- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Simon & Schuster Hardcover Ed edition (20 Oct 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1416556109
- ISBN-13: 978-1416556107
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,184,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Oxygen
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"In "Oxygen", Carol Cassella's taut novel, Dr. Marie Heaton, an assured anesthesiologist at the top of her game, is forced to face the personal and professional fallout from an operating room disaster. Marie finds herself on the losing end of dollars-and-cents medicine in a malpractice suit, questioning herself, her skills, her colleagues, and her life choices. I couldn't wait to race to the end to see how her story played out, and I wasn't disappointed." -- Lalita Tademy, author of "Cane River"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
OXYGEN opens with Marie Heaton, an anaesthesiologist at the height of her medical career, facing a nightmarish operating room disaster that ends a child's life and launches a tangled malpractice suit. Marie's best friend, colleague and former lover, Joe Hillary, becomes her closest confidante as she twists through depositions, accusations and a remorseful preoccupation with the mother of the dead child. A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie's family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie, and is busy raising a family. Although she has been estranged from him for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father's care is falling on Marie. As her carefully structured life begins to shatter, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds, and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendour of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, OXYGEN climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oxygen,
By
This review is from: Oxygen: A Novel (Hardcover)
Excellent! Great writing style and use of language, albeit some people might be irritated by the comparison of emotions to parts of the body. The plot was good. I'm looking forward to her next book.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but forgettable,
By
This review is from: Oxygen: A Novel (Hardcover)
First Sentence: People feel so strong, so durable.
Dr. Marie Heaton is a skilled anesthesiologist. Her life is off track and her career at risk when a child dies during surgery and Marie is being sued for malpractice. Although she tries to keep working, she must work to find out exactly what happened during the operation in order to retain her career, finances and, possibly, even freedom. It is also a time for her to deal with personal and family relationships with a fellow doctor, her sister's family and her father. Carol Cassella's background as an anesthesiologist is very much in evidence. I found the information fascinating and it did add tension to the operation and hospital scenes. While I never considered putting the book down, I kept wondering when something would start happening. The book is labeled as "a novel' rather than a mystery. Much of the story is taken up with Marie's personal life. It wasn't bad but neither was it that interesting. The investigation of what happened during the surgery was handled as a secondary story line instead, which, for me, was the more interesting thread. However, I also foresaw one of major elements in the plot very early on and found the ending abrupt. The book was a good read but a rather forgettable one.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive first novel,
By
This review is from: Oxygen: A Novel (Hardcover)
This writer clearly has the expertise to tackle this novel. She is a real anethesiologist. Given my own medical background, it was really refreshing to read a story about a medical professional without the inevitable, oh that would never happen moments, that you find with non-medical professionals who try to tell as story like this one and fall short.
Told in first person narrative you live the story with the main character. A child has died in the operating room. The anesthesiologist has the responsibility of keeping the patient's airway open, sedating just enough, then being able to ease them out of that sedation alive and well. Things don't go well one day in this novel. A child dies in Marie Heaton's OR. All of her training and professionalism hasn't really prepared her for the bumpy road that lies ahead. We live moment by moment as Marie struggles through the nightmare. This is a well written literary novel. Cassella pulls off the first person narrative and makes it believable. Makes you feel her character's heartache. So why only 4 stars? The first two chapters could have been left out - way too much day in the life stuff. Ultimately it stalls the story, which then has a little trouble getting off the ground. The other issue - it became overly long and plodding, going nowhere for a short time in the middle. Still, I would recommend this book. Ultimately it is a very good quality, well written story that you will want to see to the very end.
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