Tuna's Call Answered
I have now finished Richard Dooling's four-novel tour around America, and I can comfortably say that each is entertaining, smart and flawed. White Man's Grave, which tackles reason vs. superstition, ethical relativism vs. absolutism, and rule of law vs. tribal law, is set mostly in West Africa and explores in painstaking detail the witchcraft that runs prevalent through the Sierra Leone jungle. He delivers some scathing satire on peace corps idealists, PC Nazis and secular rationalists, but the plot often bogs down in the minute details of hoodoo juju. It’s my least favorite, so of course it Dooling’s only National Book Award nominee.

Dooling started his journey with Critical Care in 1992, a nearly plotless peephole into late-night residents desperately trying to keep their descending “veges” from dying on their shifts. Our cynical and sleep-deprived hero-resident gets sucked into a legal nightmare after falling for the model/daughter of one of his “beds,” as she wants to keep her father from suffering by pulling the plug, and she wants him to do it for her. Sleeping with him is offered as enticement. All will eventually be revealed to our blurry eyed protagonist, but along the way Dooling takes his shots at surgeons as gods, heart-hardened hospital “technicians,” and euthanasia supporters. Tied up way too neatly with a wise nun, but worth the short ride if only for the alcoholic Dr. Butz, whose one extended Korsakoff-inspired scene makes it worth the price.

Bet Your Life goes after the insurance industry by illustrating how policies are written to keep Big Insurance from ever paying off. It’s also a techno-thriller that defies plausibility but hums along on its own weird hyperdrive. We’re a long way from the Nebraska of About Schmidt, with drug-popping, tech-savvy Aids-infected anti-heroes dotting the landscape, but it peals back insurance cynicism and reinforced my belief that insurance is a sucker's game. I skip warranties too.

My favorite is Brain Storm, another nearly impossible novel to summarize, so let’s just list. Neuroscientists, white supremacists, hate-crime statutes and big-time law firms all get the Dooling treatment, which means subtle and not-so-subtle skewering. You get black humor and you get folks far wittier and razor-sharp than anyone you’ll ever meet in real life. You get speeches that explain everything, and you get sexy women using their gifts to get what they want. What they want, of course, is never what it first appears to be. If I had to recommend, I’d go Brain Storm, Bet Your Life, Critical Care and White Man’s Grave, but all with reservations.