Rating: 
Summary: Catches the poetry of a good guy working NY's mean streets.
Review: Brilliant first book. Whether Connelly will turn out to give us more first rate material or we find this was the book he had to write doesn't much matter. I wanted to read it before I see Scorcese's movie and I'm glad I did. The vivid passages describing the effects of emergency medicine on the stone cold body are entrancing. And I identify with the burnt out ambulance driver as the 'beyond disillusionment' metaphor of all the idealist American generations since WWII. As real and surreal as it gets --- don't miss this book.
Rating:
Summary: great expectations were easily surpassed by Connelly
Review: Bringing Out The Dead has catapulted Joe Connelly into elite company with the likes of Larry Brown(Dirty Work, Joe, On Fire, Facing The Music, Big Bad Love & Father and Son). Given that I consider Brown the best thing going, that's saying an awful lot. Connelly's debut effortlessly and masterfully blends stark realism with dreamlike surrealism. The effect is stunning. They say you should write about what you know...Connelly was a paramedic in The Big Apple for nine years. He has written about a profession that few of us know much about without getting too technical. He gives us the humor and horror in layman's terms. BOTD is a novel about an heroic profession, and yet there are no tangible heros here. The inner demons of the main character(Frank) surface to open up an ethical and philosophical can of worms. This is a dark and ugly story that has been written with absolute beauty. Pure poetry spills from the veins of some of the most horrendous situations you will ever encounter. I can't compare it to the movie because I always read the books first. The descriptions are so captivating and vivid that I don't really see the point in watching the movie...I've already seen one, raw and uncut. Joe Connelly's second book will be in my home the day it hits the stores. If you're looking for heros, then go buy a comic book. If you're looking for a gritty, realistic portrayal of hell on earth to allow you a temporary escape from your own woes, then you're on the right track. This is an excellent debut that most authors couldn't rival after a lifetime of writing.
Rating:
Summary: highly recommended
Review: An excellent book that became an excellent movie. I recommend this to every paramedic student I mentor. Connelly provides a look into the abyss that many of us in EMS have seen more than once.
Rating:
Summary: stunning, devastating completely real debut
Review: nope, couldn't put this book down. had to see what the next call would be. had to know if frank would crack or make the "big save". i was an emt and found the book evoking many emotions and feelings i hadn't felt for many years. it is a dark and grim book. it is haunted by the sirens wailing, the wig-wags, the red and blue light shows bouncing off all the too close buildings. the book is a ghost story about people who want to be ghosts but cannot and ghosts who know that they cannot go back, no matter what they do. it is a stunning first novel. connelly has written the medics' dark chronicle. i'm not sure i even want to see the movie that is being made (but i probably will) as there is just no way it could be as good as the book. well done, joe. well done, frank. let's get some rest now.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction? City medics know different!
Review: While most EMS related books are basicly war stories rehashed by medics looking to spread thier glory stories, Bringing Out The Dead is somthing different. Joe Connelly, obviously writing from experience, brings the reader into the mind of an inner-city medic. Being a paramedic which worked within the city of Detroit for eight years, I know the familiar feelings of burnout, not knowing if you can do the job another day - but hanging in there waiting for the next big 'save'. Joe Connelly brings the average layperson into the ambulance, into the mind of the paramedic struggling to deal with taking credit for saving lives, and inwardly taking credit for not saving some lives. This book is a must read for any EMS professional, and anyone who wants to know what real EMS is like in the inner-city.
Rating:
Summary: Great book - great movie
Review: I believe I read this book just before seeing the movie starring Nicholas Cage and John Goodman. At the time, I was studying to become a paramedic, so the topic interested me. I loved this book, and read it in one sitting. I know paramedics are constantly asked, "What's the worst thing you've ever seen?" and my favorite line in the book is Frank's response to that question, "Lima beans on a pizza." I think that just about sums it up. Not everyone will love this book, but I sure enjoyed it. Two defibrillators up!
Rating:
Summary: Pour the grave juice, quitting time's near...
Review: Joe Connelly's first novel is powerful stuff, definitely not for the faint of heart or those predisposed to depression. Frank Pierce is a downtrodden EMS medic whose world is rocked by the ghost of a girl he helped to kill and the memory of his ex-wife, who couldn't handle the afterburn. Connelly's prose is red-hot - he doesn't so much write as he does attack the beast - it leaps at your spine and pulverizes it, like being inside of a jet engine. He gets in and gets out, spinning EMS shop talk that's all red meat and arteries bursting wide open and grey matter boiling in flame. A former New York City medic, Connelly knows of what he speaks, and doesn't sugarcoat any facet of Frank's world, which seems to begin and end with the bottle as he tries to drink away the trail of broken bodies his occupation brings to his doorstep. By no means is "Bringing Out The Dead" the feel-good novel of the year, but watch for Connelly. He's got the goods, the bads, and plenty of the uglies.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive, but not great
Review: I liked Joe Connelly's novel, "Bringing Out the Dead," better than the movie (I read the book first). The movie follows the book pretty well, while leaving out many things, as movies must do (there's a significant amount of time spent in the book talking about the narrator's ex-wife). Connelly creates a gritty, realistic atmosphere surrounding his NYC ambulance driver job. At times there are hints of Chuck Palahniuk, but Connelly has a ways to go before reaching that level. The main character is well-developed, and easy to sympathize with, despite experiencing a problem that most of us will never face; failing to save the lives of his patients night after night. Therein lies the triumph of this novel. I feel like I now know exactly what it's like to be a nightshift ambulance driver.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Heartbreaking, enthralling, intelligent, uplifting and funny. I hope Mr Connelly continues writing, his poetry just burns through the pages. I didn't want to let these characters go. Genius.
Rating:
Summary: psychotic paramedics in hell...
Review: Bringing Out The Dead is the sort of book I really wanted to enjoy. Firstly, it has won accolades as a great first novel (by Joe Connelly). Even a film has been made based on the story. And judging by the other amazon.com reviewers, the style of the book is supposedly Chuck 'Fight Club' Palahniuk-esque; I am a fan of Chuck Palahniuk. Was I disappointed? Er.., yes. Bringing Out The Dead is, as one understands by reading the dust jacket, the story of a burned out ambulance driver in a seedy section of Manhatten. It is indeed written in the first person, and has the punchy/neurotic feel of Fight Club and Survivor (both by Palahniuk). However unlike these (very good) novels Bringing Out the Dead has no clever message or plot twists, let alone any humour. The reader is plunged on to a rollercoaster of absolutely horrific ambulance rides with paramedics who should be institutionalized. However judging by the frightening patients they treat in endless succession one can understand why they've turned into monsters. I pray such a story doesn't remotely portray reality. While individual vignettes within the novel are indeed interesting, the overall feel of the book is one endless succession of horror. In the end I didn't understand the point of it all. Having said this, Bringing Out The Dead isn't a bad novel - indeed, it is an impressive first novel. The characterizations are very interesting, and there are elements of brilliance in between the repetitive scenes of horror. Perhaps Joe Connelly can produce a fine novel if he had better focus, and tried to deliver some meaning to words. Bottom line: a ghoulish reading experience which both fascinates and horrifies, yet it ultimately bored this reader. A near miss.
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