The Universal Donor

by Craig Nova

Book Overview

Bitten by one of the snakes she is studying, Virginia Lee, an accomplished herpetologist, drives herself to the hospital, carrying a decaying antidote and using her pantyhose as a tourniquet to slow... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395709385
• ISBN13: 9780395709382
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An Atypical Love Story

THE UNIVERSAL DONOR was not what I expected. Put another way, THE UNIVERSAL DONOR was not what the book jacket led me to believe it was. I expected a medical thriller, complete with a slowly perishing heroine, and a mighty and resourceful hero fighting both time and fatigue as he races to find a cure. In other words, I expected a novel I don't usually enjoy. But John Irving admires the author (or so the book jacket would have you believe), and being an admirer of John Irving, I decided to forego my usual misgivings about the Robin Cook-type plot, and give it a read.But DONOR is not what the jacket says it is. It has the skeleton of the story right, but it has the muscles all wrong. It is not a thriller, in the usual sense. It is a love story. And by this, I do NOT mean it is a 'romance' novel. It is a love story, with all the pain and suffering that goes along with it.It centres around Terry McKechnie, an emergency room doctor, during the time of the Los Angeles riots. His lover, Virginia Lee, has been bitten by a rare snake, and he must do all he can to save her.As I said, it sounds like a fairly routine 'doomed romance' scenario. But author Craig Nova uses the poisoning only as a pretext, going back in time to present their entire affair. And it IS an affair, as Virginia is married to an old schoolmate of Terry's. But, instead of the more expected "Oh, we're such bad people, but we can't help ourselves!", with much hand-wringing and gentle sobbing, Nova has presented one of the most realistic extra-marital affairs I've read.Virginia and Terry are both deeply flawed people who realize their mistakes, but, like all of us, have a hard time dealing with them. Their initial meeting at a hotel is deeply moving, and Nova captures both the excitement and the horror of what they are contemplating.Nova's skill at playing several emotions off each other is shown to best effect in a scene where Terry and Virginia sit down in a hospital cafeteria to discuss there feelings. A nearby stranger interupts the conversation from time to time, and it is only until a few pages later that the reader realizes the lovers are no longer simply talking, they are afraid for their lives. Nova's interplay of Terry and Virginia's conversation with the increasingly forbidding presence of the stranger is a wonder of suspense and emotion.Nova has not written an altogether perfect novel. His introduction of a subplot involving Virginia's rare blood type, and a possible donor, stretches the bounds of coincidence and credibility. It is effectively written, but it detracts from the more effective and absorbing main storyline. It is this subplot that the publisher emphasizes on the cover, resulting in readers who may not appreciate the subtleties of Nova's work (see other reviews, below). THE UNIVERSAL DONOR is not that sort of story. It is a meditation on the consequences of love, and deserves a far larger audience than the jacket aims for.

Let's At Least Wait For The Honeymoon

Did you see the movie The Heartbreak Kid where the guy has an affair with another woman while on his honeymoon? Well, folks, the lady lead of this book meets her true love on her wedding day, whilst being married to someone else.As one observer puts it this is "Intellectual pulp fiction"; it's well written, and is really about....what? The reviewer for the NY Times says that it is "a harrowing new thriller (that) moves with breakneck velocity." My impression was that it is a nice leisurely paced novel that is far removed from those taut, fast paced thrillers that cause severe palpitations of the heart. The back cover blurb writer tells you it's an exciting story of saving the life of our heroine who has been bitten by a snake. Let me just say this: she indeed does get bitten, and that is part of the story up to page 30. The author then digresses for the next 122 pages! The bulk of the book is about the two main characters, their affair, and incidents in each person's life. Mind you I'm not being critical of the book, as I really enjoyed it. I'm just warning Ludlum readers that thrive on panic and paranoia that this book will not give them their usual adrenaline high. Well, maybe I could make one criticism. I like a writer who pauses to describe scenes, emotions and the patterns of light on the wall, but Mr. Nova seems to be obsessed with color. He doesn't seem to be able to describe something unless he tells you its color. Oh well, at least he stays away from mauve, puce, and burnt sienna.

Nova has done it again. This is a must read.

I discovered INCANDESENCE in early 92' , after a non stop tear through the book, I realized that I was on to someone amazing. Craig Nova has been around for so long, he's like electricity, you don't know how great it is , until its gone. I waited for his new book to arrive, well after I got it , as I did all of his work, I read it in one sitting. Two people on the edge of their minds, and in a constant state of shock, collide over and over, trying to get this thing called life , right. So goes the main characters of UNIVERSAL DONOR. With interior dialogue and dilema's over how to "properly proceed" through life, Carig Nova brings the worst of everyone to the reader at large. If you have ever been bitten by a snake or got caught in traffic on the way to the emergency room, then this book is for you. John Updike was right when saying "Craig Nova is the greatest living writer of his generation" .

Suspenseful novel about the fragility of life

The Universal Donor isn't just a love story. It's really about the fragility of life itself. Most people flounder through life looking for love in all the wrong places. When they finally find love, they may be unable or unwilling to respond. As Dr. Terry McKechnie responds to scientist Virginia Lee, he realizes that the balance of life hangs not on the big decisions but the little ones we make. Science,too, we find out is not as exact as modern man would like to believe. Just when we think we know everything, we discover that we may not even know the questions to ask! Craig Nova does a superb job in illustrating this principle in medicine, and science as well as friendship and crime.

A beautiful story of love in the ruins.

This is a beautifully written book. It's tone is often hypnotic, especially in the many passsages where the lovers are each learning about themselves through their actions in the affair. Each seems to recognize that he/she is coming to life and becoming themselves through their relationship. I loved the scene in the hospital cafeteria when she wants to be as intimate as with a stranger: he tells her to pretend that they are traveling on the Trans-Siberian Express. She begins to bare her soul and all the while, behind her, a stranger whom the police are looking for listens and menaces them with a knife. The mixture of menace in everyday contemporay life and redemption through love spoke to me as few novels have.