ALU Book Club: Death and the Intern Discussion

Below we share highlights from our team ALU discussion and a link to the full audio which you can listen to via Soundcloud.* * *1. The construction of masculinity is a big theme in the novel. How do you think it intersects with the generic elements used from detective novels and medical dramas? How does Death and the Intern subvert these genres? How does it subvert societal expectations about doctors? These characters are humanly flawed, and not in a Dr. House way, either.“The female characters had a bit more agency and were stronger than their male counterparts…[Janwar] needs information from them and as the detective of the novel…he’s behind and lacking experience.” –Mandy”Showing these doctors as ultimately fallible people and even Janwar’s experience with possibly killing someone, even accidentally, is a huge part of being a person, and human error isn’t absent from anyone’s job.” –Lauren2. What is Hanson-Finger saying about the instability of the intern/job market – medical, publishing, or otherwise, in Death and the Intern?“[The feud and work environment] definitely made everything feel unstable in a way that I recognize from the publishing industry…there always is someone that’s coming up behind you, so you have to keep your head down and your nose to the grindstone.” –Tan “It says a lot about work-life balance in that everyone who’s involved in this mystery is involved in an occupational way to some degree…it speaks that you’re never away from work anymore, although this is an extreme example of it.” –Lauren “The little guys take the heat whenever there’s a mistake.” –Mandy 3. The story is set in the rather sleepy city of Ottawa, rather than a fast-paced city like Toronto or Montreal. What effect does this type of setting have?“It opened it up to being a very international cast but set in a small and contained city, so there was never a three hour drive from one side of the city to the next for the action to continue.” –Tan “It was more ominous being set in Ottawa, because of what we imagine Ottawa to be like…it’s such a sleepy city, and then all these things are happening at this hospital…it fed into the comedy for me.” –Mandy “There’s a plausibility to running into people you know, not that Ottawa’s a small city but the nightlife is in its development stage, so it is plausible…That also makes it more knotty…because you can just run into people and the action just happens that much faster.” –Lauren 4. The Ottawa Civic Hospital setting is post-national: there are doctors and nurses of nearly every ethnicity, and many of the white characters (Llewellyn, Shaughnessy) were born outside of Canada. How does this (wonderfully) fit into the CanLit canon, and how is it different?“There wasn’t an overt emphasis on the diversity [of characters]. It was just commonplace, as it is in real life, especially in a place like Ottawa. And none of the characters were defined by their ethnicity.” –Mandy “The only [characters] that were defined by their ethnicity were the white Irish and Welsh guys…they seemed like stereotypes but everyone else just seemed like a fully realized person.” –Lauren  

#teamALU talking Death and the Intern (with snacks). * * *Remember, we’ll be reading and discussing Death and the Intern all July long. Don’t miss our exclusive interview with Jeremy Hanson-Finger on July 19 right here on the blog. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for further, impromptu discussion. Hop on the hashtag #teamALUreads to send us comments and questions!