Review: Wickedly funny
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2014
Wow. Reading L.L. Fine’s book, ‘Night Shitf’ will make your head spin—and I mean that in the most positive way. It’s as if the author has read what I’ve been trying—without success—to write in years: turn a hospital into the setting for a Catch-22-like bizarre hilarity that takes place on a single night. L.L. Fine has done it, and more. If you’ve been looking for a book that can leave you laughing and chuckling over the things you recognize and the things the author has deftly and creatively invented, then this book is for you.What makes ‘Night Shitf’ an incredibly addictive read is how it all feels true—despite the story that straddles insanity and absolute hilarity, you recognize all your darkest suspicions about the goings-on in any urban hospital. Moses is fifty-one and long past his prime—or so he thinks. Working at Ichilov Hospital as an orderly, his days and nights are mundane and excruciatingly ordinary—until one eight-hour graveyard shift when the things he least expects seems to have happened in bizarre fashion. So he dredges his memory of the past night to find out what really happened—and from here starts the rollercoaster ride. Think Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’ meets Joseph Heller’s ‘Catch-22’, then throw in stylistic genetic strands of Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction—and push it all toward the territory of the absurdly hilarious, and you’ve barely scratched the surface of ‘Night Shitf’. Truly, this must be read to be believed.Let me warn you: ‘Night Shitf’ departs with the usual three-act structure and plays with timelines, much like what Quentin Tarantino did with ‘Pulp Fiction’. The result is a beguiling story that is poignant in places, and so funny in others. It’s the whole entertainment package, and it’s set in that one place most of us dread ever visiting: the hospital.Overall, and incredibly entertaining read. I loved every moment of it. Author L.L. Fine is one gifted storyteller, and he knows what buttons to push, and how. Highly recommended to anyone who loves a good read. Nothing but a five-star rating for this one.