What’s left to say when the subtitle is the plot?
Well, maybe something in the way of explanation. Author Daniel Asa Rose gets a call from his cousin Larry for the first time in years. Larry’s on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, but it could take ten years. So he’s decided to try to get one in China, where it can be much quicker. Of course, the transplant there will also be illegal, but that doesn’t bother Larry. He wants his cousin there because he’s an “old China hand”, though Dan’s last visit was 25 years ago and included some time in jail.
How does the mail-order bride come into it? Larry doesn’t feel that the kidney, much as he needs it, is enough to justify the trip to China. So he’s found a Chinese fiancée online — maybe a better term is “email-order bride”. She turns out to be “kind of a clean freak” ; when Dan first meets her, she’s scrubbing the hotel bathroom and he mistakes her for the maid. The engagement is off and on a few times.
Dan gets right to work, asking everyone he meets if they know of a pre-loved kidney. (“The street sweepers are pretty much in agreement that there are no kidneys to be had, but I still have a few construction workers on the case.”)
Just before time runs out and they’re about to move on to the Philippines, they’re given the name of Dr. X, who might be able to “make the authorities look the other way”. This is only the beginning.
Whatever you think of the ethics of medical tourism, you’ll enjoy Daniel Rose’s funny dialogue, vivid impressions of China, and unsentimental concern for his often difficult cousin.
