Comments on: Beat the Reaper

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:42:29 +0000

I have to agree with Steve about the Palahniuk similarities. The book is very entertaining if at some times far fetched. Fast read. The very first paragraph of the book made me lol.

By: Baby Got Books » Beat the Reaper

Baby Got Books » Beat the Reaper — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:30:40 +0000

[...] (Read Tim’s review here.) [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:45:10 +0000

Just finished it last night.
Was OK.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:54:15 +0000

I just started it…it reminds me, to a lesser degree, almost of Palahniuk (but not quite)…but as far as I’ve gotten, it seems like a fun book. Which, is ok, once in a while.
After this one, I’m going back to tackling “Infinite Jest”. : – )

By: Len

Len — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:23:23 +0000

It got a good review in The Times, so I'm probably just being crabby about it. Coming from what used to be the most Mafia-riddled state in the Union (Rhode Island) and having read Fat Vinnie Teresa's book in my youth, I'm much too picky about these things.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:41:07 +0000

Len, I did not know the Firesigns connection — interesting development.

And I know it sounds ridiculous, believe me, but it is a fun book.

By: Len

Len — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:09:14 +0000

The title, "Beat the Reaper," was stolen from the extraordinary audio comedy group, The Firesign Theatre, and the title track from their 1968 album, "Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him." Towards the end of the piece, the hero of the story finds himself an unwilling contestant on a game show called "Beat the Reaper," in which "patients" are shot up with diseases that they have ten seconds to identify from the encroaching symptoms. If they can name the disease, they are given the antidote and have, therefore, beaten the reaper. After correctly identifying six diseases through jaundice, our hero loses when he is given and cannot identify the plague. Apparently the author was too busy fantasizing about being a Mafia hitman (for the record, I am not among those who can suspend enough disbelief to want to read this book) to take a moment to give the Firesigns a shout out.