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| Sunday, January 18, 2004 |
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| Sunday, January 18, 2004 |
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The Good Doctor
Frank Eloff is a young physician in a rundown rural hospital who has resigned himself to the unpromising state of affairs in the newly liberated province. The only consolation he has is the promise of a promotion he would get once Dr Ngema, the boss, gets a transfer. Dr Ngema’s mantra is "innovation and change", but the promises she makes are just as empty as the assurances given by the new regime. She has special feelings for a Black, Tehogo, the acting-nurse, and also the source of Frank’s uneasiness. Adding to Frank’s disenchantment are two Cuban doctors who are quite pretentious about their sense of duty and are the typical two-faced characters that rot the system. The novel paints the picture of the South African life as falling to pieces. Those who still believe in their dreams have to continue waiting as Frank states: "For the few of us still remaining, life went on between two poles of banality and violence". Everything seems to be going, if not well, then at least free of grave dangers, till the arrival of the good doctor, Laurence Waters — full of life, energy and idealism and apparently a misfit in the hospital. He has opted to come to this place for community service. He aspires to be different and to make a difference. Till the point that Laurence enters the story, Frank appears to be more of an existentialist hero but his new roommate, Laurence, not only jolts him to life but also disrupts the stillness of the place. He explains that he would like to do work that "means something" and thus proposes to take the hospital to the people instead of waiting for them to show up. He dismantles the fortifications which secure the lives of those connected with the hospital and attempts to break the inertia that rules them but in doing so he jeopardises the tranquility both within and outside the people around him. Galgut brings the hospital, which can be regarded as representative of the situation prevailing in South Africa, under the microscope and one finds that what appears to be true is actually not the complete truth. On one hand is the new system of recruiting doctors into rural services for a year and on the other, the Brigadier, earlier committed to apartheid, reappears on the scene. Then there is an old dictator who had completely disappeared after apartheid crumbled, but he visits his mansion to take care of the garden. The author puts some significant questions to the ruling government that highlight the dissatisfaction rooted in the hearts of most people. The state of women is sordid. There is, at one end, an Amerian woman who has taken up an African name and dedicated her life to social work, while on the other there is a poor tribal woman who runs a souvenir shop in a shack on the roadside. Frank frequents her in order to fill the gaps in his life but she is nothing more than one of the riddles of his life that he is trying to solve. Galgut feels that he is concerned with "anything that falls within the broad band of humanity". In fact, insights into the twists and twirls of human psyche have always characterised Galgut’s work. He depicts the helplessness and powerlessness of individuals, especially Whites, in coming to terms with reality. The Good Doctor is disturbing and rings with truth. It is a very powerful novel and does make a lot of sense. |
THE
fabric of South African fiction is woven with the threads of liberalism,
heterosexuality, existentialism and dilemmas of identity and language.
Splashes of postmodernism and experimental works of contemporary writers
like J.M. Coetzee, Damon Galgut, Christopher Hope and more have stirred
the literary scene in South Africa. However, any writing about the
post-apartheid reality in South Africa is bound to be marked by
bafflement, disappointment, and melancholy along with an anticipation of
a better future. Damon Galgut’s novel The Good Doctor raises
those very questions that are central to the new political and social
order in South Africa. It captures the conflict between realism and
idealism, between illusions and crushing realities, between the past and
the present, while the individuals trapped in these conflicts and
dilemmas struggle with their conscience. Galgut, born in Pretoria, has
been regarded as "the bold, fresh voice" of South African
fiction. He has published five dramatic works and five novels, with The
Good Doctor being shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2003.