The Good Doctor

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Fri, 2004-07-16 15:42

The Good Doctor

This was a short-listed book in last year's Booker Prize and didn't seem very inspiring - dull cover. However, I picked it up in Borders and was immediately hooked.

It's set in South Africa. A new doctor turns up at a hospital that had originally been set up in a area that had been set aside for black self-determination but since the collapse of aparteid is now more or less a ghost town.

The doctor wants to make changes but finds resistence from the old guard. Most of the action seems to take place below the surface, the style is minimal, and the character all caught in some kind of absurd dilemma.

Easch character is real and fleshed out, but also representative of a type. This works without being heavy handed.

It reminded me a lot of early Coetzee, Graham Greene and had the power of McEwan. It was refreshing to read a book that really had something to say.

Much better than Vernon God Little. Without a doubt the best thing I've read this year.

Sun, 2004-07-25 16:24

cellarscene

I was also impressed by the book. I am not generally an enthusiastic supporter of people who portray, however beautifully/artistically/subtly, the problematic state of the modern world without offering a solution. However in this case there probably is a need to expose non-South Africans to the complexities of life there and so to show them how sweeping judgemental attitudes might be ill-founded. I, for one, always feel a bit ill-at-ease when I visit SA (I lived there from December 1979 to June 1987 and return annually to visit relatives) as there are so many subtle tensions. I met Damon Galgut in 1981, by the way (although he won't remember me). I was envious of his success with his first book, "A Sinless Season", (published when he was 17, I think) and it's probably fair to say that my awareness of him has not harmed my own motivation! Eric author of "Saving the World and Being Happy (The Computer Ager)" [%sig%]

Fri, 2004-07-16 17:26

d.beswetherick

I might have a go, then. It got an excellent review on Radio I from Colin and Edith. * Enjoyed your website, by the way, especially the story. (The yellow book link didn't click open for me, though.) Congratulations on all the success. I've read the story in "this is it"; great stuff: they pick well for that mag. (By the way, the almost audible anxiety of your reply to the Barbmeister cracked me up!) I admire your determination; mine is sadly lacking, except to write.

Fri, 2004-07-16 17:55

drew

It is a great book, there's a brilliant scene where the narrator meets the old dictator of the state outside his old house, now boarded up. He goes there to keep the grounds nice and he shows the narrator round, looking in at the windows where he used to live. * Well, the determination is just to write. I have a few glasses of wine now and again and send stuff off. The time spent on writing is about 100 * more and what is important. And I'm very aware that the success is minimal. I'm under no illusions. (The yellow book has no link as not yet available)

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