Duck Blood Soup [Paperback]

Joseph Molea (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002

Author Michael Palmar called Duck Blood Soup, "a powerful, haunting story," and a, "well-written, important, intensely engaging novel [that] chronicles the addiction of a physician with sensitivity and fearlessness." He said of the author, "Molea knows the inner workings of addiction as well as anyone, and writes about them with passion and compassion." Palmer, himself a physician and the author of nine medical mysteries, said, "I have spent decades searching for ways to help people understand drug and alcohol addiction in physicians. Now, I will begin by recommending this book."

Editorial Reviews

Review

The energy gleaned from the author's personal knowledge of sufferings, and that endured by his colleagues, is what fuels this most talented writer's work. Molea's writing is excellent...literary...and he never forgets how to pin the urgency of an addict. --http://girlondemand.blogspot.com/2005/04/duck-blood-soup-by-joseph-molea.html

Reading the book ..provoked me into pondering...the problem of drug addiction among physicians and surgeons. --http://thebestreviews.com/review9144

This book [from] a doctor with high qualifications in the field was a real treat for my mystery loving mind... --http://www.newmysteryreader.com/books_we_love_2.htm

About the Author

The Author is a medical doctor, psychotherapist, writer, educator, and commentator. His ABC Action News segment, "Ask Dr. Joe" was a favorite of the Tampa affiliate's viewers. As a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine Dr. Molea's many contributions to addiction medicine were recognized when he recieved the Founder's Medal from the Society at last year's annual meeting. Although in private practice Dr. Molea is an instructor with the U. of So. Florida College of Medicine and holds the academic rank of Assistant Professor. He lives with his family in the Tampabay Area of South West Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Mystery and Suspense Press; 3rd edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595218431
• ISBN-13: 978-0595218431
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,637,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enormously Successful Novel - despite the hype!, August 12, 2004

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Duck Blood Soup (Paperback)

Some first novels bounce on to the scene so tainted with gimmicks to get the reading audience to buy that the reverse happens: committed readers tend to disdain jacket hype, breaking the code that if so much promo is necessary, then the content must be weak.Well, despite wading past the explosive star on the cover reading "Based on Actual Events", the preparatory misnomer that this book is "The Shocking Story of a Real Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde", and someone's idea that adding the MD after the author's name would necessarily make folks buy this book, DUCK BLOOD SOUP wins out completely on its own as a finely written novel. The hype is distractingly unnecessary, because Joseph Molea (please, leave off the MD on a book that is a novel and not a textbook!) is an exceptionally gifted writer. He knows his way around his subject so thoroughly that every character he creates is wholly credible and meaningful to the flow of the story. Whether this information for writing comes from his life experiences makes very little difference since he writes so well. This is not a 'memoirs', though there may be 'actual events' herein. DUCK BLOOD SOUP is as fine a novel about addiction - to alcohol, to prescriptions drugs, to street drugs, to aberrant lifestyles, to conscience-prisons of dysfunctional families - you name it and the addictions are there. What makes this novel so terse is the fact that some of the addicts are physicians, and despite the newsy items about the frequency of drug abuse among, say, anesthesiologists, the general reading public finds it nigh on to impossible to believe that physicians are, after all, humans - humans that happen to be in a profession that is one of the most stressful in existence.But given all of that, Joseph Molea just plain writes well! The method in which he admixes his timeframes, divides his chapters, pauses for moments of past history (much like the patients who just happen to remember a clue of earth-shattering significance that evade the original medical history), and knows how to pick up all the incidental references from page one to the final page so that we have a sense of knowing all the facts, though the ending of the book lies open-ended. Molea is able to write about passion, about psychophysical phenomena that accompany the mind-altering drugs he injects into his characters, and about lingering pains of childhood that mold our future and demand attention before they destroy the adult form.One comes away from this exceptionally fine novel wishing the editor and publisher had spent more time on correcting spelling errors and unfinished words that occur far too frequently to ignore than on the distracting, wholly unnecessary and vapid hype. Joseph Molea is a physician, and from the jacket it seems he is a highly significant practitioner of his art (he is an addiction professional who teaches about substance abuse prevention, education, evaluation, and treatment in Florida). But the man who wrote this fine book is also a Writer and an Author and a wordsmith and a talent to watch. And that is more than enough! Read this book and you'll see why. Let's hope there are many more gestating in this writer's rich mind.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerfully stunning novel of life-changing potential, August 23, 2004

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Duck Blood Soup (Paperback)

Duck Blood Soup is the rarest of novels, one that grabs you by the lapels on page one, shakes you back and forth in an increasingly frenzied manner as you frantically turn one page after another, and leaves you changed by the whole gripping experience. This is more than just a remarkably good read, however - it is a shocking warning about the dangers of addiction. Dr. Molea has devoted his life to helping medical doctors and other professionals deal with and overcome the deadly trap of addiction. Drug addiction among physicians is a subject I have never given a thought to, but it is easy to see how the insane pressures of such a job, particularly in its earliest stages, can lead to such a problem. Simply saying that drug addiction, especially among doctors, is a terrible, tragic thing makes the point but doesn't cause the true meaning of the words to resonate. What Molea does in Duck Blood Soup is lock the reader in a literary bear hug, take him on a harrowing descent into the maelstrom of addiction, and deliver a visceral lesson that is impossible to forget.

The novel draws from the author's personal experience as well as the experiences of others he has worked with, yet it is unequivocally a work of fiction. It tells the story of young Dr. Rocky VanSlyke, a resident surgeon with a terrible childhood behind him and a rosy future ahead of him - or so it would appear. It isn't an easy life by any means. Rocky has to deal with the incredibly long hours of a resident doctor, the pressure of holding people's lives in his hands every single day, and the stress that comes from dealing with other doctors, nurses, and younger med students; then there's his somewhat dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend Karla. Still, he might have made it through this period of his life okay, despite a natural proclivity toward addictive behavior - had he not met Vince. Vince Buddy holds some kind of vague legal consulting job with the hospital, and he and Rocky soon become pals. Vince has a problem, and he soon makes it Rocky's problem. It starts with a few Percocets here and there, something to take the edge off and keep him alert; before long, Rocky is injecting Demerol into his veins and becoming completely addicted, both physically and emotionally. Vince shows Rocky how easy it is to get the stuff; all it takes is a prescription from young Dr. VanSlyke himself, a judicious choice of pharmacies, and the syringes and paraphernalia Rocky has at his fingertips every day.

Things go downhill fast for Rocky, and you are right there with him for the deadly ride. Molea understands the mindset of the addict, and this is the source of this novel's incredible power. We see Rocky get deeper and deeper into trouble, watch his self-pledges to give it all up fall away into more and more drug use, shake our head as he continues to rationalize his drug use in the most irrational of manners, even when the cops are ready to pounce on him for his illicit activities and - most disturbingly of all - the very lives of his patients are threatened by his growing incapacity to perform his job. Even the life-threatening trauma of a Grand Mal seizure does nothing to help Rocky see the light. Vince is one slick fellow, engineering many an escape for himself and his friendly drug supplier, but the criminal trail of fake prescriptions and drug abuse these two leave behind them is glaringly obvious to all those who look their way with a critical eye.

Duck Blood Soup is not an uplifting or comforting read. Reading about someone, much less a doctor, injecting himself with a narcotic in different parts of his body, adding Percocet, cough syrup, and other drug concoctions to the deadly mix, working with gravely ill and completely vulnerable patients during times of artificial highs and even more frightening withdrawal-borne lows, and proving himself unable to save himself from the brink of absolute ruin makes for a harrowing, sometimes shocking, always disturbing reading experience. Blood Duck Soup takes you right inside the mind of an addict, and it makes for a read you won't soon forget. I would say that this novel is addictive in and of itself, but that does not seem apropos given the subject matter.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At times shocking, but always gripping and intense, January 4, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duck Blood Soup (Paperback)

In Duck Blood Soup, author Joseph Molea (a nationally recognized addiction medicine specialist and director of HealthCare Connection, Tampa, Florida) draws upon his medical expertise and professional experience to write an eerie and suspenseful novel of drug addiction among those charged with the highest responsibility and power over human lives -- physicians. At times shocking, but always gripping and intense, Duck Blood Soup is highly recommended as being a first-rate, cover-to-cover saga that can't be put down until the very end.