Organ Grinders

Rating:
Summary: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly ...
Review:
The Good:

The plot moves fairly quickly. Easy to read. Lots of wacky characters and situations. Some funny parts. The ecological and medical information in the book seem well researched.

The Bad:

Too preachy. Fairly predictable. The parts of the book having to do with "business" were utterly implausible - either he didn't research business practices at all or didn't care to present even a vaguely realistic portrayal of how a bio-tech company really works. Also, - the whole religious delusion thing didn't work at all - it added nothing to the book and didn't go anywhere, - almost as if he meant to do something with it and never got around to it.

The Ugly:

Although this book was a quick read, and was fairly engaging it reads like a draft of a novel that never underwent that last necessary revision before being published. Glaring implausibilities share the same page with well researched medical passages.

Overall, it wasn't good enough that I'd recommend it to a friend, and not bad enough to put me off Bill Fitzhugh. I'll read Pest Control and see how that one is.


Rating:
Summary: Go Fitzhugh !!!
Review: I'd just finished Pest Control and dove right into Organ Grinders, and it's just as funny as the first book. Perhaps even more darkly satirical (if possible!) than Pest Control, which, even though it dealt with characters such as hit men, had a somewhat lighter touch.

Integral to the book's plot is an international traffic in organs and organ donors. I don't know if things have come to the state depicted in Fitzhugh's book, but if they aren't, they probably will soon. Aside from being hilariously funny, Fitzhugh's book made me consider some of the issues surrounding organ transplants and organ donors for the first time.

Until now, I wouldn't have thought it possible for someone to write a funny book about a subject like organ transplants.

If you liked Fitzhugh's zany brand of dark humor in Pest Control, you'll like this one too.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious
Review: Without a doubt the funniest and smartest comedy I've read in quite a while. Fitzhugh is as able with the laughs as he is well-researched, and the combination provides a blazingly intelligent and fun read that is brilliant in its mixed-nuts hilarity. Flat-out gut-busting and sharp as a tack, I think "Organ Grinders" is Fitzhugh's best book -- his others are worthy, too, by the way -- and a book anyone who wants to think and laugh at the same time MUST pick up. Enjoy.