From Booklist
If Michael Crichton and Carl Hiaasen collaborated on a book about the organ transplant and genetic engineering industries, the result might look a lot like this very bizarre novel, so long as those two wildly successful authors didn't confuse their roles. Crichton's job would be to invent a plausible extrapolation of emerging discoveries and technologies and meld it into a thrilling tale of science run amok; Hiaasen would need to create a menagerie of bizarros, cretins, medical monsters, and heartless tycoons, as well as laugh-out-loud send-ups of the madness of modern life. Fortunately, it's not necessary to wait for Crichton and Hiaasen to embark on such a collaboration. Fitzhugh has already done it, and he's thrown in a likable protagonist to fend off the craziness and keep the science on track. It's not easy walking the tightrope between medical thrillers ala Crichton and absurdist black comedy in the Hiaasen mold, but Fitzhugh manages it smoothly. Expect fans of both styles to applaud his dexterity. Thomas Gaughan
From Library Journal
If there's anybody currently working hard at resuscitating the art of political incorrectness, it's Fitzhugh, first in Pest Control (LJ 3/1/97) and now in The Organ Grinders. Jerry Landis, the driving force behind the pharmaceutical concern Landaq, plots to use baboon organs to fill the demand for human hearts, lungs, and tissue. Aiding him is Arty, whose discovery of his own rapid-healing ability has led him (for a price) to the head of the organ donor line, leaving him at this point little more than a human stump in a motorized wheelchair. Pitted somewhat unevenly against them are Paul Symon and his wife, Georgette, the kind of people you always see at tables in supermarkets dutifully and ineffectively gathering signatures on petitions for good causes. These cartoonish players acting out their parts lead to some laugh-out-loud incidents that at times alarmingly mirror today's TV news. It all goes to prove that it's not easy for a satirist to stay on top of his game nowadays, when it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction. Suitable for most public libraries and apt to be fairly popular among audiences for uninhibited humor.?Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
