Book of the Month - By Kathleen Thorne

The Good Doctor
By Damon Galgut

Published by Atlantic Books
Cost € 11.95

South africa is in transition in this novel. Frank Eloff and Laurence Waters are both doctors working in a rundown hospital in what had been one of the Homeland regions of the old South Africa. Frank is the older of the two, and the narrator. He finds his way to this remote region after the breakdown of his marriage, and his best friend's betrayal of him. His father, also a doctor, is dismayed by Frank's indifference to the advancement of his medical career.

Laurence, on the other hand, is the classic youthful idealist who sets out to put right all the wrongs he perceives in his world. He arrives at the hospital long after Frank has settled in. Frank is complacent in some ways. He accepts his situation and takes advantage of whatever is on offer. Despite having been cuckolded by his best friend, he proceeds to do just that to a colleague. Neither has he any inhibition about using a black woman for solace.

Then comes the idealistic Laurence to disturb whatever complacency exists. He is appalled by the state of the hospital, and soon sets about improving things. He is committed to his work, and is prepared to sacrifice everything, even friendship, for that end. In so doing he causes some problems.

Each man clearly displays his shadow side, sometimes to near disastrous effect. For all his complacency, Frank is angered by Laurence's naïve interferences. There is a scary scene, where Frank looks down on Laurence's sleeping form, and fantasises about how easy it would be to murder him.

Throughout the book there is an undercurrent of tension and potential violence. This is a South Africa that has changed, but certainly has not settled down to a happy-ever-after state.

The Brigadier - "the ex-tinpot dictator of the ex-homeland" - lurks in the background. Threats emanate, either directly from him, or from his former protégés. The remnants of the old South African army still struts its power and menace. There is Colonel Moller who unashamedly tortured victims under the old regime. He even called on the assistance of Frank in one such case. Now, under the new order, he is still around and capable of wielding power. Poverty stalks the rural villages of the black people, while salubrious suburban neighbourhoods still house well-todo whites. Galgut's style is especially attractive. His tone is measured. He is neither sentimental nor dramatic. Yet he goes to the core of his characters and their situations. Frank speaks of his own "dark brother" moving into his being. But he would only be a temporary resident, for the "duration of a rage. Then I would evict him and become an honourable person again."

Galgut evokes the sights and sounds of South Africa in memorable fashion. But even there we discover tension. He speaks of "the cliffs from which a waterfall came down. It was a beautiful primitive place. A fine steam of spray drifted over the rocks, wetting the leaves of ferns that grew out of the cracks." But in the midst of the beauty there was a crocodile or monitor. "The scaly ancient look of the lizard was disturbing." During the apartheid years, South Africa produced some wonderful writers, such as Nadine Gordimer, Coetzee, Andre Brink and many others. Through their fiction they brought the horrors of the apartheid system to the attention of the world. Perhaps now it falls to the pen of a younger writer to chronicle the events of a changing and emerging new South Africa.

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