Rating: 
Summary: Absorbing
Review: Wonderful and poetic book. Loved it. Especially satisfying in the last few chapters. Can't wait to see what Martic Scorcese does with it in the movie!
Rating: 
Summary: A great novel--dark, funny and fascinating.
Review: I got interested in this book when I learned that Martin Scorsese dropped another movie project to get this book made into a movie and after reading the book you can understand why Scorsese wanted to make it and why Nicolas Cage agreed to star. This first novel by Joe Connelly is a real stunner. I haven't been as horrified and as humored by a novel since Joseph Wambaugh's "The Choirboys". And often you are laughing and cringing at the same time. The world of ambulance drivers is a new one for me (even though I work around them at times)and I suspect that Connelly --like Wambaugh-- wrote about actual experiences. His protagonist, Frank Pierce, is a complex character who is extremely likeable, but knows that even his goodwill is a limited resource. Connelly's writing is fluid throughout. It seems as if he is wrote directly from his stream of consciousness. It has been a long time since I put down a novel from time to time awestruck by what I just read. It has been a month since I burned through it and it still lingers in my mind. It IS dark but I've been recommending it to all my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Pollyanna, Please Don't Read This Book
Review: Yes it's a heavy, dark book, but a man who has lived the experience wrote it. Even though it's hard to tell where the truth stops and fiction begins, this tale provides a learning experience. Constant ministering to the dying takes its toll. Could I have saved that last one, or do I want to save this one? The rewards seem slim after a few years of driving a rescue squad ambulance. And..surprise (or maybe its not a surprise) bureaucracy rears its ugly head even in this life and death operation.This is one of the most unusual book that I have ever read It's a fascinating view of a life that I knew nothing about, even though I spent 25 years of my life as an executive in both general and psychiatric hospitals. I heartily recommend the book, but only if you are not afraid to view a dark side of the world.
Rating:
Summary: true to life..
Review: This book took me racing down those new york streets, running up those narrow stairs, breathing in the thick air of death. Excellent first novel by Joe Connelly. I would absolutely recommend this one to everyone. Sometimes a dose of real life wakes us to a certain reality, this book has certainly done that.
Rating: 
Summary: Too depressing!
Review: I could not finish this book -- it was too dark and depressing for me. It never seemed to me to have a plot -- the next call was just like the last. Maybe a little too close to "real life" for me.
Rating:
Summary: Read More
Review: Rose,Noel, and Tom, any one in the medical profession has a great memory of the same type of character. This is a great book for EMT's, or any medical personal. Great Job on the first book!! Hope to see more.----Tosha
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: I read that Joe Connelly is working on his second book. I'll be first in line for it! This book really gets into you and makes you think and appreciate what these people do for a living. It's not all roses for them either! Roxanna
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books written by and about EMS
Review: Being a paramedic myself for a number of years, and also having worked 911 service for the city of New Orleans, I can honestly say that 'Bringing out the Dead' is hands down, the best book written about EMS. Most of the books written about the medical profession portray healthcare providers as noble crusaders, super-human creatures doing "the good work" for a higher purpose... What a load of crap! 'Bringing out the Dead' tells it like it is, a very real glimpse into the TRUTH of Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine. This book ranks right up there with 'The House of God'.
Rating: 
Summary: Publishing a 911 Urban Cowboy
Review: I met Joe Connelly in a fiction workshop at Columbia University. I was an editorial assistant at Knopf and he was a paramedic in Hell's Kitchen. He would show up straight off work in his leather jacket, his face tired and gaunt as a ghost. My friend and I would stare at him. It was our first encounter with a true urban cowboy. About halfway through the semester we read Joe's work for the first time. His novel in progress, about a burnt-out paramedic racing through the streets of Hell's Kitchen haunted by memories of his ex-wife, or patients he had been unable to save, was by far the best raw manuscript I had read. A year later I bought Joe's book, Bringing Out the Dead, for Knopf and Vintage. A few days after that Scott Rudin bought it for the movies and Martin Scorsese signed on to direct it. Not long after, Nicholas Cage came on board to star in the movie. A few months ago I stood with Joe Connelly in Hell's Kitchen and we watched Cage in an ambulance talking to John Goodman, many of their lines Joe had written. The ambulance, cameras and crew attached, pulled out from the curb, and we saw Martin Scorsese sitting in a director's chair in the back of the ambulance as it drove down the street. In two years, Joe's life changed dramatically. He went from driving to the scenes of 911 calls to working on the set of a movie about the very life he had breathed and written into a novel. It has been an awesome experience. And it has all happened because the voices on the streets, those of his partners in the medics, those of the patients he saved and didn't save, haunted him and he had to write them down in a book called Bringing Out the Dead.
Rating:
Summary: My first encounter with a real urban cowboy, Joe Connelly
Review: I met Joe Connelly in a fiction workshop up at Columbia University. I was then an editorial assistant at Knopf and he was a paramedic in Hell's Kitchen. He would show up to class straight off work in his leather jacket, his face tired and gaunt as a ghost. My friend and I would stare at him. It was our first encounter with a true urban cowboy. About halfway through the class we read Joe's work for the first time. His novel in progress, about a burnt-out paramedic racing through the streets of hell's Kitchen, haunted by memories of his ex-wife, of patients he had been unable to save, was by far the best raw manuscript I had read. A year later I bought Joe's book, Bringing Out the Dead, for Knopf. A few days after that Scott Rudin bought it for the movies and Martin Scorsese signed on to direct it. Not long after, Nicholas Cage came on board to star in the movie. A few months ago I stood with Joe Connelly in Hell's Kitchen and we watched Cage in an ambulance talking with John Goodman, many of their lines Joe had written. The ambulance, cameras and crew attached pulled out from the curb, and we saw Martin Scorsese sitting in a director's chair in the back of the ambulance as it drove down the street. In two years, Joe's life changed dramatically. He went from driving an ambulance to watching his story about the medics come to life on a screen. It has been an awesome experience. And it has all happened because the voices on the streets, those of his partners in the medics, those of the patients he saved and didn't save, haunted him and he had to write them down in a book called Bringing Out the Dead.
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