I went into The Gap expecting gory paramedic stories and came away with a new-found appreciation for my own life and the people in it. It’s a book everyone should read, but a book that’s not for everyone. If you’re not befuddled by that contradiction, read on to find out why!

Benjamin Gilmour has been a paramedic for 20 years, yet the summer of 2008 is etched in his memory for the very worst reasons. The Gap recounts many of the call-outs from this summer at a breakneck pace; detailing the decline of Gilmour and his colleague John as their gruelling service takes its toll. At the centre of it all is the titular gap, a ‘popular’ suicide spot in Eastern Sydney that Gilmour finds himself returning to again and again as the summer rolls on.

First and foremost; this book is heavy. If you get queasy from descriptions of gore or medical stuff, you might want to give the book a miss. Likewise, if discussions of suicide of losing loved ones are a sensitive topic, The Gap might prove too much. That being said, Gilmour treats all of these topics with an immense sense of respect, both for his patients and the sanctity of life. I read this book in 100-page bursts and there were countless passages that were such an emotional punch in the gut that I had to take a break. Neither gore nor ‘sob stories’ in media affect me all that much, but Gilmour has a talent for finding the beauty in death.

The impact of The Gap is heightened by the writing itself, which hits with the brutal minimalism of authors like Brett Easton Ellis or Chuck Palahniuk, just without the edgy cynicism. Gilmour expertly emulates the intensity of his work by careening from one scene to another without a second in between. One moment he’s telling an elderly woman that, no, he can’t go grocery shopping for her. The next moment he and his colleague are cornered by a machete-wielding domestic abuser threatening to kill them. At the end of each chapter you feel exhausted, matching the intense mental state that Gilmour and his colleagues enter as the summer goes on.

The Gap is confronting, but the pacing is beautifully broken up with moments of (albeit, dark) comedy. Gilmour drops in small exchanges between him and his colleagues that show a wonderful amount of character and comradery, really hammering home the bond that emergency personal build with each other on the job. Some of the humour is morbid, but it’s not at all presented in an edgy, shock humour way. Rather, it shows how emergency personnel have to compartmentalise everything they go through so they can do the job.

Underneath all of this is a strong message of things that need to change. Mental health awareness, especially among emergency personnel, is a big one; it stakes a claim for normalising mental health issues everywhere, because hiding these issues or pretending they don’t exist only makes it worse. Gilmour presents a grim picture of the toll of being a paramedic, with quick turnover rates and high rates of alcoholism, drug use and suicide following. While The Gap takes place in 2008, I have no reason to believe anything has improved, or will change in the future. Perhaps with this book out in the world, things can make a change for the better.

Reviewed by Max Lewis