Charlatans

Title: Charlatans

Author: Robin Cook

Publisher: Macmillan, 2017 (First)

ISBN: 9781447298557

Pages: 435

Rarely do you find reviews of fiction in these columns and the plain truth behind this fact is that I am quite awkward in evaluating that genre of literature. Non-fiction is slightly more difficult to read but reviewing it is quite straightforward as you only have to check the facts, how it relates to the established opinion and/or whether the author has support of enough material to against it. At least, that is the way I do it. On the other hand, reading fiction is really easy, but analyzing it in light of the emotional content of the cast is really formidable. Fiction has infinite range as it is constrained only by the author’s imagination. But once in a while, excellent works of fiction reach one’s hand quite unintentionally, just like this book by Robin Cook sought me out at the library. I thought hard for a moment, but the name of Cook was simply irresistible and outweighed all other considerations. After the sad demise of Michael Crichton, there is no other like Cook who can elevate readers to heights of thrill and excitement, while handling topics within the possibilities offered by science.

‘Charlatans’ is a medical thriller which unfolds in the Boston Memorial Hospital where the chief surgical resident Noah Rothauser is forced to investigate three recent surgical deaths in which his colleague and sweetheart Ava London is involved in the capacity as an anesthesiologist. Trying hard to prove her innocence and competence, Noah is hurled into a whirlwind of events that put the readers at the pinnacle of expectation and interest. His investigation of the avoidable deaths follows through within the confines of leg space afforded by the hospital’s administrative politics and hierarchy. He also gets involved in a brush with the nutritional supplement industry that casts its long shadow on the medical world. The book ends with a rather pessimistic note on how medicine is going to be practiced in the coming decades.

Readers are awed by the complexities of surgical procedures that can go awry even by the patient’s seemingly innocuous negligence of the surgeon’s instructions. So, if your doctor advises you not to eat anything immediately prior to a surgery, just don’t do it. Those who feel that they can get away with a little fooling around should read the first preventable death narrated in the book where a simple hernia procedure turns complicated when the patient vomits the full content of his breakfast into the respiratory system, which kills him. Though fiction, the scenario is entirely plausible and the protagonist terms the practice of eating before a surgery suicidal. Those who have read this book fully understand why.

Going from the particular to the general appeal of the work, the author marks the addiction to social media that is going to have lasting and somewhat deleterious effects on the society. Instant and too frequent communication has affected people’s ability to confront situations which was evolved over eons of time, but is suddenly faced with a novel kind of selection pressure. Cook expounds the wisdom saying ”we are products of the digital age, where truth and intimacy are becoming less and less important. Thanks to the ubiquity of social media in all its forms, we’re all becoming narcissists. Everyone is becoming an elaborate fusion of the real and the virtual”. Free and universal access to knowledge is slowly putting formal education at a disadvantage. Charlatans train with simulators and high-tech sources of information and can easily camouflage their ineptitude. In fact, the whole novel revolves around such an episode. Even though a little put off by the onslaught of technical innovations, the author finally admits that “large scale change is inevitable in the current expensive, long drawn-out, overly competitive path of four years of college, four years of medical school and up to seven years of hospital-based residency, all of which was instituted in 1910 and hasn’t changed much since, will have to be drastically updated”.

Cook raises alarm at the increasing might of the food supplement industry which fools people into purchasing costly snake oil preparations instead of leading a healthy life and having a balanced diet. It is implied that the lobbying powers of this cartel is so pervasive that the DSHEA Act of 1994 is said to have been enacted to let the industry go off hook from administrative and statutory oversight by federal agencies. The lobby indulges in criminal acts in the book’s storyline, but we get an uncanny premonition that fact may not be too far away from fiction, at least in the near future. Here, the growing clout of a group of Ayurveda products promoted by a leading yoga guru in India having connections at the top levels of bureaucracy and politicians cutting across party lines should be food for thought for Indians.

Altogether, the book provides a pleasant reading experience for all categories of connoisseurs. It is a page-turner and it is possible that a few of us can finish it in one go.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star