A review by tbr_tyrant
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
In a dilapidated, poorly-staffed, under-funded, patient-sparse hospital located in a near-deserted, unnamed, South African "homeland" town, we're thrust into a post-Apocalyptic-like, post-Apartheid microcosm.
Our narrator is Frank Eloff, a cynical, disillusioned, indifferent, soon-to-be-divorced doctor who whiles away his dried-up existence on purposeless, routine-rotten, hippocratic duties... Until a young, fresh-faced, idealistic, naïve, enigmatic, newly-appointed doctor by the name of Laurence Waters enters the picture and the desolate setting at the novel's onset, sparking a Spring-tide change, not only to the rundown medical practice and its lingering denizens, but to the set-in-his-ways, nihilistic narrator's life.
It's Conrad meets Coetzee as they rendezvous with Greene; blending shades of HEART OF DARKNESS with generous doses of DISGRACE and echoes of THE QUIET AMERICAN.
This was my introduction to the deliciously despondent, mellifluously melancholic, South African-tanged, atmospheric writing of Damon Galgut. I'll be reading the novel that won him the 2021 Booker Prize, THE PROMISE, next... And hopefully other books I come across written by this impressive author.
Our narrator is Frank Eloff, a cynical, disillusioned, indifferent, soon-to-be-divorced doctor who whiles away his dried-up existence on purposeless, routine-rotten, hippocratic duties... Until a young, fresh-faced, idealistic, naïve, enigmatic, newly-appointed doctor by the name of Laurence Waters enters the picture and the desolate setting at the novel's onset, sparking a Spring-tide change, not only to the rundown medical practice and its lingering denizens, but to the set-in-his-ways, nihilistic narrator's life.
It's Conrad meets Coetzee as they rendezvous with Greene; blending shades of HEART OF DARKNESS with generous doses of DISGRACE and echoes of THE QUIET AMERICAN.
This was my introduction to the deliciously despondent, mellifluously melancholic, South African-tanged, atmospheric writing of Damon Galgut. I'll be reading the novel that won him the 2021 Booker Prize, THE PROMISE, next... And hopefully other books I come across written by this impressive author.