Customer Reviews

Heart Seizure

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Spence and Boyd's mom needs a heart transplant. So does the President of the U.S. Both have a rare blood type. Mom is next in line, a perfect donor is in place, but the Pres. has top priority. Not to Spence! He absconds with the heart, his mom, a resident doctor, a policeman, his brother and his brother's cherished vintage Mustang. Now the chase is on!
There are so many laugh-aloud moments in this book. The agents following them on their journey...Rodgers and Hart. Boyd,
the straight-laced brother, whose wife does a most unusual thing
with a government agent. The skate-boarding Rasta-boy and his
drop-dead funny Rasta speak!
I honestly was glad that my neighbor in the next condo had moved out. Fear that he would hear me laughing hysterically and wonder what was wrong with me!
I was one of the first reviewers of Bill Fitzhugh's "Pest Control." He e-mailed me to thank me for my 5 star review. Since then I have gone up and down on his books...loved "Cross
Dressing", not so much "Fender Benders", started "Organ Grinders" but didn't finish.
This one is GREAT! TOO FUNNY! Enjoy!

I loved this book. I read it cover to cover in 2 days. Hilarious and witty. I would love to see this book as a movie.

Rose Tailor needs a heart transplant, but her AB blood type makes her need the rarest of organs. Over time Rose works her way to the top of the AB list and is the person to receive the next heart. However, while on the campaign trail for reelection doing the "required" Clinton fitness jog, President Webster collapses. Rushed to the hospital, he needs an AB heart transplant.

When stunt car driver Mardell Coleman dies in a crash leaving his AB ticker in place, all the president's men jump the conga line to take the heart while Rose's two adult sons, attorney Spence and banker Boyd, think otherwise. The competition seems unfair as Webster only has the FBI while Tailor has only her two sons who have slew nothing. The mad, mad, mad world chase begins with one heart for whoever proves to be the worthier warrior.

HEART SEIZURE is a wild satire that skews many of the sacred icons of American society especially the notion of fair play when the upper elite or the bottom line competes against the multitude of middle masses. The novel turns the "Stupid White Man's" calendar into a full Keystone Cop's parody of the hallowed symbols of equality. Though relationships outside the Tailor family and the governmental vertical organization are never developed, the cast in its zany way makes the story work. Fans who want to see the other side of the rest of the story will relish Bill Fitzhugh's latest skin ripper, but clearly more cheers will come from the supporters of Bernie Sanders than those who are always right.

Harriet Klausner

So, are you waiting for that heart transplant through your HMO? Perhaps HEART SEIZURE road maps a better way.

Los Angeleno Rose Tailor, sixty-something and with a bum ticker, is on the list for a donor heart. Rose's situation is complicated by her rare blood type, which means that just any old heart won't do. The good news is that one finally becomes available. The bad news is that U.S. President Webster, also possessing the same blood type, needs one also after having keeled over on a jog past the Reflecting Pool. Too many cheeseburgers, perhaps. So, the FBI confiscates the organ only minutes before citizen Rose is scheduled to begin her restorative transplant. This doesn't sit well with her son, Spence, a struggling litigator who spends most of his time doing pro bono work for lost causes. In an act of desperation, Spence steals back the heart, liberates his sedated Mom out of the hospital, and flees into the Mojave Desert with the reluctant help of his successful banker brother, Boyd, and two hostages: 3rd-year surgical resident Debbie Robbins and gay LA motorcycle cop Officer Bobb. The five are pursued by the CIA and the FBI, both organizations each having an agenda at polar opposite to the other's.

I contend that it takes more talent to write a truly comedic successful novel than a widely popular dramatic thriller because, like men's ties and women's perfume, comedy is perhaps more linked to individual perceptions, and the sight gags seen in the mind's eye have to click. Author Bill Fitzhugh pulls it off commendably well as he escalates absurdity to the point where, Spence having accumulated an ever larger entourage of abductees along the way, culminates a wild ride up Interstate 15 from Barstow by arriving at a Salt Lake City medical center with a busload of Mormon basketball players.

The biggest problem with a literary slapstick farce can lurk in the tall grass of the conclusion, at which point the author must end the action, tidy up loose ends, and return the characters to an unremarkably normal existence. If, as here, the humor has gone over the top, the ending can be a letdown. So it is with HEART SEIZURE to the point that a five-star award is beyond my gift. At least for my taste, comedic literature rates five-stars if less riotous and more subtle as, for examples, the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella and, best ever in my experience, the McAuslan series by George MacDonald Fraser, the latter being based on the author's real-life service in the British Army. But don't let me turn you off from HEART SEIZURE - it's a worthwhile and eminently amusing read.

Heart Seizure is a political satire that will keep the pages turning. Fitzhugh is an incredibly intelligent writer with a knack for plot twists and intersections that will keep your head spinning. He does a breathtaking job of taking something that most people despise and turning it into something that we can laugh at, showing the ridiculousness of it all.

I keep telling you I own it and I loved it but you keep asking my opinion. What's up?

Spence Tailor has a problem. His brother is a bit uptight. His career isn't the most lucrative. His wardrobe hasn't evolves since law school, and his mother is losing heart. Literally. Once again Bill Fitzhugh tackles the wacky world of organ transplants. While in his last book on this subject, The Organ Grinders, he satirically slaps around the biotech industry, this time his victims is the Federal Government. In the heat of a presidential election the incumbent president suffers a massive heart attack and needs a new heart. Lucky for him a stuntman just met with a bit of fatal accident. Lucky for him the heart is an excellent match for his rare blood type. Unfortunately, this heart is about to be placed inside the chest of sweet old Ms. Rose Tailor, Spence's Mom. So what's a politician to do? Steal the heart of course.

For some reason Spense doesn't like this so, along with his (...) banker brother, Spence steals the heart and kidnaps a pretty young doctor with an unfortunate choice in undergarments. This leads to a madcap, wacky chase involving the FBI, CIA, redneck tourists, extreme athletes and a Mormon basketball team. While this isn't Fitzhugh's best technical achievement, it definitely is one of his most fun and funniest novels to date.

This is probably Fitzhugh's weakest book, but as someone else pointed out: his weakest is better than most author's best. The book is typically madcap and funny, but you can feel the rush job a bit. He would have benefited from tighter editing, and though the book moves as a great pace (I read it in a day and a half) I felt like some of this could have been left out (this is the first time for me where Fitzhugh has given us setups that didn't pay off). It's still an occasionally hilarious book--the satire is at times dead-on, and other times too forced--and I'd recommend it to anyone with a skewed sense of humor.

I found this novel hysterical the first time I read it; I just read it again and it's almost as funny this time, even when I know the ending.

One nitpick, though. The plot hinges on a person's needing type AB blood. Althought his type is rare, a person with AB is the universal recipient. She could take either A, B, AB or O blood. The greater problem would be a type O negative recipient, who can ONLY take type O negative blood.

I would also love to see this made into a movie. With that one correction.

I have never read a book that actually made me laugh out loud as much as Heart Seizure. I read this book maybe three years ago and just the name of the Fitzhugh's fictional ED drug (Mycoxiflopin) still makes me crack up out of nowhere. This is perhaps Mr. Fitzhugh's masterpiece.