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Topic: Literature

The Mad Doctor by F J Thwaites - A Brief Review

By Gareth Eastwood   2008-01-28

Desperate for a good read, I leafed through a dozen old books from my stockpile of hundreds, each patiently awaiting it's turn, without finding inspiration in a single one. Near the end of my own patience, I discovered an old hardback copy of F J Thwaites' 1935 novel 'The Mad Doctor'. I vaguely recalled hearing of this Australian author, but had certainly never tasted his literary pie. However, a quick check of his credentials on Wikipedia hinted that I may have been remiss. His books apparently sold over four million copies. A couple of pages into this novel, I had a fair idea why. It was eminently readable.

The story details the life and times of a brilliant surgeon, Garry Raymond, who is jailed for carrying out an illegal operation under utterly astounding circumstances. Disowned by his father, his only living relative, he heads for East Africa and establishes himself as an international legend through his supposedly magic treatments administered to the native population. The Mad Doctor invents procedures for curing certain types of paralysis among other things. The sticky issue of medical reality is cleverly glossed-over with vagueness, the 1935 reader being invited to believe that such treatments were possible at the time. The reader of 2008 doubts that they were, but after watching fifty years of television, can hardly be bothered about such credibility gaps anyway.

The author whips up a series of emotional storms, jumping from one scenario to the other so quickly you could virtually call it a fore-runner of "Days Of Our Lives". It's good emotional writing for a man, but not quite in the same class as that of my very favourite, Marie Corelli.

A word of warning to the racially sensitive - Mr Thwaites' book reflects the values of his time, which weren't altogether flattering to negros.

He claimed in his forward that this story was based on true life as told to him by a stranger on a steamboat. Although I won't tackle him over the point (he died in 1979 anyway), I am a committed devotee of the works of Joseph Conrad. I noticed a remarkable similarity between parts of this story and Lord Jim, with shades of Heart Of Darkness thrown in.

The book gave me a strange sensation, something akin to leaving a funny taste in my mind if you can conceive of such a thing. I found it's enormously powerful and highly interesting emotional content being handled with what I felt was Australian matter-of-factness, a shade too light for the story's pathos. However, where Conrad would have plumbed the murky depths of human nature with the meticulous care of a sailing ship captain, Thwaites kept his story zooming along at a racing driver's pace - it seems he competed in the 1938 South Australian Grand Prix. Speed covered his defect well enough for it to became a mere background thought, the story unfolding sufficiently well to keep my interest piqued.

As the story progresses the plot becomes quite predictable, though with enough sudden twists to make it worth reading to the end of the book. I rated it 9.0 out of 10. Not quite in my big league, but not a bad effort.