Critical Care [Audio Cassette]

Richard Dooling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2000

Peter Werner Ernst, M.D., is an internal medicine resident at a major hospital's intensive care unit. He functions on eight hours sleep for every three shifts at work. Overseeing the care of eight patients, Dr. Ernst's job is to keep death at bay - at least until the day shift comes on, and any potential death goes on someone else's record. When Felicia Porter enters the ward to visit her comatose father, Dr. Ernst sees an opportunity to spice up his grim routine with a little romance. What he cannot see is how his relationship with the young attractive model will call into question his judgment and integrity, also just how far he will go for the sake of his lust.

"A scathingly funny black comedy...almost impossible to put down." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The often macabre world of high-tech dying seems all too real in this provocative, sardonic first novel about an intensive care unit where terminally ill patients hooked up to machines are kept alive in impersonal surroundings at frightful expense, often against their will. Using incredibly poor judgment, sleep-deprived Dr. Peter Werner Ernst, a second-year medical resident, becomes romantically entangled with Felicia Potter, the daughter of a patient who's been in a coma for months. Felicia is an air-head fashion model and a tremendous user, whose desire to pull the plug on her father is linked to a vicious family squabble over his estate. Dooling, a lawyer who once worked as a respiratory therapist in intensive care units, makes riveting use of the legal details when cynical Dr. Ernst gets dragged into a lawsuit. Although he sometimes overdoes attempts at sexual humor and surreal phantasmagoric fantasies, his handling of the medical satire is gut-wrenchingly accurate, authentically frightening and certainly timely.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This novel moves between the extremely vivid realities of a hospital's intensive care unit to the surreal dreaming of terminally ill patients. It describes the hospital setting from the viewpoint of a young resident, Peter Werner Ernst. Ernst is caught up in many crises, including a legal battle between two daughters who are fighting for control of their father's money. One daughter wants to end his life support systems immediately so that she can inherit his fortune. The other daughter wants to prolong his life for a few months so that the fortune will fall to her. Through their manipulations, Ernst faces the decision of whether to let the man live or die. Detailed descriptions of the frenetic hospital activity make this exciting to read. Recommended for popular fiction collections.
- Kathy Armendt Sorci, IIT Re search Inst., Annapolis, Md.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Books on Tape, Inc. (June 2, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0736654437
• ISBN-13: 978-0736654432
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,506,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh, Whoop, Be Enlightened, March 7, 2001

By 

Jay Doolin (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Care: A Novel (Paperback)

I plucked this book off a library shelf in 1996 only because the author's last name caught my attention as being similar to my own. I took it and 6 other novels home and sat down to take a quick preliminary glance at all of them, happening to start with CC. Three hours later, I was still in the same place, alternately howling with laughter and shouting out "Richard Dooling is a GENIUS!" This novel has everything--everything I like, at least: black humor, mordant sociology, unusual but believable and mostly even likeable characters, a plot that keeps you turning pages as fast as you can while at the same time wishing the book would not end, mystery, surprises, an inside look at an arcane profession, and finally, wisdom that doesn't seem hokey. I went back to the library in search of information about the author and--this was 1996, remember--found only a couple of reviews, in library journals, and the reviewers had not understood the book AT ALL. Its fortunes improved somewhat after his second novel was published. The movie was also superlative but went largely unnoticed. I recommended both novel and movie to many friends, and several told me one or the other was just too "strong" for their taste. Maybe it just hits too close to home. I have found most of the same qualities in Dooling's subsequent novels, which because of their subjects--Africa, cyberspace--may be far enough removed from what really hurts us here in the U.S. to be more popular.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious Satire, August 10, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Care: A Novel (Paperback)

I read Critical Care as soon as I finished Dooling's latest novel, Brain Storm. I was impressed that Dooling possessed such a huge mastery of the world inside the Intensive Care Unit AND of the law. This book presents similar types of ethical questions that Brain Storm does, but all of it is couched in hilarious dialogue and personal character reflections. Make sure to read this book in a place where laughing outloud won't get you thrown out. Great Book (I just started his other novel, White Man's Grave).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ironic Dr. Kildare, June 14, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Orion Nebula) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Care: A Novel (Paperback)

"Critical Care" has Dooling's first and perhaps best novel. It contains his usual blend of medical and legal background themes leavened with his acerbic humor.

Unlike his previous novel ("Brain Storm") this is story is based more on the medical theme and less the legal. The story is about the ethical choices a doctor working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has to make. Doolings style is good, and his ironic descriptions are precious. Yet the book is serious, I'm thinking seriously about a living will after having read this.

One failing I am beginning to find, is that the author only has one character. The doctor in this story is too similar to the lawyer in "Brain Storm" and the Indiana insurance adjuster in "White Man's Grave".

Recommended for those who would like to read about an ironic Dr. Kildare.