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anngdaniels 's review for:
Oxygen
by Carol Cassella
On the plot level, Oxygen is about an excellent young woman anesthesiologist whose professional and personal life begin to crumble when something goes inexplicably wrong during surgery and a young patient dies. On a deeper level, it's about what happens to people when the routines and systems on which they rely for their happiness – or just to get through the day – fail them.
There are several storylines in the novel: the surgery, what went wrong, and its aftermath, and several plot lines concerning the protagonist's love life and relationships with family members. They are reasonably deftly woven together, and Casella, herself an anesthesiologist, gets special credit for writing about technical medical issues in a very accessible way. Characters and situations are well drawn, and the dialogue is good although the narrative is sometimes a bit over-written.
My primary criticism is that the book sometimes seemed to lack overall focus, as though it couldn't decide whether it was a psychological novel, a mystery, or something else. I've shelved Oxygen as a mystery, although it is not classified as one, because I think it will enhance your reading if you think of it that way.
There are several storylines in the novel: the surgery, what went wrong, and its aftermath, and several plot lines concerning the protagonist's love life and relationships with family members. They are reasonably deftly woven together, and Casella, herself an anesthesiologist, gets special credit for writing about technical medical issues in a very accessible way. Characters and situations are well drawn, and the dialogue is good although the narrative is sometimes a bit over-written.
My primary criticism is that the book sometimes seemed to lack overall focus, as though it couldn't decide whether it was a psychological novel, a mystery, or something else. I've shelved Oxygen as a mystery, although it is not classified as one, because I think it will enhance your reading if you think of it that way.