Review of Quando Dormo
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Alexandria Jurski
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Review of Quando Dormo
[Following is a volunteer review of "Quando Dormo" by Edward Izzi.]
Quando Dormo by Edward Izzi is a fictional crime/mystery novel set in present day Chicago. The story follows Dr. David Fazio, who is a renowned “baby doctor” at Chicago-Western Medical Center. A recent legislature change in Chicago has made partial-birth abortions legal, and this begins a huge internal struggle for Dr. Fazio, who is strictly pro-life. Dr. Fazio’s hospital administration is trying to pressure him to complete these abortions as they are federally funded and need to comply with new laws, but Dr. Fazio refuses to give in to their demands, wanting to stay firm on his morals and religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, multiple Family Planning Clinics are being burnt down, and Dr. Fazio finds himself to be the Chicago Police and Fire Departments' main suspect. Dr. Fazio’s strong pro-life stance along with his sleep troubles and recent sleep walking incidents lead investigators to believe that Dr. Fazio is setting these fires while he is asleep. With no memory of what he does during these sleepwalking events, Dr. Fazio is hard put to refute these charges.
If the author had not written a disclaimer about the novel being heavily political, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book. As it was, since he did disclose how strong of a role politics played in the book, I began reading with that in mind, and it did not adversely affect my feelings for the story. I actually think the author did a very good job showing both sides of the pro-life versus pro-choice debate. The book includes chapters from multiple different people’s points of view, and if Izzi had not said which side he was on in his summary, I would not have been able to tell what the author’s views were on the matter.
Another thing the author did well was his character development. At the beginning of the novel, several main characters are introduced, and the reader begins getting attached to them and liking them for various reasons. As the book goes on, though, the writer introduces new character’s points of view, and this sheds light on some more negative aspects of the main characters. I personally was left with mixed feelings about those people that I previously had started to like. For example, Dr. Fazio is a successful OB/GYN who refuses to do abortions because of his conscience, and he seems unfairly accused of setting fires to clinics who do preform these abortions. As the story progresses, though, you come to find out that Dr. Fazio also goes directly against patient wishes and has “gotten around” sexually with a majority of the hospital’s nurses, leaving a lot of jilted lovers in his wake. I very much enjoyed the insight into characters’ more negative qualities.
Now, while the story was really good, the writing quality was very poor. There were mistakes and inconsistencies throughout the book. For instance, in chapter two, the author uses the term, “Fire Department Engine No. 1,” but then starting in chapter 3, it is suddenly, “Fire Department Engine No. One.” It then switches back to the numerical number 1 in chapter 13. The writing is very repetitive, and the author overuses and incorrectly uses ‘as’ when trying to describe things. For example, the author uses ‘as’ in every single sentence in the first two paragraphs of the book. This continues to happen frequently throughout the novel. There is also a heavy overuse of commas, which breaks up the flow of the story.
I would recommend this novel to an adult age group. The book is full of conflicting political views, so someone interested in this topic would be a more fitting reader. There is some profanity, but it is not too excessive. There is also some sexual content, though it does not go into explicit detail.
While the story itself was very intriguing and engrossing, there were so many errors in the writing that it was impossible to just sit back and enjoy the book. For this reason, I am rating the novel 3 out of 5.
******
Quando Dormo
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Quando Dormo by Edward Izzi is a fictional crime/mystery novel set in present day Chicago. The story follows Dr. David Fazio, who is a renowned “baby doctor” at Chicago-Western Medical Center. A recent legislature change in Chicago has made partial-birth abortions legal, and this begins a huge internal struggle for Dr. Fazio, who is strictly pro-life. Dr. Fazio’s hospital administration is trying to pressure him to complete these abortions as they are federally funded and need to comply with new laws, but Dr. Fazio refuses to give in to their demands, wanting to stay firm on his morals and religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, multiple Family Planning Clinics are being burnt down, and Dr. Fazio finds himself to be the Chicago Police and Fire Departments' main suspect. Dr. Fazio’s strong pro-life stance along with his sleep troubles and recent sleep walking incidents lead investigators to believe that Dr. Fazio is setting these fires while he is asleep. With no memory of what he does during these sleepwalking events, Dr. Fazio is hard put to refute these charges.
If the author had not written a disclaimer about the novel being heavily political, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book. As it was, since he did disclose how strong of a role politics played in the book, I began reading with that in mind, and it did not adversely affect my feelings for the story. I actually think the author did a very good job showing both sides of the pro-life versus pro-choice debate. The book includes chapters from multiple different people’s points of view, and if Izzi had not said which side he was on in his summary, I would not have been able to tell what the author’s views were on the matter.
Another thing the author did well was his character development. At the beginning of the novel, several main characters are introduced, and the reader begins getting attached to them and liking them for various reasons. As the book goes on, though, the writer introduces new character’s points of view, and this sheds light on some more negative aspects of the main characters. I personally was left with mixed feelings about those people that I previously had started to like. For example, Dr. Fazio is a successful OB/GYN who refuses to do abortions because of his conscience, and he seems unfairly accused of setting fires to clinics who do preform these abortions. As the story progresses, though, you come to find out that Dr. Fazio also goes directly against patient wishes and has “gotten around” sexually with a majority of the hospital’s nurses, leaving a lot of jilted lovers in his wake. I very much enjoyed the insight into characters’ more negative qualities.
Now, while the story was really good, the writing quality was very poor. There were mistakes and inconsistencies throughout the book. For instance, in chapter two, the author uses the term, “Fire Department Engine No. 1,” but then starting in chapter 3, it is suddenly, “Fire Department Engine No. One.” It then switches back to the numerical number 1 in chapter 13. The writing is very repetitive, and the author overuses and incorrectly uses ‘as’ when trying to describe things. For example, the author uses ‘as’ in every single sentence in the first two paragraphs of the book. This continues to happen frequently throughout the novel. There is also a heavy overuse of commas, which breaks up the flow of the story.
I would recommend this novel to an adult age group. The book is full of conflicting political views, so someone interested in this topic would be a more fitting reader. There is some profanity, but it is not too excessive. There is also some sexual content, though it does not go into explicit detail.
While the story itself was very intriguing and engrossing, there were so many errors in the writing that it was impossible to just sit back and enjoy the book. For this reason, I am rating the novel 3 out of 5.
******
Quando Dormo
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Just Die by E Alan Fleischauer
