I am an expert on nothing, and I loved this book.

books:


	• The Children's Hospital Chris Adrian Grove Press, 2007 - 624 pages average customer review:based on 35 reviews view larger image
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I am an expert on nothing, and I loved this book.

Yes, I loved this book. No, I am not an author, critic, physician, nurse or expert of any kind. A vague warning, though: this is not your average easy-read-right-off-the-shelf book. It's not easy to read, and readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic twentieth century literature will probably have the best shot of enjoying this. This is an amazingly rewarding read, inspiring hope for our time tempered by a sickly sense of futilism.

beautiful and scary

i just finished this book last night after devouring it on vacation and as i drifted to sleep i was left with a heavy peaceful feeling. i don't know if i understand or appreciate all the symbolism in the book, but i know that it is an important book and a lovely book. well-written, hilarious, heart-wrenching and just plain weird. please just read this book.

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I've been thinking about this...

I started reading this book about a month ago and I finished it this morning. It doesn't usually take me that long to read a novel. Not even a 600+ page novel. But there was a lot to think about here. Chris Adrians words are very beautiful and it was nice to really savor them.

It is true that the first half of the book is easier to read. Not because its better than the second half-just because the author is very good at introducing his characters and forming relationships and surprising us. He never abandons these attributes. The story just gets more complex. It was important to me that the author didn't take the easy way out and he didn't.

I felt a connection with Jemma that I have never felt with any other character. I could really relate to her and the fact that her character was concieved by a man still leaves me perplexed.
I really enjoyed the chapters that take us back to Jemmas childhood. I felt nostolgic for her. At some point we are taken to her 4th birthday and Jemma's mother is constantly tossing her from activity to activity so she misses out on her own birthday cake. She is sent to bed after the whole thing has been eaten up by her guests...without saying too much...the end of this chapter made me cry. This is the only book that has ever made me cry.

The premise is quite abstract-but its carried by intimate language that makes you feel like you're reading someone's journal.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as ?one of the most revelatory novels in recent memory . . . Cleverly conceived and executed brilliantly,? The Children?s Hospital is the story of a hospital preserved, afloat, after the Earth is flooded beneath seven miles of water, and a young medical student who finds herself gifted with strange powers and a frightening destiny. Jemma Claflin is a third-year medical student at the unnamed hospital that is the only thing to survive after an apocalyptic storm. Inside the hospital, beds are filled with children with the most rare and complicated childhood diseases?a sort of new-age Noah?s Ark, a hospital filled with two of each kind of sickness. As Jemma and her fellow doctors attempt to make sense of what has happened to the world, and try to find the meaning of their futures, Jemma becomes a Moses figure, empowered with the mysterious ability to heal the sick by way of a green fire that shoots from her belly. Simultaneously epic and intimate, wildly imaginative and unexpectedly relevant, The Children?s Hospital is a work of stunning scope, mesmerizing detail, and wrenching emotion.

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