David Lurie
05-14-2011, 09:06 AM
What happened in South Africa after 1994? after the end of apartheid?
Galgut's book has not the answer but addresses the subject in an original way: the story is set into an unspecified homeland - a system devised by the South African government to divide the country into a series of separate nations according to ethnic criteria, not a new concept since it's akin to the reservation system used by US governments towards Native Americans. What happened to these places when apartheid ended? These poor and isolated places continued to exist but the structures created there - towns, government offices, schools, hospitals - continued to exist though slowly decaying for lack of funds from the government and so they started resembling ghost towns. It's in one of these places that an ignoring (he has no idea what these places really are) and idealistic young doctor decides to spend his one year of community service, the voice of the story is that of another doctor - but of a previous generation - stationed into that same ghost hospital.
This is the first novel by Damon Galgut that I read and I really like his style, he is the kind of writer who leaves a lot of holes in the story, he leaves a lot to the reader's imagination and this technique adds to the drama and - mainly - is the best way to give a realistic feel to the plot because reality is not a safe and comforting place. The book addresses many themes and idealism versus pragmatism is one of them, but so is (if) the way the circumstances of our life and of our time define who and what we are.
The Good Doctor was shortlisted for the Booker - and it would have been a worther winner than Vernon God Little- and for the IMPAC too - in this case the jury was right preferring The Known World.
Galgut's book has not the answer but addresses the subject in an original way: the story is set into an unspecified homeland - a system devised by the South African government to divide the country into a series of separate nations according to ethnic criteria, not a new concept since it's akin to the reservation system used by US governments towards Native Americans. What happened to these places when apartheid ended? These poor and isolated places continued to exist but the structures created there - towns, government offices, schools, hospitals - continued to exist though slowly decaying for lack of funds from the government and so they started resembling ghost towns. It's in one of these places that an ignoring (he has no idea what these places really are) and idealistic young doctor decides to spend his one year of community service, the voice of the story is that of another doctor - but of a previous generation - stationed into that same ghost hospital.
This is the first novel by Damon Galgut that I read and I really like his style, he is the kind of writer who leaves a lot of holes in the story, he leaves a lot to the reader's imagination and this technique adds to the drama and - mainly - is the best way to give a realistic feel to the plot because reality is not a safe and comforting place. The book addresses many themes and idealism versus pragmatism is one of them, but so is (if) the way the circumstances of our life and of our time define who and what we are.
The Good Doctor was shortlisted for the Booker - and it would have been a worther winner than Vernon God Little- and for the IMPAC too - in this case the jury was right preferring The Known World.