THE MEANING OF LIFE IS THAT IT STOPS.

A major motion picture directed by Sidney Lumet, starring James Spader, Helen Mirren, Kyra Sedgwick, Albert Brooks, Jeffrey Wright, and Anne Bancroft.

"A bitter and disturbing, though often very funny, first novel with a sensibility that Dr. Strangelove fans will recognize." -- The Washington Post Book World

Not since The House of God has a novel captured the hidden world of hospital intensive care units: the patients ("revenue bodies"), the money spent prolonging human life past the breaking point, the midnight gallows humor, the human tragedies.

Dr. Peter Werner Ernst, an internal medicine resident, lives in the ICU, keeping eight patients alive long enough so that they'll die on the day shift.

When Felicia Potter -- a fashion model with opaque motives -- arrives to visit her comatose father, Ernst sees a chance to escape for a few hours. What he cannot see is how her battle with her sister over their father's fortune will call into question his integrity, his career, and just how far he will go.

As the jaws of the legal and medical establishments close in, Ernst must decide who lives, who dies, and whether any of it is still his call.

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• Literature & FictionHumor & SatireDark Comedy
• Literature & FictionHumor & SatireSatire

• Publication Date: September 17, 2023
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 286 Pages
• File Size: 22 KB