Novelist Shannon Burke earned stunning reviews for his debut book, Safelight, and now he returns with the same minimalist intensity in this arresting follow-up. Black Flies is the story of paramedic Ollie Cross and his first year on the job in mid-'90s New York. It is a ground's eye view of life on the streets: the shoot-outs, the bad cops, unhinged medics, the hopeless patients, the dark humor in bizarre circumstances, and one medic's struggle to balance his desire to help against his own growing callousness. It is the story of lives that hang in the balance, and of a single job with a misdiagnosed newborn that sends Cross and his partner into a life-changing struggle between good and evil.
who saves the medics? Though depicted as a novel, Black Flies is concise enough for a perfect novella. Or, as it expounds upon the experiences of a paramedic in Harlem, it is also appropriate to label the work as a series of vignettes (albeit with a clear storyline). Whatever its categorization, Black Flies is a frightening work that conveys the both the physical and psychological hardship of being a paramedic. Indeed, it's not just the suffering that medics are trained to alleviate, it is a story that ponders about who responds to the first responders.
The story revolves around Ollie Cross, newly assigned to the 18th precinct. Cross voluntarily selects the 18th to get hardcore paramedic experience while preparing to pass the MCATs he desperately needs for acceptance into medschool. The experience he receives can never be taught from any textbook.
The horror of this story is hammered from two angles. The first, more obvious horror is the death and depravity paramedics experience every single day. Rotting corpses, horrific wounds, constant exposure to disease, and the grotesque, vehement disdain, and dangerous behavior exhibited by the victims they're supposed to protect.
The other horror is the subsequent disdain, mounting disregard and grotesque behavior that paramedics can subsequently exhibit toward their victims, a gradual hardening to the grittiness and incessant malaise to which they're exposed. This story is not merely the devolution of Cross, but the way he responds to being partnered with several medics of differing moral zephyrs. There's the stoic, the maniac, the ultimate altruist; they have seen it all, and all are resigned to the degeneration of the job.
Burke explores the depths to which paramedics, affected by the stress, often decide who lives or dies. He also focuses on the irony of those expertly trained to save life are often already dead from within. Overall, the book details the darker aspects of being a paramedic as well as state of the human condition through a good story. Fascinating read.
Missed Opportunity Potentially interesting topic, but flat, repetitive language and thin, plodding plotting. Less like a novel and more like a long textbook-inspired rendition of one possible response to stress. The narrator's redemption is weakly motivated and who cares. We feel like his girl friend, drop this loser. We hope never to meet him after med school as our doctor either.
wow! There's not a wasted or misused word in this perfectly-controlled novel of a rookie paramedic's stint in Harlem in the 1990's. From the first page the reader is gripped and made to witness the thoroughly gruesome (but sometimes humorous) experiences of rookie Cross, his partner, Rutkovsky, and other medics as they plunge into a world inhabited by "skels" - the scum of the earth, the dregs of humanity. Though written primarily as a series of episodes, there is an undeniable narrative fluidity, and we never tire of the medics' gritty reality. Instead, we are utterly fascinated by it.
Quick and Enjoyable Read Great Summer Read. This book was very direct and to the point.(Raw, lauguage, descriptions) I found it very interesting to see the character Ollie become so destructive to himself and then be his only savior in the end. It was a very "human" story and I enjoyed it very much. Highly recommended.
the truth on paper I've lived in New York's worst neighborhoods, and, escaping that, I was friends with a New York ambulence driver taking refuge in Colorado. Mr. Burke gets the truth down.
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Trevor
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