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Children's Hospital (Hardcover)

by Chris Adrian (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 615 pages
Publisher: McSweeney's; 1 edition (Sep 15 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1932416609
ISBN-13: 978-1932416602
Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 4.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 953 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #227,343 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Medicine, magic, the biblical story of Noah and sociological ruminations about Americans in the throes of the apocalypse come together in physician Adrian's hip, wry and ambitious debut. When the world is submerged beneath seven miles of water, only those aboard the Children's Hospital, a working medical facility and ark built by architect turned prophet John Grampus (who was ordered by God "to save the kids") survive. Four chatty, digressive and at times grimly comic angels (the recorder, the preserver, the accuser and the destroyer) narrate this epic tale, which follows heart-sick medical student Jemma and the hospital's other unlikely inhabitants (such as the overly-cutely-named Dr. Snood and Ethel Puffer) as they attempt to ensure humanity's survival and live by virtue of the ship's "replicators," heaven-sent devices that can make "apples out of old shoes; shoes out of shit." Eventually, Jemma discovers her magical ability to heal the sick. As fragments of her tragic past come to light, so do clues about humanity's future, and, after 200 days at sea, what part Jemma will finally play in it. This dense and lengthy satirical-but-sincere novel may challenge readers' patience with its fairy-tale-like characters and its long-windedness, but Adrian's knack for surprise and his ability to find meaning in seemingly ridiculous situations is rewarding.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In Adrian's second novel, an elegant and enormously wondrous monstrosity, the world comes to an end, drowned beneath seven miles of water. All that is preserved is a solitary children's hospital and its occupants. Presiding over the apocalypse are four angels who often are indistinguishable from demons: one to chronicle and one to accuse, one to protect and one to punish. Within the floating hospital, medical student Jemma Claflin discovers that a fearsome healing fire burns within her, a fire that she uses to cleanse the hideously diseased children of their "wrongness." It is useless, however, against the greater wrongness of the rest of her ark mates, who struggle to maintain some semblance of normalcy amidst the confounding swirl of the end-time. Adrian, poetically and with exacting precision, has crafted a prophetic, difficult novel of compassion and healing, but with a keen eye fixed on the damning reach of divine wrath. The scalpel's edge between grace and violence, between healing and putrefaction, can scarcely distinguish life as an obscene abomination from the miracle it suffers to be. Adrian attempts a near-impossible summit, and delivers a devastating, transformative work that is certain to burn in the minds of readers long after the final page's end of the end of the world. Ian Chipman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Daring, magical and wholly original, Jul 24 2009

By	J. Tobin Garrett (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This book was unlike any other book I had read, and continues to be one of my all time favourites. It's a quirky and strange story of what happens when the world floods and all that's left is a floating children's hospital. Without giving away any more of the intricate and well-developed plot, there are visits from angels, magical powers bestowed, and strange happenings.

Don't let the length of the book scare you off. It was so engrossing I often read 100 pages in one sitting without even stopping to take a sip of water. This book is dark, disturbing, and hilarious. The characters are complex, interesting and dynamic, and I loved reading about their various exploits as they ran around the hospital attempting to figure out what exactly was going on and how to deal with the situation.

If you like magic realism of the Haruki Murakami variety, you'll probably love The Children's Hospital. His book of short stories, A Better Angel, is also very good, and has some repeat characters from this book.

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3.0 out of 5 stars A long and involved story, Jun 18 2009

By	Rhea (Canada) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Children's Hospital (Paperback)

The Children's Hospital, by Chris Adrian, is a massive under-taking which examines several issues such as faith versus skepticism, religion versus science, right versus wrong. The premise of the story hooked me - God has again flooded the earth, only this time there's no Noah's Arc filled with animals. All that remains is a nine story children's hospital floating 7 miles above a drowned world. We are introduced to a number of characters through out the book: Jemma, an intern who has the ability to heal the sick, Pickie Beecher, a six year old who drinks blood and mourns the loss of his brother, a preserving angel who lives within the walls of the hospital looking after its occupants, the recording angel who was once human and a swack load of parents, doctors and patients that each come with their own back story that unfolds as the book goes on.

Many of the concepts of the novel are original and downright fascinating. For example, whoever heard of a floating hospital? Or replicators that turn shoes into food? Adrian also examines how a culture steeped in technology and science views the end of the world. Science and technology clash throughout the novel, especially when Jemma's ability to heal the children flies in the face of everything physicians and nurses are taught. Not even the presence of angels is enough to get a buy-in. Rather than being revered, the preserving angel is reviled and often told to "shut up" by the inhabitants of the hospital. John Grampus, the architect charged with creating the children's hospital, describes his relationship with his angel as sexual, rather than spiritual. After all, how spiritual is an angel that creates porn-on-demand and sex toys? Even the recording angel is less than "angelic" and laments over the boredom associated with his work.

That said the author's attempt at using humour flopped in many places, leaving the story morbid rather funny. While I guessed the ending (I won't mention it here as I don't want to ruin it for anyone), I still found it very depressing. Perhaps, if the author hadn't tried so hard to be funny, the ending would have felt more dramatic and less abrupt. As it was, I closed the book and felt that I had missed something. I re-read the last chapter, but was still left with the same empty feeling.

The Children's Hospital is an epic read but it is not an uplifting one, so please don't read this book expecting a feel-good story. Ending not withstanding, it is an interesting novel and certainly worth picking up.

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