A Thousand Naked Strangers
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
"A former paramedic's visceral, poignant, and mordantly funny account of a decade spent on Atlanta's mean streets saving lives and connecting with the drama and occasional beauty that lies inside catastrophe. In the aftermath of 9/11 Kevin Hazzard felt that something was missing from his life--his days were too safe, too routine. A failed salesman turned local reporter, he wanted to test himself, see how he might respond to pressure and danger. He signed up for emergency medical training and became, at age twenty-six, a newly minted EMT running calls in the worst sections of Atlanta. His life entered a different realm--one of blood, violence, and amazing grace. Thoroughly intimidated at first and frequently terrified, he experienced on a nightly basis the adrenaline rush of walking into chaos. But in his downtime, Kevin reflected on how people's facades drop away when catastrophe strikes. As his hours on the job piled up, he realized he was beginning to see into the truth of things. There is no pretense five beats into a chest compression, or in an alley next to a crack den, or on a dimly lit highway where cars have collided. Eventually, what had at first seemed impossible happened: Kevin acquired mastery. And in the process he was able to discern the professional differences between his freewheeling peers, what marked each--as he termed them--as "a tourist," "true believer," or "killer." Combining indelible scenes that remind us of life's fragile beauty with laugh-out-loud moments that keep us smiling through the worst, A Thousand Naked Strangers is an absorbing read about one man's journey of self-discovery--a trip that also teaches us about ourselves"--
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Adored this book and finished it in just a few days. It probably has to do with the fact that I relate so much with the author, who was a journalist who decided to embark on a more meaningful career. (In 2012, I went on a similar journey, but with nursing.) But unlike me, he stuck with it for 10 years.
Hazzard experienced situations that would make your jaw drop. A man, quite alive, sitting at a bus stop, his face slowly being eaten by maggots. Working on a man, near death on the floor, while his the patient's father watches TV, asking for his son's cigarettes.
Hazzard combines his nose for the news, his great writing style and experience as a medic in one of the toughest neighbourhoods one can be a medic in and the result in this electrifying memoir.
A note about the writing style - Hazzard has a way of writing a scene so that it comes alive. Example: “Marty trails, careful not to step on any of the maggots, all of them tiny squiggling urns, fat with the remains of a man not yet dead.” You can almost smell it.
But here's one thing that I will protest about. $10?? Paramedics are paid $10 per hour? Are they kidding me?
The should be paid at least a hundred.
Review copy courtesy of Net Galley
