HOSPITAL!

A curmudgeonly doctor struggles to keep his job in this farcical novel.

Family physician Jones takes a lighthearted, satirical approach to health care through comical characterization by way of egomaniacal Dr. Camus, the most hated figure at Code Blue Memorial Hospital of Her Motherly Excellence. With a cantankerous demeanor and a diminutive stature, the notorious “scabrous predator” gives new meaning to career burnout. He’s become the hospital’s worst nightmare, slinging callous insults at staff and patients alike while misdiagnosing anyone in his care with rare maladies he finds on Wikipedia. Not the product of childhood neglect or an unfortunate addiction, Camus is “simply a jerk” who “kept showing up after his residency ended.” Obnoxious to a fault, he has alienated nearly all of the hospital staff and couldn’t care less about the consequences, calling his patients “relentless and annoying.” This behavior doesn’t go unnoticed by the hospital’s administration, particularly the medical center’s CEO, whose hands are tied with budgetary constraints restricting him from terminating Camus. Efforts to curb the doctor’s toxic and abusive bedside manner amount to assigning a “Censor,” who shadows his every move, bleeping out spewed expletives. But could a one-month work suspension and a mandatory intensive session with infamous behavioral hypnotist the Amazing Ralph be Camus’ saving grace? While Jones has conjured a premise that’s certainly ridiculous and preposterous, the book is hilarious, with scene after scene of outrageousness (at one point, an exasperated Camus even ejects a wheelchair-bound patient into the flower garden on the side of the hospital). Recounted by a humble, omnipresent narrator with a wry sense of humor, the story revolves around Camus as attempts to dilute his nastiness only amount to a whole new set of problems. Quite a departure from the author’s debut memoir, Fallible (2020), about the struggle to navigate mental illness as a clinician, this novel is compact, effortlessly amusing, and seemingly written with readers’ funny bones in mind. This story demonstrates Jones’ wild versatility as an author and will likely attract the readers who enjoyed his candid memoir.

A witty, satirical spoof of a cynical physician’s transformation.