cultures and mythologies is fascinating, his combining elements of medical and supernatural thrillers doesn't quite work. Also, his constant shifting of narrative points of view is confusing and exhausting. Still, fans of Hillerman's mysteries will enjoy this.?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Printing edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553099698
• ISBN-13: 978-0553099690
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,959,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How it really is . . ., October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bad Medicine (Paperback)

This is THE novel for people to read if they want to know how it really is on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations--I can't understand how the author knows the voices and the feelings of these Indian people so well. This is a great book . . . believe it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, great companion to Hillerman, October 7, 1999

By 

Judith Lindenau "dulcie22" (Traverse City, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bad Medicine (Paperback)

I read Bad Medicine immediately after finishing Tony Hillerman's "Last Eagle"...it was a wonderful week of reading and becoming immersed in Southwestern Indian culture. I can't help but want to compare the two novels, but that would be unfair: they are two entirely different fictional types, and they each must stand alone. Together, though, they are complementary experiences. Of the two, Ron Querry has a more lyric, almost poetic style. The plot is thinner than Hillerman's, and perhaps doesn't even do very well at bringing superstition, medicine, and folk healing together. That criticism (if it is one) is irrelevant to the impact of the book, with it's beautiful prose and sharp characterization. Of particular note is the chapter "Hashke", which takes place in the Short Mountain Cafe, populated by the smoking, vacant eyed waitress and the gum popping cashier in her tight plum-colored jeans and decorated fingernails. Like the rest of the book, it's great prose--evocative, precise, and moving.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful look at Indian life!, October 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bad Medicine (Hardcover)

A powerful book about a terrible time on the Navajo Reservation when an unknown disease was killing Indian people. Querry clearly knows that country well and makes the reader feel she's right there, too. A MUST READ for anyone who loves or wants to know more about the Four Corners region.