Book Reviews
Book Review of “Kill Me” by Stephen White
I’ve read several Stephen White books over the years,
but this is the first story where psychologist Alan Gregory
is a secondary character.
White’s rich protagonist, who narrates the story, has a
potentially fatal skiing accident and starts thinking
about how he would feel if he ever became physically
or mentally incapacitated by another such accident or by
a serious medical condition. He decides that he
couldn’t handle it and would prefer to avoid months or
years of inactivity and helplessness.
So, when a friend tells him that he knows a guy who
knows a guy who can put him in touch with an
organization that will contract to end his life once a
certain threshold of sickness has been crossed, then
our rich protagonist loses little time in arranging the
substantial payment that will guarantee his own death
should certain circumstances occur.
This is a thrilling read, based on a moral and controversial
issue. Many people today come down on the side
of euthanasia and assisted suicide, but what if after a
certain point you had no choice, you couldn’t change
your mind, the action was going ahead despite a
reconsideration on your part? Perhaps you’ve decided
that here’s still something you feel you must do, or
complete, before your life is taken, but the contract has
been signed, you’ve crossed the agreed-on threshold–
the client-determined parameters–and the wheels
are in motion.
White’s protagonist has a dilemma, but with some help,
he arrives at an acceptable solution.
Great story!
Review of “A Philosophical Investigation” by Philip Kerr
The year is 2013. The place is London.
The first of two problems I had with this novel was that
it was published in 1992, but I didn’t read it until 2008.
Sixteen years after publication, and only five years before
the setting of the story, meant that any revolutionary,
futuristic advances in technology weren’t really very
surprising, and/or believable from this advanced
perspective. This is not the author’s fault really, but
it is always a risk writing about the future.
In 2013, the two main changes in society are:
“punitive coma”, wherein murderers and rapists are
put into a drug-induced coma instead of being
executed or becoming a drain on the public purse
for twenty or thirty years; and, the availability of a
“reality approximation machine” for you living room,
complete with protection gear for your exploits,
be they sexual or safari.
The crux of the story lies in the supposed discovery
that the brains of some males lack a Ventro Medial
Nucleus (VMN) which acts as an inhibitor to the
Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus (SDN), a preoptic area
of the male human brain which is the repository of
male aggressive response. The government in
England has identified the men who lack the VMN
and offer them counselling to control aggression.
This group of men are given pseudonyms which
happen to be the names of famous philosophers.
Our criminal is known only as “Wittgenstein” and
he displays many of the traits of the real Wittgenstein.
Except, this Wittgenstein decides it would be a
rather good idea to kill off all the other “philosophers”
in his group, for the good of mankind.
Of course, there is much philosophical discussion
and justification offered; which brings me to the
second problem I had with this book: too damn
much philosophy!
The premise of the story was very good, very
intelligent; and, I liked the female police investigator,
who was very good at her job. But really, for a
simple bloke like me, there was just too much
thinking involved. I have a feeling many readers
would agree with me.
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Talk soon.
Tags: Book reviews
March 12th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
I don’t comment often, but I do like your Terry On Books Blog » Blog Archive » Book Reviews blog.