Recommended by Leo Odgers
A Country Doctor’s Notebook is a semi-autobiographical novel by Mikhail Bulgakov which recounts his life as a doctor before he became a writer.
The book is in six chapters: ‘The Embroidered Towel’, ‘The Steel Windpipe’, ‘Black as Egypt's Night’, ‘Baptism by Rotation’, ‘The Blizzard’ and ‘The Vanishing Eye’. The chapters lend themselves well to the style of the book as it feels more like memories - memories are always wrapped around events of note. It feels like you’re getting the best bits of his life as a doctor.
The doctor becomes increasingly more famous with every story as news of his medical prowess spreads around town. These stories were originally supposed to be weekly features in a magazine, which makes sense as they do feel like someone telling amusing anecdotes from their life as many newspaper columnists still do in. However when in book form, it makes the ‘story’ completely non linear but more episodic. You know that the next story will have some kind of exciting event in it, very much like a TV show.
Bulgakov injects humour and drama in near perfect proportions to the story. The stakes of the story never feel low as the patients of the hospital could die at any point as some have in previous chapters. The autobiographical style lends itself very well to the humour and drama, for example the ability to hear his inner thoughts in times of crisis and annoyance, detailing how certain family members of patients annoy him inside whilst he keeps a cool exterior, for comic effect.
Politics is baked into the story as pre revolution Russia is shown in the town surrounding the hospital. The town is almost feudal, and very much left behind by the aristocracy: many of the people are quite uneducated and superstitious. This massive gap between the doctor’s and the villagers’ intelligence can drive either comedic or tragic moments. One particularly moving movement is in the story ‘The Blizzard’, when the doctor arrives at a village during a snowstorm where a little girl is dying. The man who has accidentally struck the girl and caused her wound is wailing about how he’s killed the girl and is banging his head against the wall. The villagers are completely unable to tell what the girl’s cause of illness is. We feel empathy for both the villagers and the doctor as the average reader is not trained in the medical arts and we all have also been in situations where everyone around us seems completely useless. This empathy makes the conclusion of the story all the more heartbreaking [spoiler alert] when the girl eventually dies.
'The Blizzard' is probably my favourite of the short stories as it is the most dramatic, most moving and most atmospheric. I would suggest that you should start with this story if you would like to see if you want to read the rest of the book. 'The Blizzard', in addition to the tragedy shown above, features a brilliantly described snowstorm outside the hospital and a aromatic bath had by the doctor on the inside. The doctor’s call to action comes from a concerned man who knew the girl. They must disband on horses many miles through a snowstorm to get there: on the way back, they get lost and have to deal with a band of savage dogs. There is a question of whether or not they will even make it back alive. 'The Blizzard' is a great litmus test for the rest of the book as it has something of everything the book does well: comedy, drama, tragedy and atmosphere.
A Country Doctor’s Notebook is a fantastic Russian classic that I would recommend to anyone interested in short stories, Russian literature or good books.
No comments:
Post a Comment