Customer Reviews

The Children's Hospital

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Yes there's no contesting Chris Adrian is a skillfull and talented writer, and through the first hundred pages or so I was completely enthralled. Yet by the end, the lesson learned was on reserving judgement on a book until you finish it. The plot is ambitious and fantastic: A modern reworking of the Noah's Ark story with the survivors of a world wide flood contained in a floating hospital. (truly.)
The story is broken into three 'events' that propel the narrative forward,(the first being the flood) and to give the other two away would be to deny a reader the fun for having the sheer vivacity to push through to the end. For me it became hard going. The fact I had no idea where the book was headed which was great, but the energy it took to plod through protracted passages that go on for pages was enough to almost make me put the book away, except for the fact I wanted to see how it turned out.
At the end of the day, when I finish a book, I have to ask myself who could I recommend this to? Sadly the answer to this was no one. If the plot doesn't derail some people, the exhaustive text will. I'm giving the impression I didn't like it, and that's not entirely the case. I just found myself working extremely hard for something that didn't pay off the way I hoped or imagined.

"The Children's Hospital" opens with the end of the world and builds in directions both pedestrian and transcendental from there. Part tale of and by an unlikely hero of a medical student, part mythic narrative as thought by the recording angel responsible for watching and chronicling events that represent a third covenant of God with the world, Adrian jumps back and forth between his ghosts deftly. It turns out that our world ends under seven sudden miles of water, the survivors those caught on a random night in a very unusual children's hospital. The remarkable order to their situation slowly starts to reveal. The recording angel doesn't try to hide this from you, but foreshadows much of the order that defines the rest of the book fairly quickly. And by the way, Stephen King should eat his pen in envy of Adrian's ability to deliver a thought worthy payoff to a book hundreds of pages after the actual apocalypse wraps up.

Per his interviews, Adrian is a student at 'divinity school' and a fan of 'American religious history.' Christian readers might mind the absence of Jesus, except as a curse word. The one oblique New Testament reference is to Satan, though I still can't figure out if he was in the book. The pattern of the 'Thing' seems like the sort of thing the Old Testament God was always pulling, and that is at least satisfying.

Though this book can't be read as future history, Adrian speaks to our times well. Death is Adrian's other purported obsession, and I believe I think of death a little bit differently now, especially after the stirring last few pages. A hospital is a place that rages against death to the very end. Perhaps it is appropriate that the apparent last moment of sin and death in human history would occur in one. The implications of the end of Adrian's world make his God's divergence from the new covenant seem somehow not so much a big deal, in fact, though I still do not know that I like why his God opens the floodgates.

So why not? Why wouldn't God pick the most hopeless place, filled with the most innocent suffering to turn history again? A children's hospital is filled with sufferers of unnamed, chronic, miserable, even incurable disorders. Another author might pick such a place to discredit a loving, omnipotent creator. Adrian, having spent many nights in such a place himself, tells his story of a terrible and wonderful miracle and the possibility of all loose ends tied.

Oh, my God, the frustration. I couldn't put this book down. Even when the flashbacks dragged on. Even when I couldn't keep track of what was a dream and what was actual action. This book consumed me for three days. There were so many questions - What's the significance of the King's Daughter? What was Calvin's "sacrifice" if the preserving angel didn't have to be mortal first too? What happened to the book that Calvin wrote that Jemma threw into the ocean? - all left unanswered, and not in the way that leaves you feeling like the author has skillfully crafted ambiguity for interpretation, but in the way that makes you think the author has taken on so much that he can't help but forget about the questions raised earlier.

Like I said, I couldn't put it down, which speaks for the book's spell-like grip it had on me. But as beautiful as it was, I'm unbelievably furious at this book for leaving me with nothing but a pervasive sense of grief and a headache.

Chris Adrian's THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL is a prodigious and darkly imagined tale of the Second Flood, or as his characters call it, the Thing. In this modern-day watery apocalypse, Noah returns in the guise of one John Grampus, an architect guided by angelic divine inspiration to design a nine-story children's hospital capable of floating like a ship. Grampus's plans are exotic beyond his wildest imaginings - he does not understand much of what he is designing, nor will he know its full capabilities and purpose until after the event occurs. Since the book opens with the beginning rainfalls of the second great flood, we learn about most of this in hindsight. We never witness the stages of doubt and disbelief Grampus must have endured, but Grampus is not the focus of Mr. Adrian's story. Rather, it is the bizarre, almost grotesquely ill children under care in this hospital who are the primary concern, along with a self-doubting, short-memoried, barely competent medical intern named Jemma Claflin (note the initials J.C.), her psychotically self-mutilating deceased brother Calvin, and her beau, Dr. Rob Dickens.

An angel guides John Grampus in constructing the world's first uprootable floating hospital -- complete with post-Flood self-expansion capability and replicators that can recreate virtually anything from the "old world" - and angels occupy a significant place in the post-apocalyptic era. "It takes four angels to oversee an apocalypse," Adrian tells us early in his story: a recording angel, a preserving angel, an accusing angle, and a destroying angel. The reader is left to discover the identity of each angel and how they effectuate their designated roles.

Once those inside the hospital (medical staff, suffering children, and some parents) get past the stark realization of their survival and its divine implications (compounded, no doubt, by the omnipresent recording angel), they relapse into barely modified versions of their former roles as tenders to the sick children. Life simply carries on, floating as effortlessly and aimlessly as the hospital itself over flood waters seven miles deep. A few relationships form, but only one bears the fruit of pregnancy - that of Jemma and Rob. At about the same time, the nearly medically incompetent Jemma is suddenly vested with extraordinary curative powers that radically alter life in the hospital and reshuffle everyone's roles and the pre-existing power structure in the "ark." Still, Jemma's powers are not limitless, and after a period of euphoria over everyone's well-being, a new disease nicknamed the botch appears that Jemma is unable to combat. A number of further strange events occur, and a new survivor is even plucked from the waters.

To say more about the story would reveal too much for prospective readers. Suffice it to say that this all leads to a somewhat unexpected and literarily satisfying conclusion that does neat poetic justice to the Noah's Ark story and portends well for the "new world." It is certainly arguable whether the resolution is worth the effort of slogging through a 615-page novel. I remain of mixed mind on that question, feeling a bit like someone who's finished running a marathon but thinks it would have been nice if the race had only been 20 miles instead of 26. Nevertheless, Chris Adrian has populated his tale with an engaging cast of supporting characters -- from Jemma's friend Vivian (the only survivor who sets out trying to determine why God would have brought the flood down upon the Earth), Drs. Snood and Sundae, the lesbian minister Father Jane (how transsexual is that?), the amnesiac survivor retrieved later from the waters (aptly christened Ishmael), and of course, the 701 surviving children, especially the blood-drinking Pickie Beecher and the psychopathic Jarvis - all of whom help pull the reader into the peculiar life of this peculiar floating hospital for 600-plus pages. As the New York Times Book Review stated, "To read Chris Adrian is to take part in the exciting process of watching a talented and original writer gain mastery of his powerful gifts." Amen to that, brothers and sisters.

I have to recommend this one. The prose is fun, funny, and inventive. The first half of the book breezes by, almost at Harry Potter speed. (Almost.) Anyway, the novel is told in four ways: third-person of Jemma, first-person of the recording angel who watches over Jemma, first-person of an unidentified narrator (it's pretty obvious who it is as you go along), and third-person flashbacks of Jemma's childhood. A fun device, although I eventually got sick of the flashbacks, which were creative but long.

Various emotions emerge throughout the novel, which gave me mixed feelings once I finished. On the one hand, the characters are there to persevere as the last people on the planet. They try to go about their daily lives, despite the state of the outside world (which is probably what would happen, in my opinion). On the other hand, the sadness is obviously there. There is a constant struggle between depression/hopelessness and hope/celebration.

Anyway, about halfway through the book, there's a mini-climax and the book loses momentum. At this point, I started losing interest in Jemma and paying more attention to Pickie and the stories about Calvin. It's worth reading to the end, definitely, to see what becomes of the ship's inhabitants (who wouldn't want to know how this turns out?). I sincerely hope there's a sequel, though, since I was intensely interested in the King's Daughter, and the mysteries surrounding Calvin and what exactly his death precipitated. The ending wasn't exactly the wrong ending; I just think the latter half of the novel could have followed other characters - or maybe Jemma could have finally started connecting the dots. After all, while her friend wonders exactly why the world flooded, Jemma seems distracted by the past and her own ghosts. Although gifted with powers, she's so down-to-earth - when really, there are supernatural forces at work. In that sense, I would have liked a more curious character to follow, one who actually pondered the meaning of her destiny.

Religion-wise, I'm surprised the characters didn't refer to the Bible more often, or that other religions were not mentioned. The hospital has such a diverse population; I wondered what non-Christians thought of this turn of events. The religious aspect is really not the main focus of the book.

The book has its flaws, but overall, definitely worth the money and the time. The characters were three-dimensional, and the vision of this hospital was unique and imaginative. So much detail was put into it that it felt very realistic. The angels were fun, too, particularly the preserving angel, who is supposed to comfort everyone but is generally a pain in the butt. I suggest reading the sample pages Amazon offers; if you like those, you will like this book. It's gory (c'mon, it's a hospital) and moving (end of the world, duh) and ironic and funny. Four stars for sure.

I bought "The Children's Hospital" on an impulse--I'd never heard of it or of Chris Adrian, but the size of the book caught my eye and I was sucked in after reading the first few pages. Three days later, I can safely say that this was one of the best reading experiences I have ever had. I don't feel that I can accurately describe this book or how good it is, but even if I could I wouldn't. If you're going to read "The Children's Hospital" you should do so without any preconceived notions of what it will be like or what will happen, and please, PLEASE don't read the Washington Post review up above if you haven't already done so (it gives away too much). Just go out and buy this book.

Absolutely excellent. This is one of those books where you let all your coursework fall to the wayside and just read. I planned on reading it bit by bit for the rest of the semester--but I just couldn't put it down. The Children's Hospital is different from any other piece of magical realism you will ever read.

First, let me say that I think Chris Adrian is a very good writer. Now he just needs to find a very good editor, because this behemoth of a book could easily have been cut by a third with no appreciable difference made to the story line. Lotta flab here. As I said, the writing itself was good, and I must say I agree with him completely about the devastating effect of talking babies in advertising and popular culture, by by God, I did not need over SIX HUNDRED pages of Jemma's fears and daydreams.

The ending was well done, but the 550 page setup was completely unnecessary, in my opinion. He's got a book of short stories coming out soon (The Better Angel) and I am looking forward to giving that a try.

I actually enjoyed this a lot. 3.5 stars, not 4. It was a 3 with uneccesarily long passages, but I like long reads, so I round up, especially for the subject matter and the language level. I bought it on Wednesday night in paperback and waited until Friday night to start reading. I finished it Sunday night, with liberal breaks.

Fast read for much of it, engaging. You need a medical lexicon for a lot of the acronyms and diseases, unless you don't mind not knowing what they are tackling and talking about. I wasn't as interested in the flashback passages, but they were dysfunctionally sweet.

Had the eye feel of a few different books: The Sparrow, Geek Love to name a few, mixed in with a Wim Wenders film or two.

There are two separate climaxes in the story, one is the lift off and floating of the hospital, which is just numbing and speedy. The second is the healing powers demonstrated by the rather dully sweet and gentle protagonist, student doctor Jemma Claflin.

You don't like all the characters, and some of them are slightly creepy.

Someone wrote that this was relevant for our present day. Part of me can see that, and part of me sees it as a demonstration of futility.

I liked that the children's hospital is saved from the purging of the world. I personally do not see it as a story about morality, but I can see how others might.

The Children's Hospital is a book that asks a lot of its readers. It begins with the Earth being flooded under seven miles of water, and the only surviving ark is literally a children's hospital, kept afloat by a preserving angel, who also adds new rooms, replicators that can provide anything the survivors need and ghostly, uncomforting intonations of comfort that emanate from the PA system, floors and walls. There are three other angels as well, although they are not revealed to most of the hospital's inhabitants: the recording angel, who is the book's invisible narrator; the accusing angel; and the destroying angel, whose ominous title is well-deserved. The hospital's Noah is a medical student named Jemma, who discovers she has the power to heal all of the young passengers' horrendous diseases and afflictions, and that she is pregnant with the post-apocalypse's first baby.

Thus, this is the Flood and the Messiah and the Armageddon stories all rolled up into one, and it all would be a bit much if not for Adrian's deft use of language. In the 600 or so pages of this dense novel, he evokes an otherwordly, magical atmosphere that slowly and seductively lures the reader in and suspends that disbelief up high. Despite the bureaucratic quibblings of the hospital staff that persist even in the End Times, this is not a story that is meant to be taken literally. It is allegory and mythology, plain and simple, so don't spend too much time wondering about those replicators.

In fact, the allusions and references of The Children's Hospital are so densely packed I won't attempt to enumerate them, but only encourage you to read the book and discover them for yourself, and to stick with it for a while after the point where you want to give up. The Children's Hospital takes its time in weaving its spell, and if my only quibble with it is that it probably could have used some judicious editing, it's a mild quibble.