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Oct 12, 2010JCLJanineM rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
"Healer", Carol Cassella's sophomore novel, is a solid family drama with an original storyline that is very in tune with today. Claire and Addison Boehning were one of Seattle's golden couples who went from struggling to rich almost overnight when Addison, a biochemist, discovered a way to test for ovarian cancer in its very early stages. They have one daughter, Jory, who is fourteen. When the book opens, Addison has invested and lost the family's home and savings in a new project that developed problems in initial testing. The family has been forced to sell their home in Seattle and move into their unrenovated vacation home located in the mountains of eastern Washington. Claire is hunting for a job as a family physician, a profession she has never actually practiced as she was 3 months shy of completing her residency when Jory arrived prematurely. Unable to have any other children, Claire chose to stay at home with her one child rather than return to complete her residency and board certification. Unfortunately, that choice has left her with few options for locating a position from which to launch her medical career. She eventually takes the only position offered her as a doctor in nonprofit clinic for migrant laborers where the hours are long and the pay extremely low. Meanwhile, Addison is trying to drum up new investors so he can continue work on his project that already has cost him almost everything he owns. As a practicing anesthesiologist, Cassella uses her professional knowledge and experience with the medical community to craft a very original plot that explores the way medical research is done in the United States. At the same time as Addison finds a wealthy investor who seems eager to provide new funding for Addison's project, Claire has discovered that some patients at her clinic, immigrant migrant workers, have been enrolled in clinical trials for another drug. Through these two situations, Cassella exposes some little known loopholes in clinical drug testing, as well as drawing a grim picture of the life of the migrant workers who pick the nation's crops. The author provides some aesthetic release to these clinical tensions with her lyrical portrayals of the rugged landscape. While the medical plot proved sufficient to carry the novel, I sometimes found myself tiring of Claire's constant inner dialogue about her relationships with Addison and Jory and her constant flashbacks to Jory's infancy and childhood. The economic aspects of the family's situation produced the biggest weakness in the story as the parents seemed to have or not have money to pay for things based on whether or not it allowed the characters to do what the author wanted and not what their economic situation would dictate. I found these moments jarringly unrealistic and they left me unable to take Claire's character seriously. However, despite these flaws, "Healer" is an interesting novel which I recommend for fiction readers who enjoy medical and/or family drama.