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Surgeon, U.S.A.
Battle against corruption! Bruce Graham volunteered for service the day after pearl Harbor. The beautiful reporter who interviewed him on his way to camp called him "Surgeon USA". And she continued to think about her subject long after her column has been printed. Bruce was a gifted and dedicated doctor, and he wanted to use his skill in the midst of combat. But when he got entangled with Representative Harold Reardon and that unscrupulous Congressman's lovely and amorous financee, he found himself on the firing line with his own conscience.
- GenresFiction
410 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 25, 2020
DNF at 110 pages
Sometimes, finding random, obscure old books can get a forgotten gem, but usually, it's just rightfully forgotten fluff. That describes this pretty well - the book is going for atmospherics, but falls short just because, from a modern perspective at least, it's fairly cliched and trite. The way Slaughter writes women is cringe-worthy, reminding me mainly of the more misogynistic movies from the era. This is particularly true in the love triangle between the innocent woman and the more dangerous, alluring one. The latter's dialogue in particular is just unrealistic, and not clever enough to justify it. I will say that I respect this book for portraying military and political corruption honestly, rather than romanticizing these institutions or portraying the corruption as exceptional. But this book just isn't well-written enough to capture the intrigue that this corruption might have. In particular, I don't care for how Slaughter will often set up and then skip scenes, or cover long periods of time in a single paragraph. It doesn't make for a very good flow for the book; at times, it's even a little confusing. It doesn't help that the story itself is rather meandering - I stopped over a third of the way into the book, and the main plot still hadn't started yet, with a subplot that I thought might be the main story having just resolved itself. It's hard to understand why we're reading what we're reading at any given point, and it doesn't make for a good structure. Finally, the protagonist (whose name I can't be bothered to remember) just isn't very interesting; he's a standard everyman for the story, with the added annoyance of being the very best at what he does (from the era when authors didn't even have the courtesy to make their everymen realistically mediocre). He's a very bland perspective to see this story from. Overall, this book doesn't have much to recommend it - there's a reason it hasn't been reprinted or remembered.
Sometimes, finding random, obscure old books can get a forgotten gem, but usually, it's just rightfully forgotten fluff. That describes this pretty well - the book is going for atmospherics, but falls short just because, from a modern perspective at least, it's fairly cliched and trite. The way Slaughter writes women is cringe-worthy, reminding me mainly of the more misogynistic movies from the era. This is particularly true in the love triangle between the innocent woman and the more dangerous, alluring one. The latter's dialogue in particular is just unrealistic, and not clever enough to justify it. I will say that I respect this book for portraying military and political corruption honestly, rather than romanticizing these institutions or portraying the corruption as exceptional. But this book just isn't well-written enough to capture the intrigue that this corruption might have. In particular, I don't care for how Slaughter will often set up and then skip scenes, or cover long periods of time in a single paragraph. It doesn't make for a very good flow for the book; at times, it's even a little confusing. It doesn't help that the story itself is rather meandering - I stopped over a third of the way into the book, and the main plot still hadn't started yet, with a subplot that I thought might be the main story having just resolved itself. It's hard to understand why we're reading what we're reading at any given point, and it doesn't make for a good structure. Finally, the protagonist (whose name I can't be bothered to remember) just isn't very interesting; he's a standard everyman for the story, with the added annoyance of being the very best at what he does (from the era when authors didn't even have the courtesy to make their everymen realistically mediocre). He's a very bland perspective to see this story from. Overall, this book doesn't have much to recommend it - there's a reason it hasn't been reprinted or remembered.
April 11, 2022
A very enjoyable book. It reads like a romantic, political/military/medical drama and a somewhat predictable 1940s war movie script... but that is what makes it pleasant! I can picture the scenes and hear the dialog in my head, as if I'm actually watching a classic film.
July 27, 2014
Very interesting storyline. Definitely a keeper. =)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews