''Why shouldn't Samaritans be one of the profit making non-profits?''

When I was a child, there were three TV series that my parents would watch religiously. ''Shaka Zulu'', ''I, Claudius'' and ''Yes, Minister''. As a result, I have very fond memories of those and, although, I am not a big comedy fan, I love the genre when it is well-executed. What better example than ''Yes, Minister'' and its spin-off ''Yes, Prime Minister''? Who can forget the outstanding Nigel Hawthorne as the ever-manipulating Sir Humphrey Appleby who was able to utter 300 words per second, Paul Eddington as the honest, kind-hearted and a litlle bit naive Jim Hacker and Derek Fowlds as Bernard Woolley, the secretary who knew everything and everyone. It was, therefore, with great pleasure that I started reading Jonathan Lynn's new novel, Samaritans.Not to mention that it comes with Stephen Fry's recommendation.

First of all, I must say that I will not commend directly on any political or financial situation, I avoid this type of discussion like the plague. I am simply going to write about the book, its characters and the reasons why it is such a well-made satire.

There are two main characters in Samaritans. First we meet Max Green who initially works in Vegas, in a casino, and then becomes the CEO in Samaritans Medical Centre, a non-profit organization. For Green, though, profit is everything in life, the only thing that matters. He is uneducated, coarse, completely devoid of any sensitivity, a cold, empty creature, one of the most despicable protagonists we'll ever meet. If you ever thought that Humphrey was bad, wait until you read about Green. Then, Appleby will seem an angel from Heaven in comparison. And yet, the power of Lynn's writing is such that makes you care for Green's actions, makes you curious as to how far he can go to serve his twisted vision, to see whether there any limits to his immorality and ruthlesness.

Andrew Sharp is a young celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon from England. He is a complex, very interesting character.He is persuaded to join Samaritans after Green promises the moon and the stars to him. After a while, his real self comes to surface and he starts listening to the voice of reason, trying to wake some scraps of decency and conscience to Max. The story evolves into a fascinating battle between the two men.

The other characters are equally well-written and anyone who's been working for a few years will be able to recognise these types of people that ''grace'' every working environment. There is David Soper, the chairman of Samaritans. Poor David has major trouble understanding all those falshy words Max uses to talk about money and business and he quickly drops the ball. Dr. Weiner is the Chief of Surgery. I was so rooting for him to deliver a few punches on Green's smiley face...

The female characters are not a celebration of their sex, really. The only one who fully escapes is Cathy, Sharp's secretary. She is level-headed, honest, an all-around fun, sympathetic character. She provides a more humane touch in the story and makes Andrew see things under a new light. Blanche, another manager, act as Green's helper- in many ways- and retains strong Christian beliefs that don't really match her lifestyle. She seems as disgusting as Green. Emily Craven, a wannabe doctor, acts all slimy to advance herself further. She tries to be the teacher's pet (or the doctor's pet in this case) but her attempts are not that successful.

''We cannot harvest a heart from a living person. That's what we call murder.''


The central theme around which the story is developed is the moral and social decay as the most eminent result of austerity and the worldwide financial crisis. This becomes apparent rather quickly in the book, when Green and a nurse demonstrate complete indifference when scenes of a war are shown on the telly. Max orders David to make immediate cuts in order for him to hire celebrity doctors. He decrees austerity in order to bring more money in his way...Well, let's be honest, where have we heard this before? Yes, practically everywhere...When tragedies start taking place, one after another, Green's way of dealing with warnings is a bitter exclamation of ''I thought you were my friend!''

One thing I had major difficulty with was all those sexual jokes. I admit I don't find this kind of humour particularly funny and it became irritating after a point. In my opinion, it made some parts of the narration sound cheap and crude. Other than that, the dry, British humour is there, enriching the story, making even such a disgusting character as Green somehow bearable.

The Epilogue is a magnificent example of the way our modern society treats people like Max Green. This book is the perfect combination of satire and mystery and an excellent research of the human nature and its darkness. Samaritans must be read by everyone involved in the medical profession and every politician, but the latter group doesn't even know how to read so...Perhaps then, there might be a slight glimpse of hope for our lunatic world...

''When did they change the start of the Hippocratic Oath from 'First, do no harm' to 'First, get the check?'''

Thanks to Endeavour Press and Caoimhe for providing me with a review copy of Jonathan Lynn's book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Very funny satire taking the market economy and privatisation to its extremee when the chief executive of a successful casino chain takes over the management of a failing hospital. ( )

Political satire has changed over the last 10 to 20 years thanks to programs like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Shows such as these go beyond amusing entertainment. They've become sources of news and information, vehicles that actually increase political knowledge. Jonathan Lynn's book Samaritans does the same with America's healthcare debate

The book is a biting takeoff on healthcare in America. More important, it conveys many of the ideas at the heart of the ongoing spectacle of the current farcical debate over the Affordable Care Act. In so doing, Lynn also weaves in plenty of real life facts and statistics that say much about the state of America's healthcare system.

Lynn is perhaps best known as a television writer and film director (including one of my all-time favorites, My Cousin Vinny. Satire becomes a scalpel in his story of Max Green, head of hotel operations at a Las Vegas casino, who sees being CEO of a large hospital as the path to wealth. And few elements of the healthcare system are spared.

Green becomes head of Samaritans Medical Center in the Columbia Heights area of the nation's capital. Obsessed with the bottom line, Green insists his contract include him getting "a fair slice of the profits" when he turns the hospital's the red ink into black. The hospital board, chaired by the billionaire owner of a company that makes electronic components for weapons systems sold worldwide, decides to give Green a chance.

Green's efforts include fairly common strategies -- trying to build high profile practices by hiring renowned doctors, eliminating costly elements (even nurses, here many are replaced by janitors) to create profit centers, and buying outside service providers, such as temporary nursing and billing and collection agencies. These aren't enough for Green. He implements numerous "innovations," including cutting a deal with a celebrity lawyer who frequently sues Samaritans, that bring profit but also have dire ramifications for both he and the hospital.

It's what motivates Green and his data-driven deputy, Blanche Nunn, that sharpens the book's focus. They expound the free market and evangelical ideologies underlying much of today's healthcare debate. Green tends to make Paul Ryan-like pronouncements, such as, "People can't have what they can't afford. That's what got America into this economic mess -- everybody wanting something for nothing." If someone can't afford health care, Green says it's "TP," their problem.

Green's philosophy also lays out the Catch-22 in leaving people uninsured. "Prevention's not profitable," he observes. It's better to shutter a diabetes center because treating the consequences of the disease is far more profitable. And when Andrew Sharp, the star cardiothoracic surgeon Green hired, suggests not everything can be decided by the marketplace, the CEO says that "sounds like communism."

Blanche's devotion to the free market is rooted in what she's learned from her evangelical ministers, Pastors Spittle and Wallow. (The hospital's Roman Catholic chaplain doesn't express opinions he "can safely leave my theological thinking to my superiors.") "Capitalism is God's ordained economic system," Blanche maintains, and because the free market is "divinely inspired," government should not interfere. When it comes to medical needs, Spittle taught her that "God had prescribed the answer: unregulated, free-market corporate health care." Thus, Medicare's problem, she says, is that it was “set up to help patients, not profits."

In lampooning these ideas, Samaritans shows how they are at work in the politics of healthcare. Dr. Sharp and other Samaritans physicians and employees provide the counterpoint, observing and experiencing the impact of Green's and Nunn's machinations. Ultimately, Green goes a step (or three) too far, resulting in inventive denouement. Lynn's one page epilogue contains some of the book's best humor but it would require an inexcusable spoiler to show why.

Samaritans is more insightful farce than laugh-out-loud funny and generally succinct and well written. It does, though, have its flaws. A couple characters seem unnecessary to advancing the story and feel more like walk-on extras. More disquieting is a tendency for some of the female characters to use sex as a tactic to achieve success. While Lynn uses this to further distinguish between the good guy and the bad guy, the frequency with which it appears collapses toward hackneyed trope.

Still, these blemishes are comparatively negligible compared to the book's truth telling. In looking at America's healthcare system, Samaritans both entertains and educates.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)