| Title | : | The Healer |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1591023149 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781591023142 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 376 |
| Publication | : | First published July 1, 2005 |
Payne is unusual in that he is seemingly unaffected by the mysterious burn out (called "The Drain") that all other healers experience. The novel follows his journey across the strange landscape of his world in a search for an acceptance he may never find. Along the way, we move from the outskirts of society, to an isolated mining camp, to a metropolis dedicated to gambling and vice, to a secret government compound where the most dangerous of healings are performed. Finally, we climax in a scene where reality meets mythology, and Payne experiences a transformation that will forever alter the balance between Tesques and Humans.
Blumlein brings his experience as a practicing physician to bear in this novel, which subtly and beautifully examines the ways in which society both reveres and fears members of the medical profession. The Healer is a story of human life and death, human rites and rituals, seen through the eyes of an outsider, one who knows humans better, perhaps, than they know themselves. In the vein of such authors as Jonathan Lethem and Jonathan Carroll, The Healer is literate, philosophical, entertaining, moving and original.
The Healer Reviews
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I have certain friends and colleagues whose opinions are a lock for me. This author was suggested to me by one such lock. Although this novel was not specifically recommended me to me I got it because it was the one the library had. Once I saw the blurbs on the cover from Kim Stanley Robinson and Ursula K. Leguin I brought it home and started right away.
At first I was annoyed by the inclusion of MD after the author’s name but in this case Blumlein being a doctor is a valid thing to point out. One of my favorite genre authors F.Paul Wilson is also a doctor. He explored the act of healing and the spiritual nature of such in a great classic horror novel “The Touch.” This novel is an interesting cousin to that novel.
The Healer is an almost surreal deeply political exploration of healing as an art. It has many moments of beauty, but many more of disturbing moments. The world building here is vague. Is this a purely fantasy world, or a far future dystopia I can’t say. Blumlein leaves that a mystery and open to the imagination. Don’t get me wrong it is a well realized world. Set in four different locations ranging from a mine, a Las Vegas like city and a prison. It is all very interesting but not as cool as the character aspects.
The story follows Payne who is born to a deformed off shoot of humanity called Grotesques or tesques. The tesques has a deformed heads and a extra orifice in their chests. Something in their biology gives them the ability to heal humans collecting illness, injury and disease in their chests. There is a mythology that follows the healers. At times they are treated with great respect other times feared.
This feels like the theme that Blumlein seems is exploring through-out. The prose is effective and powerful. The story is well plotted and entertaining. Several moments are so disturbing I found the story deeply effecting.
Consider me a fan, I intend to check out more work by this author. -
I almost gave this book five stars - almost.
This is probably one of the most unique books I've read in a while. The author clearly had a lot of creativity while writing, and he incorporated his medical knowledge quite frequently into the book. This was a feature I liked. It gave realness to a book that otherwise might have been too unreal for some to swallow.
I have to admit, it was a strange book, but I really enjoyed it. I felt as if Payne was easy to relate to. You could see his character development throughout the book and the different areas he went to. He experienced all sorts of emotions that most people have - isolation, loneliness, a belonging where you didn't really belong, friendship, and all of that. For a character who wasn't human, Payne seemed more human than most characters I read.
This book almost felt philosophical in ways. It reminds people to be open, accepting, and to accept yourself. It almost felt more about the message than the story, if that makes sense. I felt fascinated by this book, and I kept wanting to go back to read more. I had several sit-down sessions where I read chapter after chapter.
The only reason why I didn't give this book five stars is because of the ending. It felt rushed, and didn't have the same sort of description as the rest of the book. It also didn't make much sense to me, nor is any of it truly explained. However, I don't feel as if the ending of the book is all that important somehow. I feel as if the adventure itself was what was important.
Overall, it's a unique, interesting book that truly is different than anything I've read before. I would definitely read from this author again. -
According to goodreads, 2 stars means "it was OK." Sorry, but in the Bruce rating system 2 stars means, I read the whole thing, and it was lame. One cannot get any worse except one star, which means I did not finish it. I'm not sure what sort of value a 5 star system has when 4 out of 5 of the stars are positive, but anyway...
I've become aware lately while reading that there is a certain point in a book where "things start to happen." My level of interest suddenly increases, enough background is digested, or whatever. Most books seem to hit that point about a third of the way in. With this one, a full 3/4 of the book went by before the bland cotton-wooliness of this nearly pointless and meandering story started to get kicking. What's really fascinating is that so many pages went by where so very little action or character development occurred. And yet the reading was inoffensive enough, sort of blandly OK, half pointless but anesthetizing that I didn't mind going on.
That heightened sense of interest, even coming as late as it did, was woefully disappointed. Woefully, dear reader, O woe!
After what is laid out to be the supreme conflict is resolved (quite fittingly for this book, with the protagonist on his back lying down and not moving for a couple of days) the protagonist spends the rest of the book, too many pages as usual for this tome, wandering off into a sort of hyper mythic reality from which no closure can be extracted except perhaps through prodigious metaphorical analysis.
To Kim Stanley Robinson and Ursula K Le Guin, two authors whose work I respect and love, who contributed endorsement blurbs for this travesty I say SHAME!
But wait, even this pointless exercise of a book had a wee wee wee tiny bit of insight. I present it for you here, so that you may be spared the pain of reading in order to extract this, the sole worthwhile nugget, found deep within on page 250:
"How humans could be swayed by fear and fantasy and fashion. For more than anything they seemed to love a story, and the ones they loved best seemed to be of threats that didn't materialize, imminent disasters narrowly averted, as well as illnesses that had some glamour to them and epidemics that turned out to be false alarms. Sometimes it seemed to Payne that the people he treated lived expressedly to be saved."
Yep, that's as good as it gets. And did you notice that the name of the main character was Payne, pronounced, I would guess, PAIN?
Let that, dear reader, be your final warning to stay away from this book. -
Profound in it's own way, but I missed the harsh edge of The Brains of Rats. A novel by an author at peace with himself and his place in the world.
-
A moving book by a great writer. Blumlein takes you into another world -- or a better version of this one -- by virue of his writing alone.
-
I got about halfway through and gave up - I like sci-fi, but this just didn't interest me.
