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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Presidio,
By J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Sword and Scalpel (Hardcover)
SWORD AND SCALPEL, by Dr. Frank G. Slaughter, is one of the few Korean War-era novels in existence. It is the story of Dr. Paul Scott, a Johns Hopkins-trained surgeon who is taken prisoner by the North Koreans when they overrun his frontline MASH unit at the outset of the Korean War. Dr. Scott is imprisoned in Pyongyang along with his Commanding Officer Colonel Jasper Hardin, Kay Storey a famous entertainer known as "The Girl Next Door," and the unit Chaplain, affectionately known as Father Tim.While imprisoned, the Americans are subjected to torture, sensory deprivation, brainwashing, starvation and all forms of physical and mental abuse. The frail Father Tim becomes deathly ill and Kay Storey is threatened with ongoing sexual abuse. In order to spare his friends from death, Dr. Scott chooses to sign a spurious War Crimes confession. After they are repatriated, Colonel Hardin has Dr. Scott Court-Martialed. SWORD AND SCALPEL is unsparing in the grimness of its storytelling. This is a tale of friendship, selfless sacrifice and betrayal, the story of what becomes of human beings when they are faced with ultimate decisions of life, death, love, loyalty, and self-preservation. Readers should beware. Despite the Korean War setting, there is nothing of the humor of M*A*S*H between these covers. SWORD AND SCALPEL is stark and unrelievedly dark. Written in the depths of the Cold War, it does not prevaricate when it presents the North Koreans as vicious jailors, as psychologically remote from their captives as humans can be and yet remain human.At the same time, it is not gratuitous in its violence. Dr. Slaughter writes with a deft pen. In presenting us with Dr. Scott at trial, he draws a clear parallel between the distance separating Dr. Scott both from his North Korean captors and his American accusers who fail to understand how he could do what, in their eyes, he has done, betray the United States. Brief, but poignant and powerful, SWORD AND SCALPEL is a book you will revisit many times. It has far greater depth than may be recognizable at a first reading.
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