I’ve always been a sucker for soap opera. Not necessarily the daytime TV kind, although at various times of my life I’ve been a regular viewer of shows such as RYAN’S HOPE and THE EDGE OF NIGHT. I’m talking more about novels that were bestsellers in the Fifties and Sixties by authors like Harold Robbins, Arthur Hailey, Henry Denker, Herbert Kastle, and Wirt Williams. (Other than Robbins and Hailey, there are some forgotten names for you. Maybe Robbins and Hailey, too, more than I’d like to think.) These novels were often about Hollywood, or fancy hotels, or the publishing business (usually bearing little resemblance to the real publishing business), or some other glamorous, high-pressure setting like, say, a big-city hospital.Which brings us to THE DEATH COMMITTEE. I remembered reading this novel when it came out in 1969 and enjoying it, so I thought I’d give a try again. It’s pure soap opera, centered around the life and loves of three doctors in a Boston hospital, following them from one summer to the next. Along the way there are flashbacks to fill in the histories of the main characters, as well as a framing sequence involving the Death Committee of the title, which meets whenever a patient dies unexpectedly to find out what went wrong and who is to blame.
This book is really dated in one respect. Nearly all the doctors are men, with female characters relegated to playing wife/girlfriend/nurse/patient roles. You can’t blame a book for being a product of its time, but in this case it does seem to limit the dramatic possibilities quite a bit. But the writing is very clear and direct, with hardly a literary flourish to be seen. Everything goes to the service of story and character, which is not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. Gordon keeps the pace perking along with plenty of complications, and I can see why I enjoyed it forty years ago. It’s just a good, involving story, well-told.
If you’re a fan of ER or GRAY’S ANATOMY, you’ll probably find a lot that’s familiar in THE DEATH COMMITTEE, though the novel is, of course, a lot more old-fashioned than those shows and lacking in the bizarre quirks that show up so often on GRAY’S. Some modern readers might find it a little too slow, but if you’re looking for a nice hefty chunk of former bestsellerdom, give THE DEATH COMMITTEE a try.
7 comments:
Oh, gosh, I remember reading this one. Thanks for the memory. We don't write books like this anymore, sad to say, but we do watch TV shows, you're right.
For some reason, this book makes me think of Frank Slaughter's books my mom used to read. IIRC, he was a doctor but I don't know if he wrote hospital dramas.
Ed Lynskey wrote the Frank Slaughter post...
Ed,
Yeah, Frank G. Slaughter wrote medical dramas, some of them contemporary and some historical, as well as other sorts of historical novels and modern-day soap operas. He was very popular for a long time. I used to see his books everywhere. Mostly forgotten now, of course. I've read several of his novels and recall enjoying them without being tremendously impressed by them.
Forgot to mention that Slaughter wrote some non-fiction, too, including a biography of King David that I used as research when I wrote my lone biblical novel years ago.
You mention Herbert Kastle. His Cross Country remains of the kinkiest dark suspense novels I've ever read. He was an interesting writer and this was his best.
I have just read this book. Is that true, that it was written in 1969? I can't find this information on Polish pages. Caffe
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