Book Review: Godplayer

This is one of the earlier writings by Cook. I am increasingly starting to wonder if I should have read his books in the order in which they have been written. His writing has changed substantially over a period of years, moving more towards literary pieces and relying less on medicine. 

Godplayer has been written with the presumption that the reader knows some medicine. Having read enough of Cook’s books I knew I could ignore the medical terms as they weren’t central to the story line. Or maybe not to my interpretation of it. The book is an engaging read, although somewhat predictable. A lot of Cook’s books focus on issues of relevance to the medical community as well as the society at large. This one centered on the saviour syndrome experienced by surgeons and the resulting debate on who deserves life saving surgery when there is a dearth of resources. Cook’s characters are almost always very real. There are no black and whites. In varying shades of grey, you can only discern the darkest to be the bad guy. There is also this repeated reference to practicing surgeons looking down upon the practice of Psychiatry. Ironically, it seems that surgeons, atleast in this story, need to visit psychiatrists the most. In fiction at least, in books as well as in televised series on medicine, there are always incompetent surgeons making to the top. Surgeons covering up for each other, surgeons with tremors. It is a little hard to believe, till you remember that they are humans too. 

If you do plan to read this book, do so only if hospitals and medicine excites you. Although the language is otherwise simple, there are references to medicine, anatomy, and the setting is predominantly the hospital. With murders happening in the hospital all the time, you may develop a fear of the setting as well.