Review by Vivian Paschal -- Days of the Giants

[Vivian Paschal]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Days of the Giants" by RJ Petrella.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Boston City Hospital is at the centre of public health in the city of Boston. It is a teaching hospital in which many put their faith. Their healthcare system is trusted, and many times, it is the last or only hope of the poor and uninsured in Boston. Even the doctors and nurses have a special allegiance to it because of their special love for public medicine. However, plans to rebuild the hospital quickly turn into plans to sell it to a private hospital under the guise of integration, and on the evening of Tuesday the 20th of April, in the year of our Lord 1993, as the omniscient narrator put it, a resident at Boston City Hospital is beaten to death in the neighbourhood around the hospital. Days of the Giants by RJ Petrella recounts the events leading up to the resident’s murder, the immediate consequences and the aftermath. The novel is a fictional medical and crime thriller set in Boston and exploring corruption in hospital administration alongside the relationship doctors have not just with their patients, but also with the hospital itself.

A curious and interesting feature of the novel is the writer’s choice of narrative points of view. It is not unusual for writers to explore both the first person and omniscient points of view in telling the same story in the same book. However, the omniscient narrator in such a book would usually be a vague persona representing the writer. In Days of the Giants, the first person narrator is Dr Slater Barnes, a resident at Boston City Hospital who gets involved in the struggle to save the hospital despite having his own personal medical and relationship problems. To fill in the gaps with respect to significant events to which Slater was not privy, the omniscient narrator employed by the author is the late Reverend Barnes, Slater’s father who died before the events at the hospital began to unfold. I found it interesting that the omniscient narrator was painted as telling the story from what he called the city of God. It even turned out to be a little weird but also funny when Slater’s father had to detail his son’s sexual experience.

As the story progresses, one can understand the reason for the author’s choice of writing style. The story is presented as though the events in the thriller happened in real life, and we, the readers, already know a great deal about it from the newspapers. The idea is therefore to fill us in on the details mostly from the point of view of one very involved party, making the book feel like a memoir of sorts.

In addition to the narrative points of view, I enjoyed the storytelling technique employed. Despite being about medicine, Slater promises not to use fancy medical school words and keeps the promise as much as possible. He also narrates his experiences in a simple tell-the-story-like-you-talk manner that makes the story very relatable and easy to read, and this is what I liked most about the book. The plot unfolds slowly but steadily, and there was never a moment where I felt tempted to skip pages. The big reveals are not too shocking, but that does not make it any less thrilling. It definitely helps that the novel goes beyond the thriller to sufficiently explore personal relationships, making the story both plot-driven and character-driven. I also greatly appreciated the self-awareness of Slater Barnes.

The only element I disliked about the book was with the excessive explanation of characters’ identities. Of course, a reader might need the author to refresh their memory with respect to certain characters. Yet, it would not be necessary to use all or most of the qualifying features used earlier to remind the reader who a particular character is multiple times, especially when there are only a few pages between an earlier and later description of said character. The most distinct feature would suffice if any such reminder is necessary. When reminders are too often, as with Judy Rennit’s character, or repeated too closely, as with Andy Kirkland, it may distract readers. It certainly distracted me. A professional editor might have observed and corrected this. However, it seems clear that the novel is professionally edited as I noticed only three errors throughout the novel of 98,500 words. The first is in the second half of chapter 18 which reads “to where” instead of “to which”; the second reads “insure” instead of “ensure” in chapter 19; and the third reads “single out” instead of “single out”.

I have to say that the novel is very impressive. The author did a great job. I recommend it to any reader who loves a good thriller or who has an interest in medical thrillers. Understanding of medicine is really not necessary as the author made the book very easy to read and understand. I cannot think of any kind of reader who should not read this book except a person who has a dislike for thrillers or anything medicine. There are a few instances of profanity, the first instance appearing in chapter 2, but they are probably not enough to discourage a reader. There is no perfect book. Thus, in light of how good the book is, and despite my one complaint and the very few typos, I happily rate Days of the Giants 4 out of 4 stars.

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Days of the Giants
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