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阅读罗宾·科克 Robin Cook在小说之家的作品!!! |
《紧急传染》这部小说讲的是1996年3月的几天时间里发生的事。美国的“大苹果”纽约市接二连三出现罕见的恶性传染病，先是鼠疫，接着是兔热病、落基山斑疹热和肺炎，等等，无辜患者和医务人员接连死亡。神秘的绝症严重威胁着这座世界大都市广大市民的生命安全。传媒轰动，医院遮掩搪塞，专家众说纷纭。医学检查官杰克感觉在这一系列恶性传染的背后疑点甚多，始终徘徊着一个可怕的幽灵。这位“侦探大夫”力排众议，不顾个人安危，顶住上司的压力和来自黑社会的威胁，多次赶赴案发现场调查研究。杰克的行动却受到几乎所有人的怀疑、反对，三次险遭谋杀。“杰克听到一阵脚步声朝自己走过来，他吸了一口气，转过头来。当他看清来人是谁的时候，他顿时目瞪口呆。”杰克在完全出乎他自己和包括译者在内的所有读者意料的情况下查清了事件幕后主使人，案情大白于天下。
我们知道，进入90年代，欧美大批作家痛感历史和现实与他们开了一个大玩笑，几乎是在一夜之间将他们中的许多人远远地抛在了后边。惨淡经营多时的作品顷刻间变成一堆废纸。昔日的无数“间谍小说”、“冷战作家”立马成了现代堂吉诃德。罗宾·科克则是为数不算太多的例外之一，他时有新作问世，屡屡受到新老读者的欢迎。究其原因，我们认为，说罗宾·科克开了一个品种的通俗小说的先河，这话并不过分。
罗宾·科克历来以他的“医学惊险小说”著称，他的作品兼有社会小说和惊险小说两方面的特色。他笔下的人物大多为像你我一样的普通人，一般的医生、警察、记者等等，作品关注的也是与普通人的生活息息相关的社会问题，与现代社会生活的楔合很紧密。他的故事往往以类似侦探小说的手法展开，情节曲折，环环相扣，引人入胜。本书又一次展示了作者在创作上的这些特色。全书始终贯穿着一条扑朔迷离扣人心弦的主线，小说主人公、医学检查官杰克的命运始终牵动着读者的心。整个故事情节的发展充满悬念，出人意料，但一切又尽在情理之中。我们一经开卷便不忍释手，整个故事可以一口气看下去。这也是罗宾·科克作品的一种魅力。
同时，罗宾·科克的作品始终具有现代畅销书的快捷、流畅的特点。《紧急传染》这部小说也和作者的其他作品一样，读者看不到无病呻吟式的冗长道白和令人生厌的、纯属浪费篇幅的景物描写。但现代畅销书的这种快捷、流畅的特点并没有影响作者对人物的刻划。作者的视线聚焦在主人公杰克的身上。医学检查官杰克年轻时事业受挫，并为此付出了血的代价。厄运使杰克消沉，但没有使他道德沦丧。历尽沧桑的杰克依旧疾恶如仇，热心热肠。同时，作品也以简洁明快的线条，将他的两位女友劳瑞和特瑞西刻划得十分鲜活，招人喜爱。劳瑞和特瑞西是当今世界比较典型的职业妇女的形象。她俩都有强烈的事业心，对生活也都有执着的追求，但两个人的性格却迥然不同。这种性格上的差异最终导致了两个职业妇女的不同结局。小说中的其他几个人物，如杰克的同事切特，微生物迷里查德，医学检查官办公处处长宾汉等形象也都刻划得线条流畅，栩栩如生。
译者相信，本书也会像十多年前所介绍的《狮身人面像》一样，受到广大读者的欢迎。
罗宾·科克毕竟是中国读者的老朋友了。
何文安
1996年5月一9月
重庆西南师范大学
He is best known for combining medical writing with the thriller genre. Many of his books have been bestsellers on the New York Times Bestseller List. Several of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. His books have sold nearly 100 million copies.
Biography
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard. He divides his time between homes in Boston and Naples, Florida where he lives with his wife, Jean, and son. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to keep the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical problems.
The Cousteau Society recruited Cook to run its blood-gas lab in the South of France. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in 1969.
Cook is a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees, led by Chairman Joseph B. Gildenhorn, are appointed to six-year terms by the President of the United States.
[edit]Novels
Cook's novels have anticipated national controversy. Interviewer Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know anything about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as ethically questioning as stem cell research."
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering, fertility treatment, in - vitro fertilization, research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, medical tourism, drug research, and organ transplantation.
I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in it. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." He explained the popularity of his works thus: "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're not going to go into a hospital.
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Cook says he chose to write thrillers because the forum gives him "an opportunity to get the public interested in things about medicine that they didn't seem to know about. I believe my books are actually teaching people."
The author admits he never thought that he would have such compelling material to work with when he began writing fiction in 1970. "If I tried to be the writer I am today a number of years ago, I wouldn't have very much to write about. But today, with the pace of change in biomedical research, there are any number of different issues, and new ones to come," he says.
[edit]Film and Television Adaptations
Coma was made into a successful feature film (directed by fellow author/doctor Michael Crichton), as well as Sphinx starring Lesley-Anne Down and Frank Langella; and other Cook novels have also been made into television productions. In December 1993, CBS - TV aired Robin Cook's Harmful Intent; in November 1994, NBC - TV aired Mortal Fear; in May 1995, NBC - TV aired "Virus", based on Outbreak; and in February 1996 NBC - TV aired Terminal. In 2008, a prequel of Cook's forthcoming novel Foreign Body was produced as a 50-episode webseries by Michael Eisner's Vuguru and Big Fantastic, the creators of "Prom Queen (internet series)." In addition to Invasion, NBC - TV has two other Cook novels in production.
[edit]Bibliography
Year of the Intern (1972), ISBN 0-451-16555-1
Coma (1977), ISBN 0-451-20739-4
Sphinx (1979), ISBN 0-451-15949-7
Brain (1981), ISBN 0-451-15797-4
Fever (1982), ISBN 0-425-17420-4
Godplayer (1983), ISBN 0-425-17638-X
Mindbend (1985), ISBN 0-451-14108-3
Outbreak (1987), ISBN 0-425-10687-X
Mortal Fear (1988), ISBN 0-425-11388-4
Mutation (1989), ISBN 0-425-11965-3
Harmful Intent (1990), ISBN 0-425-12546-7
Vital Signs (1991), ISBN 0-425-13176-9
Blindsight (1992), ISBN 0-425-13619-1
Terminal (1993), ISBN 0-425-15506-4
Fatal Cure (1994), ISBN 0-399-13879-X
Acceptable Risk (1994), ISBN 0-399-13971-3
Contagion (1995), ISBN 0-425-15594-3
Chromosome 6 (1997), ISBN 0-425-16124-2
Invasion (1997), ISBN 0-425-21957-7
Toxin (1998), ISBN 0-425-16661-9
Vector (1999), ISBN 0-425-17299-6
Abduction (2000), ISBN 0-425-17736-X
Shock (2001), ISBN 0-425-18286-X
Seizure (2003), ISBN 0-425-19794-8
Marker (2005), ISBN 0-425-20734-X
Crisis (2006), ISBN 0-425-21657-8
Critical (2007), ISBN 978-0-399-15423-2
Foreign Body (2008), ISBN 0-399-15502-3
Intervention (2009), ISBN 0-399-15570-8
Cure (2010), ISBN 0-399-15662-3