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Coma
"Gripping...terrifying." ( The New York Times )
"Strikes a deafening chord of terror." ( The Washington Post )
The book that put Cook on the bestseller lists, Coma is the gripping story of patients who check into a hospital for "minor" surgery-and never wake up again...
"Strikes a deafening chord of terror." ( The Washington Post )
The book that put Cook on the bestseller lists, Coma is the gripping story of patients who check into a hospital for "minor" surgery-and never wake up again...
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
About the author
Robin Cook
208 books4,772 followersLibrarian Note: Not to be confused with British novelist Robin Cook a pseudonym of Robert William Arthur Cook.
Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine, biotechnology, and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for being the author who created the medical-thriller genre by combining medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. His books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List with several at #1. A number of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. Many were also featured in the Literary Guild. Many have been made into motion pictures.
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard that included general surgery and ophthalmology. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where he lives with his wife Jean. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to make the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical conundrums.
Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France while he was in medical school. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in the 60's. During his navy career he served on a nuclear submarine for a seventy-five day stay underwater where he wrote his first book! [1]
Cook was a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees, appointed to a six-year term by the President George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas and background for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, medical research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, drug research, drug pricing, specialty hospitals, stem cells, and organ transplantation.[3]
Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know much about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as that has enormous potential for treating disease and disability but touches up against the ethically problematic abortion issue."[4]
Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in being a doctor. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 35 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're n
Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine, biotechnology, and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for being the author who created the medical-thriller genre by combining medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. His books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List with several at #1. A number of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. Many were also featured in the Literary Guild. Many have been made into motion pictures.
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard that included general surgery and ophthalmology. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where he lives with his wife Jean. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to make the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical conundrums.
Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France while he was in medical school. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in the 60's. During his navy career he served on a nuclear submarine for a seventy-five day stay underwater where he wrote his first book! [1]
Cook was a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees, appointed to a six-year term by the President George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas and background for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, medical research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, drug research, drug pricing, specialty hospitals, stem cells, and organ transplantation.[3]
Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know much about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as that has enormous potential for treating disease and disability but touches up against the ethically problematic abortion issue."[4]
Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in being a doctor. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 35 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're n
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May 9, 2022
عندما يكف الأطباء عن العلاج و تخفيف الألم
و يبدأون في القتل و التجارة بالألم
روبين كوك"طبيب اديب "يحول الطب في روايته لكابوس..يحول المستشفى من مكان نحمل إليه آلامنا و جراحنا كي نتخفف منها..لمكان تنتهي فيه الحياة..و تبدأ غيبوبة أسوأ من الموت
في حبكة ذكية و سابقة لعصرها..عن تجارة الاعضاء
نلهث وراء سوزان طالبة الطب الفطنة التي تتدرب في مستشفى بوسطن و تلاحظ كثرة حالات الغيبوبة بين شباب اصحاء..يدخلون على قدميهم و يخرجون على ظهورهم إلى معهد غامض لعلاج الغيبوبة
لتصطدم هناك بمافيا السوق السوداء للاعضاء البشرية..
سوزان بطلة إيجابية تجمع الذكاء و الإرادة و الضمير و خير نموذج للطبيب .. فهل تدفع حياتها ثمنا للمعرفة؟
الغيبوبة نموذج نادر في الروايات العلمية حققت نجاحا متكاملا ..هي و الفيلم السبعيناتي الماخوذ عنها ..و هي نوعية قليلة اصلا..و ان كان د. احمد خالد رحمه الله عوضنا بسلسلته الراقية سافاري..و شارك في ترجمتها مختصرة ' في سلسلته :روايات عالمية
و يبدأون في القتل و التجارة بالألم
روبين كوك"طبيب اديب "يحول الطب في روايته لكابوس..يحول المستشفى من مكان نحمل إليه آلامنا و جراحنا كي نتخفف منها..لمكان تنتهي فيه الحياة..و تبدأ غيبوبة أسوأ من الموت
في حبكة ذكية و سابقة لعصرها..عن تجارة الاعضاء
نلهث وراء سوزان طالبة الطب الفطنة التي تتدرب في مستشفى بوسطن و تلاحظ كثرة حالات الغيبوبة بين شباب اصحاء..يدخلون على قدميهم و يخرجون على ظهورهم إلى معهد غامض لعلاج الغيبوبة
لتصطدم هناك بمافيا السوق السوداء للاعضاء البشرية..
سوزان بطلة إيجابية تجمع الذكاء و الإرادة و الضمير و خير نموذج للطبيب .. فهل تدفع حياتها ثمنا للمعرفة؟
الغيبوبة نموذج نادر في الروايات العلمية حققت نجاحا متكاملا ..هي و الفيلم السبعيناتي الماخوذ عنها ..و هي نوعية قليلة اصلا..و ان كان د. احمد خالد رحمه الله عوضنا بسلسلته الراقية سافاري..و شارك في ترجمتها مختصرة ' في سلسلته :روايات عالمية
August 4, 2022
This is one of the first Medical thrillers I read during my med school days. It is also one of my favorite ones. Robin Cook tells us this story through Susan Wheeler, who is a trainee at Boston Memorial Hospital. Two patients she knows goes into a coma in a perplexing manner after surgery, and she decides to investigate the matter. What follows is a thrilling medical thriller that caused a lot of discussion during the 1970s when it was published. This is a must-read book if you love medical thrillers.
December 3, 2013
* Coma starts out so well and encompasses such a wonderfully sinister plot that it's a shame it had to be written by Robin Cook. I read the author's Shock not too long ago. In the nearly 25 years that had elapsed between the publication of the books, Cook clearly hadn't learned a thing about creating believable characters or plot complications. Why should he, when his books are bestsellers?
* Cook writes like a bad TV show: if you don't approach it passively, you can't possibly enjoy it. That's how it is with Coma. From the moment our heroine, a bright young medical student, ditches her hospital duties to pursue her own investigation into a couple of odd cases of unexplained coma, the book goes off the rails. This occurs at the one-third point in the book. It occurs on the very first day of our heroine's first clinical assignment.
* Naturally, she's gorgeous. Naturally, she's a feminist who detests chauvinism. Naturally, if she weren't gorgeous, none of the crap that follows would ever have happened. That's because the only thing that buys her time to dig into the mysterious coma cases while shirking her responsibilities as a student is a young doctor bedazzled by her beauty. Chauvinism rules.
* It just gets dumber from there. This is one of those books where the police exist, but it's as if they just appeared and no one really knows whether they're very bright or trustworthy. And isn't it safer in that situation just to assume they're morons? In any case, that's what Susan, our heroine, does. At one point in the book, she's in a position to hand them an actual real live hit man on a platter to back up her case, but she decides instead to go see her would-be boyfriend (he's the chauvinist bastard she can't quite figure out if she likes or not, and who may, she thinks, be involved with the bad guys anyway).
* I'd have to throw out one spoiler after another to catalog the stupidities in this book, so I'll leave it at that. The medical portions are fun and realistically detailed. The plot, once revealed, is disturbing--though undercut somewhat by some ridiculous dialogue. It's an okay book on a superficial level, but the reader should keep in mind that the title of the book is also a potential side-effect.
* Cook writes like a bad TV show: if you don't approach it passively, you can't possibly enjoy it. That's how it is with Coma. From the moment our heroine, a bright young medical student, ditches her hospital duties to pursue her own investigation into a couple of odd cases of unexplained coma, the book goes off the rails. This occurs at the one-third point in the book. It occurs on the very first day of our heroine's first clinical assignment.
* Naturally, she's gorgeous. Naturally, she's a feminist who detests chauvinism. Naturally, if she weren't gorgeous, none of the crap that follows would ever have happened. That's because the only thing that buys her time to dig into the mysterious coma cases while shirking her responsibilities as a student is a young doctor bedazzled by her beauty. Chauvinism rules.
* It just gets dumber from there. This is one of those books where the police exist, but it's as if they just appeared and no one really knows whether they're very bright or trustworthy. And isn't it safer in that situation just to assume they're morons? In any case, that's what Susan, our heroine, does. At one point in the book, she's in a position to hand them an actual real live hit man on a platter to back up her case, but she decides instead to go see her would-be boyfriend (he's the chauvinist bastard she can't quite figure out if she likes or not, and who may, she thinks, be involved with the bad guys anyway).
* I'd have to throw out one spoiler after another to catalog the stupidities in this book, so I'll leave it at that. The medical portions are fun and realistically detailed. The plot, once revealed, is disturbing--though undercut somewhat by some ridiculous dialogue. It's an okay book on a superficial level, but the reader should keep in mind that the title of the book is also a potential side-effect.
May 26, 2017
This is an oldie and as far as I'm concerned, it is also a goodie. I enjoyed this. I think that calling this a medical thriller is definitely appropriate. This book is very very dated with transistor radios, 10 cent pay phones, and a $600 hit job, but it was worth the read. The best part for me was the suspense build up. It was well done because I couldn't wait to turn the next page. I also have to say that it was all quite satisfying regarding the "bad" guys. And I loved the attitude of the female MC. She was feisty, so 4 stars for the overall enjoyment factor.
October 17, 2016
I first read this in 1977 at age 18 when it first came out and was a Robin Cook fan thereafter. I decided to re-read it this month and compare what my 18 year old self thought with what my 53 year old self thinks.
Third year medical student Susan Wheeler , along with 4 male medical school classmates, are assigned to Boston Memorial Hospital to begin learning first hand about surgery and patient care.
There are some aspects of this book and about women in medicine that I really want to discuss. In 1976 and 1977, the women's movement was in full force. I was in my late teens and living in Atlanta. I was very aware of the way women had been treated unfairly for centuries and was an ardent feminist just as I am now.
A feminist, for those who don't know, is a person (female or male) who believes that women should not be treated as second class citizens and should have the same opportunities and advantages men have. There is a lot of right wing rhetoric that comes from the conservative Christian Republican Taliban types about what feminism means and who feminists are.
Susan Wheeler begins her first day at Boston Memorial with what I consider some rather insulting and demeaning thoughts put into her head by author Robin Cook. Robin Cook, while acknowledging some of the difficulties women who entered medicine at that time faced literally is not seeing the character's feelings through the eyes of a woman but through the eyes of a man presuming a woman would think the same way he does as a man.
For example, Cook has all of the students feeling almost like frauds to be seen by patients as doctors when there was no much they did not know. That is fine. We hear from medical school graduates that this is a common feeling among them. However, he has Susan Wheeler wondering if she is a "neuter" and no longer feminine because she has chosen to become a doctor. Can't you just see the male students sitting around wondering if they haven't given up their masculinity by choosing a career that involves helping people and using their brains to do so? How will they ever marry and be daddies? Will women see them as caregivers instead of men? No, I don't see those questions rolling around in the male students' heads. They aren't worried about being "neuter".
Yet here we have a woman who has been described as a brilliant scholar and dedicated and determined to become a surgeon, with ideas of discovering new diseases and coming up with new ways to save lives, actually wondering if she can still be a woman if she uses her brain, talents, and skills as a doctor. I know a lot of female doctors and they tell me no such thoughts ever crossed their minds.
Also, she is sent right away to start an IV on a patient being prepped for surgery without ever having started an IV before. I quizzed a few doctor friends about this and was told that no medical student would ever be sent to start an IV unsupervised on their first day without having been trained to do so. The first two years of medical school comes after earning a 4 year bachelor's degree and involves book study and lectures. When they get into a hospital, they still attend lectures, go on rounds, and have procedures demonstrated to them. No hospital, clinic, or doctor would send someone still in medical school to do a procedure on a patient who had never even seen a patient before and who had never seen the procedure done and practiced it under supervision.
While doing this IV, Susan actually flirts with the male patient (!) which is unethical since they actually set up a date for when he is out of the hospital. Unethical, inappropriate, and enough to get you drummed out of medical school.
This patient is having a simple outpatient procedure just as the 23 year old woman who had a D &C the day before- and both are in comas for no apparent reason. Believe it or not, on her FIRST day at the hospital, Susan then ditches the rounds, the lectures, etc to begin to research comas to find out why. She makes accusations to the head of the anesthesia department, fraudulently obtains medical records through forged requests, lies, breaks into an office to steal records, and does a plethora of unbelievable things in her first 3 days all while not attending any lectures, rounds, surgical viewing, etc that she is there to do.
What is even more unbelievable is that the resident in charge of the 5 medical students, Dr. Mark Bellows, is so dumbfounded by the gorgeous Susan's big breasts, he aids and abets her on this then invites her over for dinner and sex even thought this would get him thrown out of the residency program and lose his opportunities for a better future. She talks to him like he is beneath her. In fact, she is a big mouth bitch who acts like she is in charge of everything and not just a third year medical student.
As the bodies rack up, someone seems to commit suicide, a hit man chases her through the dead human locker, and people are killed so their body parts can be harvested, Susan never once calls the police. I mean, if someone tried to murder you, wouldn't you even call the police?!!!
I like the concept- chasing down people who would bump off healthy people so to harvest and sell their organs- but there is much here that is not believable or even offensive that I had to deduct stars for that.
Another example of Robin Cook putting male thoughts in a female character's head is when Susan is over on her date/dinner/fuck at Dr. Mark Bellows' apartment. Mark has a neat, tidy clean apartment which is cozy and he is obviously a good cook but Susan is thinking that she wishes she could have a wife who would stay at home and keep the house clean, the laundry done, and do the cooking. She then gets upset and thinks that if she married she would be expected to be the wife and thinks that is "unfair".
Huh? As women, we know that our gender has been held back and has been exploited in just that manner. We do not sit around thinking it is unfair that we have to be the wife and that we can't exploit someone else. That is a male author making a female character think like an exploitative and sexist male. Women actually think of having what I have, a husband (or a wife, in the case of lesbians) who shares the cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, and family business evenly so neither of us is exploited or if we are not in a relationship, of hiring and paying someone to do that work. Why did it never occur to Robin Cook that if two doctors were married, they could HIRE people to do that sort of work for them? Or that they can share the load? Why presume that you must do that work for free if you have a vagina?
Many of the characters are openly hostile to Susan being a woman in medicine and this is true to life. Even the patient she made a date with told her she should be a dancer instead of a doctor and she even entertained the thought!
Less than a year after this book came out and I had read it, I was looking for a part time job. I was in college and wanted extra money. At the time, I was a psychology major and thought I would become either a psychologist (4 years of college ending with a bachelor's degree, followed by 4 years of graduate school and earning a master's and a PhD which would make me a Dr. in the academic sense to be followed up by an internship) or a psychiatrist (4 years of premed, 4 years of medical school, 4 years residency/internship to become a medical doctor then additional training in psychiatry). In the end, I chose the PhD route as I finally decided that I did not need to become a medical doctor to get to my goal and it would take way too much extra time not to mention having to learn surgery, autopsies, etc.
I went on a job interview at a dermatology practice to get a job as a secretary. I was still learning about medical school and had visited Emory University's med school and studied the requirements. I was an all A student in college in all subjects just as I had been in high school and I had the academic skills to do anything I chose to do. The young male dermatologist who interviewed me was excited by this and encouraged me, saying the field needed a lot more female doctors. He was all set to hire me but said the final decision rested with the senior partner.
When I met the senior partner, I knew I would not get the job. What I didn't know is that I would get a lecture and an insult. Who did I think I was, he demanded to know, to think that I, a mere 18 year old GIRL, had any chance or reason to become a doctor like HIM? Didn't I know that god meant for me to be a wife and mother (no, not really. I am an Atheist)? We "girls" had no business being so uppity as to go to college, let along think we should go to medical school. Maybe I could be a nurse or a teacher until I found the right man. And he wasn't going to have any uppity potential doctors or potential PhDs of the female gender in his office.
When I left, I saw the shocked look on the younger doc's face. I had a feeling he would not be staying there very long. I also looked out in the waiting room, filled entirely of girls and women. His money came from females. He entered the world through a female body. Yet there was no respect for women as human beings capable of doing or being anything but a maid, cook, and vagina.
Wish I could have knocked HIM into a Coma!
Third year medical student Susan Wheeler , along with 4 male medical school classmates, are assigned to Boston Memorial Hospital to begin learning first hand about surgery and patient care.
There are some aspects of this book and about women in medicine that I really want to discuss. In 1976 and 1977, the women's movement was in full force. I was in my late teens and living in Atlanta. I was very aware of the way women had been treated unfairly for centuries and was an ardent feminist just as I am now.
A feminist, for those who don't know, is a person (female or male) who believes that women should not be treated as second class citizens and should have the same opportunities and advantages men have. There is a lot of right wing rhetoric that comes from the conservative Christian Republican Taliban types about what feminism means and who feminists are.
Susan Wheeler begins her first day at Boston Memorial with what I consider some rather insulting and demeaning thoughts put into her head by author Robin Cook. Robin Cook, while acknowledging some of the difficulties women who entered medicine at that time faced literally is not seeing the character's feelings through the eyes of a woman but through the eyes of a man presuming a woman would think the same way he does as a man.
For example, Cook has all of the students feeling almost like frauds to be seen by patients as doctors when there was no much they did not know. That is fine. We hear from medical school graduates that this is a common feeling among them. However, he has Susan Wheeler wondering if she is a "neuter" and no longer feminine because she has chosen to become a doctor. Can't you just see the male students sitting around wondering if they haven't given up their masculinity by choosing a career that involves helping people and using their brains to do so? How will they ever marry and be daddies? Will women see them as caregivers instead of men? No, I don't see those questions rolling around in the male students' heads. They aren't worried about being "neuter".
Yet here we have a woman who has been described as a brilliant scholar and dedicated and determined to become a surgeon, with ideas of discovering new diseases and coming up with new ways to save lives, actually wondering if she can still be a woman if she uses her brain, talents, and skills as a doctor. I know a lot of female doctors and they tell me no such thoughts ever crossed their minds.
Also, she is sent right away to start an IV on a patient being prepped for surgery without ever having started an IV before. I quizzed a few doctor friends about this and was told that no medical student would ever be sent to start an IV unsupervised on their first day without having been trained to do so. The first two years of medical school comes after earning a 4 year bachelor's degree and involves book study and lectures. When they get into a hospital, they still attend lectures, go on rounds, and have procedures demonstrated to them. No hospital, clinic, or doctor would send someone still in medical school to do a procedure on a patient who had never even seen a patient before and who had never seen the procedure done and practiced it under supervision.
While doing this IV, Susan actually flirts with the male patient (!) which is unethical since they actually set up a date for when he is out of the hospital. Unethical, inappropriate, and enough to get you drummed out of medical school.
This patient is having a simple outpatient procedure just as the 23 year old woman who had a D &C the day before- and both are in comas for no apparent reason. Believe it or not, on her FIRST day at the hospital, Susan then ditches the rounds, the lectures, etc to begin to research comas to find out why. She makes accusations to the head of the anesthesia department, fraudulently obtains medical records through forged requests, lies, breaks into an office to steal records, and does a plethora of unbelievable things in her first 3 days all while not attending any lectures, rounds, surgical viewing, etc that she is there to do.
What is even more unbelievable is that the resident in charge of the 5 medical students, Dr. Mark Bellows, is so dumbfounded by the gorgeous Susan's big breasts, he aids and abets her on this then invites her over for dinner and sex even thought this would get him thrown out of the residency program and lose his opportunities for a better future. She talks to him like he is beneath her. In fact, she is a big mouth bitch who acts like she is in charge of everything and not just a third year medical student.
As the bodies rack up, someone seems to commit suicide, a hit man chases her through the dead human locker, and people are killed so their body parts can be harvested, Susan never once calls the police. I mean, if someone tried to murder you, wouldn't you even call the police?!!!
I like the concept- chasing down people who would bump off healthy people so to harvest and sell their organs- but there is much here that is not believable or even offensive that I had to deduct stars for that.
Another example of Robin Cook putting male thoughts in a female character's head is when Susan is over on her date/dinner/fuck at Dr. Mark Bellows' apartment. Mark has a neat, tidy clean apartment which is cozy and he is obviously a good cook but Susan is thinking that she wishes she could have a wife who would stay at home and keep the house clean, the laundry done, and do the cooking. She then gets upset and thinks that if she married she would be expected to be the wife and thinks that is "unfair".
Huh? As women, we know that our gender has been held back and has been exploited in just that manner. We do not sit around thinking it is unfair that we have to be the wife and that we can't exploit someone else. That is a male author making a female character think like an exploitative and sexist male. Women actually think of having what I have, a husband (or a wife, in the case of lesbians) who shares the cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, and family business evenly so neither of us is exploited or if we are not in a relationship, of hiring and paying someone to do that work. Why did it never occur to Robin Cook that if two doctors were married, they could HIRE people to do that sort of work for them? Or that they can share the load? Why presume that you must do that work for free if you have a vagina?
Many of the characters are openly hostile to Susan being a woman in medicine and this is true to life. Even the patient she made a date with told her she should be a dancer instead of a doctor and she even entertained the thought!
Less than a year after this book came out and I had read it, I was looking for a part time job. I was in college and wanted extra money. At the time, I was a psychology major and thought I would become either a psychologist (4 years of college ending with a bachelor's degree, followed by 4 years of graduate school and earning a master's and a PhD which would make me a Dr. in the academic sense to be followed up by an internship) or a psychiatrist (4 years of premed, 4 years of medical school, 4 years residency/internship to become a medical doctor then additional training in psychiatry). In the end, I chose the PhD route as I finally decided that I did not need to become a medical doctor to get to my goal and it would take way too much extra time not to mention having to learn surgery, autopsies, etc.
I went on a job interview at a dermatology practice to get a job as a secretary. I was still learning about medical school and had visited Emory University's med school and studied the requirements. I was an all A student in college in all subjects just as I had been in high school and I had the academic skills to do anything I chose to do. The young male dermatologist who interviewed me was excited by this and encouraged me, saying the field needed a lot more female doctors. He was all set to hire me but said the final decision rested with the senior partner.
When I met the senior partner, I knew I would not get the job. What I didn't know is that I would get a lecture and an insult. Who did I think I was, he demanded to know, to think that I, a mere 18 year old GIRL, had any chance or reason to become a doctor like HIM? Didn't I know that god meant for me to be a wife and mother (no, not really. I am an Atheist)? We "girls" had no business being so uppity as to go to college, let along think we should go to medical school. Maybe I could be a nurse or a teacher until I found the right man. And he wasn't going to have any uppity potential doctors or potential PhDs of the female gender in his office.
When I left, I saw the shocked look on the younger doc's face. I had a feeling he would not be staying there very long. I also looked out in the waiting room, filled entirely of girls and women. His money came from females. He entered the world through a female body. Yet there was no respect for women as human beings capable of doing or being anything but a maid, cook, and vagina.
Wish I could have knocked HIM into a Coma!
December 28, 2017
Every male in this book is a a sexist and a chauvinist. So it makes it difficult to circumvent their attitudes to get the feel and fuel of the story. In the middle of the mystery the author has taken liberty to create an unimaginable romantic relationship with the (hero), and one of these misogynists (very unlikely). However there is some really nice action sequenced moments that allow you to keep on reading. But unfortunately the author ruins the ending by trying to do the unexpected. I like the idea Robin Cook has created it's just that he lays it out there and then ends the story.
I would give this one 2 and 1/2 stars. So it was ok.
Kudos for being short, and for not having enough substance to lose any detail if you feel the need to skip every other paragraph for a few chapters. :-D
No wonder I found this in a recycle bin.
I would give this one 2 and 1/2 stars. So it was ok.
Kudos for being short, and for not having enough substance to lose any detail if you feel the need to skip every other paragraph for a few chapters. :-D
No wonder I found this in a recycle bin.
August 26, 2022
This was written in the 1970s, and I'm all for not judging old novels by modern standards... But yeesh... I've read books from the 1940s with more, shall we say, enlightened attitudes espoused between the covers. Take away that and the writing style, and you might just have a great little story here.
January 29, 2022
If you like medical jargon and a ton of casual misogyny, then you’re going to love this book. It’s honestly one of the worst books I’ve ever read, and if I could give it zero stars I would. How Cook got this published is beyond me, just to get through the last half of it I made a drinking game where anytime anyone said something misogynistic I took a drink, and I was hammered by the end of it.
The main plot seemed interesting enough, but it’s so overloaded with doctors talking about things you’d need to go to med school to understand that it’s impossible to get into it. I get it, it takes place at a hospital where unexplained comas and deaths are happening, but I’m not a doctor so explaining it in layman’s terms would’ve been a bit better.
And the way that he wrote Susan Wheeler was peak r/menwritingwomen; it was straight up uncomfortable. The first time we meet her all she can talk about it how smart and pretty she is, but she wants to be a dancer and not a doctor and it’s all she can think about as she’s taking in her naked body in the mirror and feeling herself up. It made me wonder if Cook just hates women or if he had never actually met one. If he talked about her breasts or had one more character check her out or stare down her blouse (that actually happened), then I would’ve thrown the book off the roof of my apartment building.
He also makes her the least professional doctor or doctoral student of all time in this, as she’s constantly lecturing to herself about proving everyone wrong and being a woman in medicine. The first patient she has under her care she flirts with and agrees to go on a date with him, which is unethical at best and probably illegal at worst. Then she winds up sleeping with her supervisor on her second or third day working there because obviously she does. Not only that, she never goes to class or makes any rounds because she’s spending all of her time sneaking around and trying to research the coma patients. The fact that they don’t fire her until like two thirds of the way through the book is baffling.
I usually try to talk about some sort of positive, but there genuinely wasn’t any. Don’t read this book, don’t put yourself through the torture of it. It’s genuinely terrible, and how Robin Cook became a bestselling author is beyond me.
The main plot seemed interesting enough, but it’s so overloaded with doctors talking about things you’d need to go to med school to understand that it’s impossible to get into it. I get it, it takes place at a hospital where unexplained comas and deaths are happening, but I’m not a doctor so explaining it in layman’s terms would’ve been a bit better.
And the way that he wrote Susan Wheeler was peak r/menwritingwomen; it was straight up uncomfortable. The first time we meet her all she can talk about it how smart and pretty she is, but she wants to be a dancer and not a doctor and it’s all she can think about as she’s taking in her naked body in the mirror and feeling herself up. It made me wonder if Cook just hates women or if he had never actually met one. If he talked about her breasts or had one more character check her out or stare down her blouse (that actually happened), then I would’ve thrown the book off the roof of my apartment building.
He also makes her the least professional doctor or doctoral student of all time in this, as she’s constantly lecturing to herself about proving everyone wrong and being a woman in medicine. The first patient she has under her care she flirts with and agrees to go on a date with him, which is unethical at best and probably illegal at worst. Then she winds up sleeping with her supervisor on her second or third day working there because obviously she does. Not only that, she never goes to class or makes any rounds because she’s spending all of her time sneaking around and trying to research the coma patients. The fact that they don’t fire her until like two thirds of the way through the book is baffling.
I usually try to talk about some sort of positive, but there genuinely wasn’t any. Don’t read this book, don’t put yourself through the torture of it. It’s genuinely terrible, and how Robin Cook became a bestselling author is beyond me.
February 17, 2022
As a mystery/thriller Coma was very entertaining. As with most thrillers it did strain credulity at times but that is an expected aspect of the genre. I enjoyed it.
I can recommend it to those who are interested with one caveat. Coma was written in the 1970s by an American man and has a strong female protagonist. Unfortunately he put some dubious thoughts in her head. Author Robin Cook was just not up to the task of creating a convincing female perspective when he wrote the book.
I can recommend it to those who are interested with one caveat. Coma was written in the 1970s by an American man and has a strong female protagonist. Unfortunately he put some dubious thoughts in her head. Author Robin Cook was just not up to the task of creating a convincing female perspective when he wrote the book.
February 8, 2015
Okay, after three books I'm calling it. Time of death is 19:47 hours. How on Earth is Cook a best-selling novelist instead of someone printing up stories in his garage to send to family at Christmas?
Coma is a wretched book. Cook couldn't write an interesting, strong, or likable character if you held a gun to his head. The words in the book repeatedly tell us how beautiful and (more importantly) how smart the protagonist, Susan, is. But the actual words that represent what she thinks and says tell us that, in fact, she's a god damn paranoid moron. She's a terrible doctor-in-training and a pretty unpleasant, manipulative, whiny person. And that's not even considering the stuff about how hard it is to be a doctor as a woman (a legitimate topic, especially for the time frame in which this was written).
He doesn't save the horrible writing for just the protagonist though. Every character in this book is poorly conceived and executed, except for one nurse, one security guard and a dead guy that we never actually hear from.
In this novel, Cook demonstrates a terrible grasp of character, plotting, pacing, feminism, descriptions, decent endings, phrasings, and writing in general. Which, I suppose, is why he relies so very heavily on medical jargon. It's the only thing he really understands. And you know what, he may be a great doctor. And should stick with that instead of delivering an onslaught of tripe like this.
Coma is a wretched book. Cook couldn't write an interesting, strong, or likable character if you held a gun to his head. The words in the book repeatedly tell us how beautiful and (more importantly) how smart the protagonist, Susan, is. But the actual words that represent what she thinks and says tell us that, in fact, she's a god damn paranoid moron. She's a terrible doctor-in-training and a pretty unpleasant, manipulative, whiny person. And that's not even considering the stuff about how hard it is to be a doctor as a woman (a legitimate topic, especially for the time frame in which this was written).
He doesn't save the horrible writing for just the protagonist though. Every character in this book is poorly conceived and executed, except for one nurse, one security guard and a dead guy that we never actually hear from.
In this novel, Cook demonstrates a terrible grasp of character, plotting, pacing, feminism, descriptions, decent endings, phrasings, and writing in general. Which, I suppose, is why he relies so very heavily on medical jargon. It's the only thing he really understands. And you know what, he may be a great doctor. And should stick with that instead of delivering an onslaught of tripe like this.
July 10, 2023
• "الطب يعطيني الأمان الاجتماعي الذي أحتاج إليه.. لكنه في الواقع يشعرني بأنني معزولة عن المجتمع."
• "إن مهنة الطب ستكون صعبة من كافة الوجوه.. هكذا قالت لنفسها.. ولم تكن مخطئة."
3.5 ⭐
• "إن مهنة الطب ستكون صعبة من كافة الوجوه.. هكذا قالت لنفسها.. ولم تكن مخطئة."
3.5 ⭐
August 30, 2021
I am not even hesitant to grant it a well-deserved five-star rating. What a truly scary book this was, about what humanity does best; subject their own kind to man-made horror, and that's the worst kind. A frightening tale Herr Docktor had cooked for us ( tell me you saw what I just did there, hehe anyway ) because not only it's possible but probable that we are capable of this. It's all about the possibilities, isn't it? No, wait. It's all about the endings. Parallels could be drawn that trusting a doctor is almost akin to trusting God, so what happens when that trust is betrayed? Coupled with the fact, some doctors think they are God and here they are playing God. Really spine-chilling. Sure, for the rest of his career Cook more or less copy-paste this theme but the First Time around it was special.
Here is an odd little fact, the movie directed by the celebrated novelist Michael Crichton who in turn is a doctor, well was. See Trish, I'm full of trivia too, haha.
And like the heroine in this novel, I am a big fan of people to people hugs too :)
For no reason at all, I'll mention WARPAINT for the love I bore them.
August 29, 2017
Read it years ago. One of my fave movies - have seen it many times.
July 27, 2023
First of all, if you intend to read the book please know that the goodreads description spoils the entire plot. Makes it hard to appreciate the medical thriller when you know nearly every twist already. This, however, is not what earned this book one star.
That would be the inescapable and suffocating misogyny and sexism of this book. There are several other minor squabbles I have but I wish to focus the review on this aspect. It is relevant to this review that I am currently a medical resident, and was a third year medical student just four years ago - I am intimately antiquated with the female experience in medical training.
The unrelenting sexism, misogyny, and degrading chauvinism that every man in the book engages in could be regarded as nearly satirical if it wasn’t for the insulting way Susan (a very dim witted, grossly unprofessional third year medical student and our main character) is written. It is the most r/menwritingwomen prose I have encountered in ages - how many times does she feel her own body up? We are barely one step ahead of “her breasts boobed boobily.” She describes her first two years of medical school as making her feel neutered, thinks that her first patient telling her she’s so feminine she doesn’t seem like a doctor is a persuasive enough compliment to accept his proposition to go on a date and bemoans her “female sensitivities” in a clinical setting. A few paragraphs acknowledging that it must be hard to be a woman in medicine doesn’t count for much when every single man in this book hyper-sexualizes, infantilizes, dismisses, and patronizes her. One man is bothered by the suspicion that the mere sight of a penis would no longer fascinate her. Seriously. All in all, the constant underlying thrum of this book is that women are women first and foremost and doctors or whatever second. Complex individuals deserving of basic respect as a person? The same you’d give to a man? Nah.
Women deserve better than this. And frankly, men deserve better than this too! This book may not paint a flattering picture of women but hardly does men any favors.
I am aware that this book was written in the late 70s but many men of that era (and earlier!) wrote women, and wrote about women, much better and with infinitely more respect. And I wish I could say that we have come so far that parts of this book are unrecognizable but unfortunately we haven’t. Allowing this type of sexism and misogyny to continue unchecked is why in 2023 women may enter medical school in greater numbers than men but can still run afoul of anything from ye olde boys club to would-be Don Juan’s taking advantage of their female trainees during clinical training.
(Spoiler below)
Our heroine doesn’t even manage to save herself - even that is left to the men in the story. At the conclusion, she isn’t even conscious as the senior resident who stared down her blouse at work before deciding to bed her bursts in to save the day. Quite the Prince Charming. We don’t even get to see her be vindicated or receive any credit whatsoever. Sorry Susan - it’s a man’s world after all.
That would be the inescapable and suffocating misogyny and sexism of this book. There are several other minor squabbles I have but I wish to focus the review on this aspect. It is relevant to this review that I am currently a medical resident, and was a third year medical student just four years ago - I am intimately antiquated with the female experience in medical training.
The unrelenting sexism, misogyny, and degrading chauvinism that every man in the book engages in could be regarded as nearly satirical if it wasn’t for the insulting way Susan (a very dim witted, grossly unprofessional third year medical student and our main character) is written. It is the most r/menwritingwomen prose I have encountered in ages - how many times does she feel her own body up? We are barely one step ahead of “her breasts boobed boobily.” She describes her first two years of medical school as making her feel neutered, thinks that her first patient telling her she’s so feminine she doesn’t seem like a doctor is a persuasive enough compliment to accept his proposition to go on a date and bemoans her “female sensitivities” in a clinical setting. A few paragraphs acknowledging that it must be hard to be a woman in medicine doesn’t count for much when every single man in this book hyper-sexualizes, infantilizes, dismisses, and patronizes her. One man is bothered by the suspicion that the mere sight of a penis would no longer fascinate her. Seriously. All in all, the constant underlying thrum of this book is that women are women first and foremost and doctors or whatever second. Complex individuals deserving of basic respect as a person? The same you’d give to a man? Nah.
Women deserve better than this. And frankly, men deserve better than this too! This book may not paint a flattering picture of women but hardly does men any favors.
I am aware that this book was written in the late 70s but many men of that era (and earlier!) wrote women, and wrote about women, much better and with infinitely more respect. And I wish I could say that we have come so far that parts of this book are unrecognizable but unfortunately we haven’t. Allowing this type of sexism and misogyny to continue unchecked is why in 2023 women may enter medical school in greater numbers than men but can still run afoul of anything from ye olde boys club to would-be Don Juan’s taking advantage of their female trainees during clinical training.
(Spoiler below)
Our heroine doesn’t even manage to save herself - even that is left to the men in the story. At the conclusion, she isn’t even conscious as the senior resident who stared down her blouse at work before deciding to bed her bursts in to save the day. Quite the Prince Charming. We don’t even get to see her be vindicated or receive any credit whatsoever. Sorry Susan - it’s a man’s world after all.
December 17, 2020
ต้องบอกว่าประทับใจมาก เป็นนิยายระทึกขวัญทางการแพทย์ที่สนุก ลุ้นและวางไม่ลงเลย เดินเรื่องเร็ว แม้จะเดาทางเนื้อเรื่องได้ ฉากหนีทำได้ดีเอาใจช่วยตัวละครไปด้วย
ซูซาน วีลเลอร์ นักศึกษาแพทย์ปี 3 ได้เข้าฝึกงานในโรงพยาบาลชั้นนำของบอสตัน เธอดันพบกับเคสที่แปลกประหลาด คือคนไข้บางรายอยู่ในอาการโคม่าหลังเข้ารับการผ่าตัด ทั้งๆที่ก่อนเข้ารับการผ่าตัด พวกเขาเหล่านั้นป่วยในระดับที่ธรรมดามาก ไม่ได้เป็นโรคร้ายแรงหรือมีอาการรุนแรงแต่อย่างใด เธอจึงตกลงใจสืบหาสาเหตุแต่หารู้ไม่ว่า ความอยากรู้ของเธอนั้นได้เชื่อเชิญความตายเข้ามาพร้อมๆ��ันนั้นด้วย!!!
อาจจะไม่ค่อย Makes sense ในเรื่องที่ซูซานเข้ามาฝึกงานวันแรก แต่ดันเปิดศึกกับหัวหน้าแพทย์ไปแล้วหลายคน แถมยังโดดเรียนไปสืบอีกต่างหาก แม้การสอดรู้ครั้งนี้อาจทำลายเส้นทางวิชาชีพ เธอก็บ่ยั่น! ซูซานนั้นเป็นคนฉลาด กล้าและบ้าบิ่น เธอเอาตัวรอดได้ทุกสถานการณ์ แต่ดันเสียท่าตอนท้ายเรื่องเสียนี่ แหม แล้วไอ้ที่ปูมาทั้งเรื่องน้านนนน...
ชอบความมีอารมณ์ขันของตัวละคร เวลาเธอคุยหยอดกันกับแพทย์หนุ่มคนหนึ่งต้องมีเล่นมุขให้ยิ้มได้เสมอ ในเรื่องยังแทรกประเด็นของการเหยียดเพศหญิง และการไต่เต้าในตำแหน่งหน้าที่อีกด้วย ใครอยากลองอ่านนิยายแนวการแพทย์สนุกๆ ไม่แหวะ เล่มนี้ถือเป็นการเริ่มต้นที่ดีเลย
ซูซาน วีลเลอร์ นักศึกษาแพทย์ปี 3 ได้เข้าฝึกงานในโรงพยาบาลชั้นนำของบอสตัน เธอดันพบกับเคสที่แปลกประหลาด คือคนไข้บางรายอยู่ในอาการโคม่าหลังเข้ารับการผ่าตัด ทั้งๆที่ก่อนเข้ารับการผ่าตัด พวกเขาเหล่านั้นป่วยในระดับที่ธรรมดามาก ไม่ได้เป็นโรคร้ายแรงหรือมีอาการรุนแรงแต่อย่างใด เธอจึงตกลงใจสืบหาสาเหตุแต่หารู้ไม่ว่า ความอยากรู้ของเธอนั้นได้เชื่อเชิญความตายเข้ามาพร้อมๆ��ันนั้นด้วย!!!
อาจจะไม่ค่อย Makes sense ในเรื่องที่ซูซานเข้ามาฝึกงานวันแรก แต่ดันเปิดศึกกับหัวหน้าแพทย์ไปแล้วหลายคน แถมยังโดดเรียนไปสืบอีกต่างหาก แม้การสอดรู้ครั้งนี้อาจทำลายเส้นทางวิชาชีพ เธอก็บ่ยั่น! ซูซานนั้นเป็นคนฉลาด กล้าและบ้าบิ่น เธอเอาตัวรอดได้ทุกสถานการณ์ แต่ดันเสียท่าตอนท้ายเรื่องเสียนี่ แหม แล้วไอ้ที่ปูมาทั้งเรื่องน้านนนน...
ชอบความมีอารมณ์ขันของตัวละคร เวลาเธอคุยหยอดกันกับแพทย์หนุ่มคนหนึ่งต้องมีเล่นมุขให้ยิ้มได้เสมอ ในเรื่องยังแทรกประเด็นของการเหยียดเพศหญิง และการไต่เต้าในตำแหน่งหน้าที่อีกด้วย ใครอยากลองอ่านนิยายแนวการแพทย์สนุกๆ ไม่แหวะ เล่มนี้ถือเป็นการเริ่มต้นที่ดีเลย
April 22, 2009
Okay, who hasn't read this book or seen the movie? It was a phenomenon in its day. And it was a decent suspense, thriller novel. But the only Cook novel I ever read.
May 15, 2022
Susan Wheeler is een derdejaarsstudente medicijnen die haar stage mag doen in het Memorial ziekenhuis in Boston, onder toezicht van assistent-chirurg Dr. Mark Bellows.
Reeds op de eerste dag komt Susan in aanraking met twee comagevallen van jonge mensen na een kleine standaard-operatie.
De eerste is Nancy Greenly, een 23jarig meisje dat na een simpele gynaecologische ingreep de week voordien niet meer wakker geworden is. De tweede is een 33jarige man, Sean Berman, die een meniscusoperatie moet ondergaan. Susan moet hem een pre-operatief infuus toedienen en raakt met hem aan de praat. Later, tijdens de operatie, geraakt ook Berman in coma. Beide operaties werden gedaan in operatiezaal 8.
Susan vindt dit nogal onrustwekkend en gaat op onderzoek uit. Ze stuit overal op tegenwerking, maar ontdekt toch dat er het laatste jaar 12 zulke gevallen geweest zijn in Boston Memorial.
De zoektocht van Susan gaat verder, en wordt steeds gevaarlijker. Ze durft niemand meer te vertrouwen, en toch heeft ze hier en daar hulp nodig om aan informatie te komen. Zal ze haar zoektocht kunnen voltooien? En wat zal ze ontdekken? Zal ze het er zelf wel levend vanaf brengen,
Het hele verhaal speelt zich af over een periode van 4 dagen. Dit lijkt me nogal ongeloofwaardig, maar er zijn wel meer dingen die me mijn wenkbrauwen deden fronsen.
Misschien was dit boek ten tijde dat het geschreven werd heel goed, maar met wat we weten over de huidige medische vooruitgang, doet het wel ouderwets aan (wat het ook is).
Toch nog 3 sterren waard vind ik.
Reeds op de eerste dag komt Susan in aanraking met twee comagevallen van jonge mensen na een kleine standaard-operatie.
De eerste is Nancy Greenly, een 23jarig meisje dat na een simpele gynaecologische ingreep de week voordien niet meer wakker geworden is. De tweede is een 33jarige man, Sean Berman, die een meniscusoperatie moet ondergaan. Susan moet hem een pre-operatief infuus toedienen en raakt met hem aan de praat. Later, tijdens de operatie, geraakt ook Berman in coma. Beide operaties werden gedaan in operatiezaal 8.
Susan vindt dit nogal onrustwekkend en gaat op onderzoek uit. Ze stuit overal op tegenwerking, maar ontdekt toch dat er het laatste jaar 12 zulke gevallen geweest zijn in Boston Memorial.
De zoektocht van Susan gaat verder, en wordt steeds gevaarlijker. Ze durft niemand meer te vertrouwen, en toch heeft ze hier en daar hulp nodig om aan informatie te komen. Zal ze haar zoektocht kunnen voltooien? En wat zal ze ontdekken? Zal ze het er zelf wel levend vanaf brengen,
Het hele verhaal speelt zich af over een periode van 4 dagen. Dit lijkt me nogal ongeloofwaardig, maar er zijn wel meer dingen die me mijn wenkbrauwen deden fronsen.
Misschien was dit boek ten tijde dat het geschreven werd heel goed, maar met wat we weten over de huidige medische vooruitgang, doet het wel ouderwets aan (wat het ook is).
Toch nog 3 sterren waard vind ik.
July 10, 2016
Good. Couldn't put it down.
May 17, 2021
‘Coma’ the movie was one that impressed me when it came out in 1978, and I must have watched two or three times over the years. On reading the book, it was obvious that the movie just took all that was good about the book, a fairly solid medical thriller where a young medical student /doctor is struck by and investigates the excessive number of comas following minor operations. What the movie played down was the constant references to sex and gender that seemed to arise out of the author’s attempt to understand his changing world at that time. Could she be both a woman and a doctor? How could one look at breasts excitedly in a nonsexist way? Reading it now, 45 or more years after publication, it grinds, but I guess those things must have seemed important questions at the time. Solid thriller with a strong female lead, but remember that this is the seventies and even the strongest of women often needs a helping hand. Maybe we have to wait for Ripley in ‘Alien’ to complete the move. Enjoy!
August 27, 2013
A decent suspense/thriller. Content is quite dated (late 70s - smoking everywhere, every man is sexist, characters searching for payphones) but that did not detract - in fact, it was an interesting history lesson for late 70s culture.
May 15, 2022
رواية رائعة اجبرتى على ان استمر فى قرائتها حتى انهيتها واطارت النوم من عيني كما يقولون
التوتر والاثارة والرغبة فى معرفة نهايتها استمرو معى حتى النهاية ورغم ان نهايتها كانت شبه مفتوحة بالنسبة لمصير البطلة لكنها مقبولة ومفاجأة ايضا
الترجمة متميزة والاحداث سريعة ومتلاحقة وتمتاز بالاثارة والتشويق مع بعض الرعب
حقا كانت افضل ماقرأت من السلسلة حتى الان
ارشحها بشدة وسابحث عن الفيلم الذى جسدت فيه الرواية لاشاهده ايضا ان شاء الله
التوتر والاثارة والرغبة فى معرفة نهايتها استمرو معى حتى النهاية ورغم ان نهايتها كانت شبه مفتوحة بالنسبة لمصير البطلة لكنها مقبولة ومفاجأة ايضا
الترجمة متميزة والاحداث سريعة ومتلاحقة وتمتاز بالاثارة والتشويق مع بعض الرعب
حقا كانت افضل ماقرأت من السلسلة حتى الان
ارشحها بشدة وسابحث عن الفيلم الذى جسدت فيه الرواية لاشاهده ايضا ان شاء الله
January 6, 2021
I know this was a landmark work in that it became a best seller and was made into an iconic movie in the 70s, but it definitely did not age well and Cook's continued success has me baffled. I remember reading this in the 80s and seeing the movie but I was surprised upon rereading it just how sexist and stereotypical the characters come off today. Our lead, Susan Wheeler is a female third year medical student just entering the hospital after two years of classroom learning. Susan could be a text book example of a horrible, sexist character written by a clueless guy. Cook adds a postscript where he bemoans the hard time female doctors have it in med school in the 70s. A male dominated field to be sure (especially at that time) and I am also sure women had to be twice as good as a male to graduate. All of that stated, it does not give Cook a get out of jail free card regarding Susan.
Susan is beautiful (of course) and it is commented along the way how she is a 'tight package', 'well put together', 'luscious', etc., with her 'ripe figure' and so forth. Cook's male characters, which comprise everyone else, immediately start thinking with their cock as soon as they see her. That may be somewhat forgivable given the time this was written, but still. She is supposed to be a strong lead, and she is, when she is not questioning her own feminine qualities, crying or acting 'emotionally'.
The plot is pretty hairbrained as well. On Susan's first day at the hospital she encounters a female patent on her rounds who is in a coma; the unlikely outcome of a minor medical procedure. Susan seemingly has a strong emotional feeling for the woman, who is her age, and later, finds out that another person she met, a guy who she spoke with while giving him an IV, is also in a coma. From there she makes it her mission to find out what is going on. Using her female wiles, she even gets access to the main frame computer to do a search about other cases where patients ended up in a coma. She basically abandons her student status and goes on a quest to get to the bottom of the mystery. During her quest, she encounters stereotypical city workers, patriarchal doctors by the score, mafia hit men and so forth.
The plot she uncovers is really the only slightly redeeming factor in the book-- organized crime in cahoots with certain doctors and administrators are inducing comas in order to send their bodies to a 'holding facility' where their organs are harvested for the black market. I read this for the nostalgia factor, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. 1.5 stars, only rounding up because it was iconic in its day.
Susan is beautiful (of course) and it is commented along the way how she is a 'tight package', 'well put together', 'luscious', etc., with her 'ripe figure' and so forth. Cook's male characters, which comprise everyone else, immediately start thinking with their cock as soon as they see her. That may be somewhat forgivable given the time this was written, but still. She is supposed to be a strong lead, and she is, when she is not questioning her own feminine qualities, crying or acting 'emotionally'.
The plot is pretty hairbrained as well. On Susan's first day at the hospital she encounters a female patent on her rounds who is in a coma; the unlikely outcome of a minor medical procedure. Susan seemingly has a strong emotional feeling for the woman, who is her age, and later, finds out that another person she met, a guy who she spoke with while giving him an IV, is also in a coma. From there she makes it her mission to find out what is going on. Using her female wiles, she even gets access to the main frame computer to do a search about other cases where patients ended up in a coma. She basically abandons her student status and goes on a quest to get to the bottom of the mystery. During her quest, she encounters stereotypical city workers, patriarchal doctors by the score, mafia hit men and so forth.
The plot she uncovers is really the only slightly redeeming factor in the book-- organized crime in cahoots with certain doctors and administrators are inducing comas in order to send their bodies to a 'holding facility' where their organs are harvested for the black market. I read this for the nostalgia factor, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. 1.5 stars, only rounding up because it was iconic in its day.
September 11, 2008
"Coma" is a medical mystery/thriller by Robin Cook. It was the initial book that earned him the reputation as a successful author. It's a pretty good book. A little weird in places. And the main character has all the common sense of a doorknob.
Susan is a third year medical student in Boston just starting her first day at Memorial hospital. She soon comes into contact with two patients who have inexplicably ended up in comas. For some reason, she immediately becomes obsessed with these comas and HAS to know what's causing them. She discovers that Memorial has had a comparitively large number of these unexplained cases. So she starts poking around. She skips lectures. She skips rounds. She bugs the department heads (many of whom are misogynistic jerks, and all of whom have a lot of influence). She refuses to back down even though she's a STUDENT on the FIRST DAY of the semester, and there's almost no hard evidence of any medical reason or foul play. But she eventually finds out there really is a sinister plot behind it all.
The main character, Susan, obviously irritates me. She manages to anger EVERYONE with her obsession. Why does a med student think she can solve a problem on her first day that the department heads haven't solved in a few years? Why is she SO sure there's a problem when there's no evidence of one? Why does she have to sleep with her supervisor? (I think this last question says more about the author's sex drive than the character herself.)
But beyond Susan, the book was pretty good, even if it was a bit odd in the end. It had suspense and mystery enough to satisfy. I'd recommend it to those who like thrillers.
Susan is a third year medical student in Boston just starting her first day at Memorial hospital. She soon comes into contact with two patients who have inexplicably ended up in comas. For some reason, she immediately becomes obsessed with these comas and HAS to know what's causing them. She discovers that Memorial has had a comparitively large number of these unexplained cases. So she starts poking around. She skips lectures. She skips rounds. She bugs the department heads (many of whom are misogynistic jerks, and all of whom have a lot of influence). She refuses to back down even though she's a STUDENT on the FIRST DAY of the semester, and there's almost no hard evidence of any medical reason or foul play. But she eventually finds out there really is a sinister plot behind it all.
The main character, Susan, obviously irritates me. She manages to anger EVERYONE with her obsession. Why does a med student think she can solve a problem on her first day that the department heads haven't solved in a few years? Why is she SO sure there's a problem when there's no evidence of one? Why does she have to sleep with her supervisor? (I think this last question says more about the author's sex drive than the character herself.)
But beyond Susan, the book was pretty good, even if it was a bit odd in the end. It had suspense and mystery enough to satisfy. I'd recommend it to those who like thrillers.
February 22, 2020
“She thought about how marvelous is would be to have a wife keeping the house in order, the meals on the table. At the same time it seemed ridiculously unfair that she could never have a wife. In fact, if she married, she would be expected to be the wife.”
― Robin Cook, Coma
This is the only medical thriller I have ever read that I actually moderately liked. I am not usually a reader of this Genre although I did try to be quite awhile ago and discovered it really is not for me.
However I did a reread of Coma not all that long ago and was surprised that 1) it has held up well through the years. And 2) it still has the power to scare me. It was so original when it came out and creepy as anything.
SPOILERS:
My two quibbles with it are:
It was overly long and kind of dry as far as how it is written so I did some skimming toward the middle and:
2) The ending. Way to short and abrupt. We go through so much with Susan and I really wanted more at the end. I thought that then and I still feel that n ow rereading it. It is implied she lives but man..after the wild ride the reader is taken through, the book is wrapped up way to quickly. I really wanted more at the end.
So I will most likely not be reading another medical thriller that I can see but Coma remains a good thriller, so original for its time period and genuinely scary. The movie was not bad either.
― Robin Cook, Coma
This is the only medical thriller I have ever read that I actually moderately liked. I am not usually a reader of this Genre although I did try to be quite awhile ago and discovered it really is not for me.
However I did a reread of Coma not all that long ago and was surprised that 1) it has held up well through the years. And 2) it still has the power to scare me. It was so original when it came out and creepy as anything.
SPOILERS:
My two quibbles with it are:
It was overly long and kind of dry as far as how it is written so I did some skimming toward the middle and:
2) The ending. Way to short and abrupt. We go through so much with Susan and I really wanted more at the end. I thought that then and I still feel that n ow rereading it. It is implied she lives but man..after the wild ride the reader is taken through, the book is wrapped up way to quickly. I really wanted more at the end.
So I will most likely not be reading another medical thriller that I can see but Coma remains a good thriller, so original for its time period and genuinely scary. The movie was not bad either.
August 7, 2017
I'm going with 3.5 stars for this 70's classic. Well conceived story that is truly a scary thought. The ending was brilliant. My only knock is the technical jargon; for example, you do not need to name the bones of the hand when you are using a pair of sizers as a weapon and you drive it through the hand.
But other than that the characters were believable and well developed. Also, my days of BBQ in an apartment was spot on and did bring back some fond memories.
But other than that the characters were believable and well developed. Also, my days of BBQ in an apartment was spot on and did bring back some fond memories.
January 4, 2019
جایی دیدم نوشته بود باید فردریک دار رو خوند البته نه همه کتاب هاش رو.
سه تا کتاب ازش معرفی کرده بود که این یکیش بود
داستان ساده بود اما دار تمام هنرشو واسه آخر کار نگه داشته بود اونجا که احساس میکنی چیزی که خوندی خیلی هم ساده نبوده...
وقتی تموم شد سیستم و شکل داستان منو یاد داستان های ار ال استاین انداخت
مطمئنم سراغ باقی کاراش میرم به طور قطع
سه تا کتاب ازش معرفی کرده بود که این یکیش بود
داستان ساده بود اما دار تمام هنرشو واسه آخر کار نگه داشته بود اونجا که احساس میکنی چیزی که خوندی خیلی هم ساده نبوده...
وقتی تموم شد سیستم و شکل داستان منو یاد داستان های ار ال استاین انداخت
مطمئنم سراغ باقی کاراش میرم به طور قطع
July 8, 2014
Robin Cook pretty much owned the medical thriller. Hmm, I wonder who owns the genre now? This was perhaps his best book.
October 11, 2019
I enjoyed it,it was my first medical thriller by Robin Cook.But after that,I tried a few more of his books,only to discover that they are very similar.
September 7, 2022
A great 70’s novel that has aged very well.
March 29, 2011
This book was huge when it first came out. I read it when I was in my teens and loved it. It was probably the first medical thriller I've ever read. I saw the movie when it was released staring Michael Douglas (love those books to movies), and back then it was pretty scary. Probably that was due in large part to my youth. Everything is scarier when you're a kid.
The premise of this book is wicked; going into the hospital for routine surgery and never waking up from the anesthetic. I think that appeals to everyone's basic fears about surgery. Who has never considered that possibility, as rare as it might be? The idea of it is terrifying. To me, going under anesthetic is something akin to falling backwards off of a roof and trusting the guy on the ground who says he's going to catch you, really will.
In this story, a young medical student, Susan Wheeler, becomes concerned with the high numbers of patients mysteriously slipping into comas at the hospital where she works and ending up brain dead. And on her own she begins to investigate the cause.
While I did enjoy this book both when I first read it, and now again having re-read it, I had a couple of minor issues with it. Reading it now, I found the writing style a bit stilted and long winded. But once I adjusted myself to it, and accepted that this is how it was written, I was able to get over it and immerse myself fully in the story. Secondly, it might be that fact that Robin Cook is a man writing a female character, or it could be the era it was written in (1970s), but the fact that his heroine Susan Wheeler, has doubts about her own femininity and is questioning whether she is a woman or not because of her chosen profession, was annoying, even slightly offensive. How the hell would her being a doctor not make her a woman?
But the 70s was a time when the women's movement was in full swing and women were joining the workforce in droves, discarding their own mother's ideals of womanhood (the ultimate goal of being a wife and mother) in favour of their professional and sexual freedom. So, I think there may have been some ambiguity about what constituted femininity or what it meant to be a woman when the roles of women were changing so dramatically. Perhaps this is what Robin Cook was trying to say. I don't know. It really is another topic entirely.
Regardless, the character of Susan Wheeler, comes across as a strong self-empowered female who is not afraid to search for the truth in spite of the risks she faces. Got to love those brave females. Not the ones who go outside with a flashlight in the middle of the night, usually in a nightgown, searching for the source of mysterious noise. That's just foolish. Me, I'd stay inside with the phone and a big sharp knife. Fortunately Susan Wheeler balances the brave/foolish thing quite well.
I think I loved Coma just as much as the first time I read it. It's a nightmarish trip into the heart of our deepest fears about "going under" that doesn't dissapoint.
The premise of this book is wicked; going into the hospital for routine surgery and never waking up from the anesthetic. I think that appeals to everyone's basic fears about surgery. Who has never considered that possibility, as rare as it might be? The idea of it is terrifying. To me, going under anesthetic is something akin to falling backwards off of a roof and trusting the guy on the ground who says he's going to catch you, really will.
In this story, a young medical student, Susan Wheeler, becomes concerned with the high numbers of patients mysteriously slipping into comas at the hospital where she works and ending up brain dead. And on her own she begins to investigate the cause.
While I did enjoy this book both when I first read it, and now again having re-read it, I had a couple of minor issues with it. Reading it now, I found the writing style a bit stilted and long winded. But once I adjusted myself to it, and accepted that this is how it was written, I was able to get over it and immerse myself fully in the story. Secondly, it might be that fact that Robin Cook is a man writing a female character, or it could be the era it was written in (1970s), but the fact that his heroine Susan Wheeler, has doubts about her own femininity and is questioning whether she is a woman or not because of her chosen profession, was annoying, even slightly offensive. How the hell would her being a doctor not make her a woman?
But the 70s was a time when the women's movement was in full swing and women were joining the workforce in droves, discarding their own mother's ideals of womanhood (the ultimate goal of being a wife and mother) in favour of their professional and sexual freedom. So, I think there may have been some ambiguity about what constituted femininity or what it meant to be a woman when the roles of women were changing so dramatically. Perhaps this is what Robin Cook was trying to say. I don't know. It really is another topic entirely.
Regardless, the character of Susan Wheeler, comes across as a strong self-empowered female who is not afraid to search for the truth in spite of the risks she faces. Got to love those brave females. Not the ones who go outside with a flashlight in the middle of the night, usually in a nightgown, searching for the source of mysterious noise. That's just foolish. Me, I'd stay inside with the phone and a big sharp knife. Fortunately Susan Wheeler balances the brave/foolish thing quite well.
I think I loved Coma just as much as the first time I read it. It's a nightmarish trip into the heart of our deepest fears about "going under" that doesn't dissapoint.
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