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Hospital
Hospital | Han Song
6 posts | 2 read | 8 to read
A twisted, wildly imaginative tale of one man's mysterious illness and his journey through a dystopian hospital system. When Yang Wei travels to C City for work, he expects nothing more than a standard business trip. A break from his day-to-day routine, a good paycheck, a nice hotel--nothing too extravagant, of course. No fuss, but all the amenities. But this is where his problems begin. A complimentary bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in sudden and debilitating stomach pain, followed by unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things don't improve; they get worse. With no explanation, the hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date...just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he's now circulating through. Armed with nothing but his own confusion, Yang Wei travels deeper into the inner workings of the hospital and the secrets it's hiding from the patients. As he seeks escape and answers, one man's illness takes him on a quest through a corrupt system and his own troubled mind.
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batsy
Hospital | Han Song
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This book is wild & out there & unlike anything I've read in awhile, so I'm borrowing from translator Michael Berry's description in his afterword to sum it up: "I prefer to think of Hospital as a Terry Gilliam adaptation of a Franz Kafka story set amid a crazed Chinese Communist Party politburo". The dark undercurrents of the dystopian hellscape that is health care & tech surveillance merge with the speculative scifi of space Buddhism. WHEW ?

batsy It's a tough book to get through & to recommend; the odd bits are really odd, & some of it is very gross, a lot of it is objectionable, & so much that is compelling & relevant. I stuck through because the writing is not well-behaved prose but it throws up some genuine moments of insight & levity, like, "Does the United States really exist? Or had it been created just to scare us?" 5mo
jlhammar Cool cover! Sounds kind of crazy, but intriguing. 5mo
sarahbarnes Woah. Great review. 5mo
See All 17 Comments
Graywacke Such a captivating review! 5mo
Billypar Great review! I can't remember seeing a book in recent memory where the most common Goodreads rating was 1 star. That may be due to the gross/objectionable parts you mentioned, but I wonder also if the haunting and unique cover nudged people to pick it up who maybe didn't know what they were in for? 🦚🤕 5mo
batsy @jlhammar The cover is very cool! 5mo
batsy @sarahbarnes @Graywacke Thank you! I'm not sure what to say about this. I'm afraid if I nudge people to give it a try they might hate me 😅 5mo
batsy @Billypar Yes, I think it could be that. It's also the first in a series (trilogy, iirc) and the first chapter sets the scene in one sense but then the rest of book happens in a different time/space. It's a plot thread that might get picked up in the sequel. So all in all, yeah ... It's a tough book to market 🙃 5mo
Tamra Wow, that does sound like a crazy ride. I love Kafka, so perhaps I should give this a try. 5mo
Graywacke @batsy reviewing dangerously. 🙂 5mo
Reggie Way to review, Suba! Lol, stacked. 5mo
batsy @Tamra But it's also super different from Kafka, and the prose is no match for the beauty of Kafka's, admittedly. So you might hate it 😆 5mo
batsy @Reggie Hahaha! Eeek I'm nervous if I get people to stack it. A look at other reviews shows you in an outlier 😅 5mo
Suet624 You‘ve convinced me not to stack it, but I love this review. 5mo
batsy @Suet624 😁❤️ 5mo
Rissreads Ha! This review is exceptional! I‘m all flustered! To stack……or not to stack? That is the question! Hmmmmm, nah. I‘ll give it a miss! 🤣 5mo
batsy @Rissreads 😂😂 5mo
74 likes6 stack adds17 comments
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AnnRaz
Hospital | Han Song
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“Every civilization, no matter how long or short it may last, ends up doing the same boring things, never realizing why.”

I‘m so close to finishing. Pushing through

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AnnRaz
Hospital | Han Song
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“Ai thought he could unleash this virus on humankind and leverage that threat to produce vaccines, sell them to hospitals, and come away with an outrageous profit.”

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AnnRaz
Hospital | Han Song
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“As a male patient, I felt that I had an even greater task, and that was to comfort this female patient.”

… is there still no one else out there in the Litsy universe for this one?? I just picked it back up again, another push to try to get through it. Halfway, but is it worth it? Is it worth all the overdue notices from the library?? 🙃 Anyone??? lol

AnnRaz “That was when a strange thought flashed through my brain: If we couldn‘t figure out how doctors die, what if we just tried killing one?” … is this the turning point I‘ve been waiting for??? …. (edited) 11mo
5 likes1 comment
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AnnRaz
Hospital | Han Song
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Back to trying to get through this one. I‘m about halfway and feel like I‘m reading the same thing over and over. The only thing keeping me going is that I HAVE to know how the prologue ties into this story. I‘m losing steam though … I hope it pays off 🙃

I came back to Litsy to see what others thought of this and, unless I‘m doing something wrong, I‘m the only one that‘s posted anything about this book so far? Is there anyone else out there???

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AnnRaz
Hospital | Han Song
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“I stared at the waterfall in a state of disbelief. I really couldn‘t imagine how all that thick, disgusting infected phlegm could transform into such a stunningly beautiful painterly vision — like something Van Gogh or Monet could have created!”