Retired breast cancer surgeon turned novelist John Albedo follows up his 2021 literary medical novel Nutshell with CANNIBAL CLUB, the second volume of the Brainbow Chronicles series featuring the brilliant, enigmatic Dr. Chase Callaway. CANNIBAL CLUB finds Dr. Callaway having moved from his native Texas to California, where he is beset by a disastrous series of calamities: medical malpractice lawsuits, back-stabbing colleagues (the “cannibals” of the title), and a drug addiction that sends him into rehab. Callaway eventually recovers from these setbacks, embarking on a passionate crusade against breast cancer, but not without a heavy toll on his mental health, a shadow over his soul that will test the limits of his unwavering spirit.
Albedo takes an unconventional approach to CANNIBAL CLUB, presenting the novel as a heavily edited version of Callaway’s autobiographical manuscript (complete with editor’s notes on deleted/summarized pages and editorial comments), which the editor humorously describes as “excessively overweight.” These notes serve dual functions in the novel, as a self-reflective, often sardonic commentary on the book itself (frequently complaining about Callaway’s wordiness) and as a bit of lamp-shading for Albedo’s own storytelling quirks. It’s not a bad way to prepare readers expecting a more traditional narrative to Albedo’s style, which is given to lengthy digressions on medical procedures and the evils of the healthcare bureaucracy, and a dry, cerebral tone that the “editor” admits leaves the story “somewhat barren when it comes to descriptive passages aimed at the reader’s need to visualize the ambience.” (The biggest flaw of Albedo’s device may be that the editor’s writing is too similar to that of the author to be completely convincing as a separate person.)
While Albedo’s sprawling chronicle, dense with the level of professional detail only an experienced physician could deliver, frequently meanders down tangents that would try the patience of all but the most enthusiastic medical student, its central character is such a fascinating eccentric that the novel is rarely dull. At times resembling a cross between television’s Dr. House and a more benign Hannibal Lecter—as written by Michael Crichton—Callaway is a compelling, complex creation, a medical genius and self-described Renaissance man who is as passionate about writing lyrics for his country band as he is about curing cancer.
Chilly but engrossing, CANNIBAL CLUB is a novel as oddly engaging as its protagonist, marching with supreme confidence to a jaw-dropping finale that will have readers eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series.
~Edward Sung for IndieReader