Review: Trouble

Jonah Stem is an overworked medical student suffering through his third year surgery rotation in a New York hospital. Late one night, on a street near the hospital, he rescues a woman from being stabbed - killing her attacker in the process. This death would be shock enough to a dutiful young man whose energies had been focussed for years on doing the right thing and preparing for medical school, getting into medical school, and surviving in medical school - but the killing was followed by an investigation, news reports, a lawsuit, and an increasingly bizarre and threatening series of events involving the rescued victim. By the end of the story, Jonah's entire future - and maybe his life and the lives of his friends and family - have all been under threat. Or was he exaggerating the threat because of the stress and exhaustion he is suffering from?

Jonah is an interesting character, yet I cannot decide how believable he is. He is a dutiful man who always wants to do the right thing - yet he does not seem to have developed a system of ethics which will help him decide what the right thing is. As a result, although his first instinct is to do the obviously helpful or even heroic 'thing', he does not know how to respond if his choices have unexpected results, or are questioned - and questioned they are by Eve. When he is thrown into a quandary by the discovery that maybe his choices weren't 'right' or that at the very least, they had unexpected or undesireable outcomes, he doesn't know what to do. He carries this behaviour to improbable extremes - as when he does not consult his lawyer about some shocking new information relevant to his case - and this weakens the consistency of his character. Surely a sensible, dutiful middle class young man would ask for professional advice on such a matter, even if he shied away from revealing it to his parents, sister or friends!

Eve, the rescued victim, is less believable and as a result, less interesting. She is almost a stereotype of a certain, perhaps fictional, type of woman. It is a tribute to the skill of the author that her true nature is revealed so slowly and carefully that the readers' suspense and interest are captured.

I was thrown off this book at the beginning by the writing style. The communication of the confusion and terror by chopping up the layout of the text on the page simply annoyed me by slowing down my reading speed. However, the rest of the story was more easily readable, and of course many readers find such a jagged writing style to be interesting and modern.

Aside from some improbabilities in the main characters and some stylistic quirks, I enjoyed this book. Some readers may be put off by the literary style and the emphasis on the rather peculiar psychology of the main characters.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM

Book Review: Trouble