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Doctor Salt
Sunless is one of the lucky few. He has medical problems, but at least his health insurance will allow him to have them treated. So he boards the Pharmalak train which will take him to his appointments in the Pharmalak hospital, where he's prescribed Pharmalak pills. Sunless may be crazy, but so is the system that treats him.
- GenresFiction
263 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Gerard Donovan
15 books58 followersGerard Donovan is an acclaimed Irish-born novelist, photographer and poet currently living in Plymouth, England, working as a lecturer at the University of Plymouth.
Donovan attracted immediate critical acclaim with his debut novel Schopenhauer's Telescope, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. His subsequent novels include Doctor Salt (2005), Julius Winsome (2006), and, most recently, Sunless (2007). However, Sunless is essentially a rewritten version of Doctor Salt -- ultimately very different from the earlier novel, but built upon the same basic narrative elements—of which Donovan has said: "Doctor Salt... was a first draft of Sunless. I wrote [Doctor Salt] too fast, and the sense I was after just wasn't in the novel. ... I saw the chance to write the real novel, if you like, [when Doctor Salt was due to be published in the United States in 2007] and this I hope I've done in Sunless."
Prior to his career as a prose author, Donovan published three collections of poetry: Columbus Rides Again (1992), Kings and Bicycles (1995), and The Lighthouse (2000). His next publication will be a collection of short stories set in Ireland, followed by a novel set in early twentieth-century Europe which he is currently writing.
Donovan made a huge Dubai picture, with 4.250 photoshots (45 billion pixels) in Dubai's panoramica area.
Donovan attracted immediate critical acclaim with his debut novel Schopenhauer's Telescope, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. His subsequent novels include Doctor Salt (2005), Julius Winsome (2006), and, most recently, Sunless (2007). However, Sunless is essentially a rewritten version of Doctor Salt -- ultimately very different from the earlier novel, but built upon the same basic narrative elements—of which Donovan has said: "Doctor Salt... was a first draft of Sunless. I wrote [Doctor Salt] too fast, and the sense I was after just wasn't in the novel. ... I saw the chance to write the real novel, if you like, [when Doctor Salt was due to be published in the United States in 2007] and this I hope I've done in Sunless."
Prior to his career as a prose author, Donovan published three collections of poetry: Columbus Rides Again (1992), Kings and Bicycles (1995), and The Lighthouse (2000). His next publication will be a collection of short stories set in Ireland, followed by a novel set in early twentieth-century Europe which he is currently writing.
Donovan made a huge Dubai picture, with 4.250 photoshots (45 billion pixels) in Dubai's panoramica area.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 11, 2012
Both alienating and utterly compelling, this a surprisingly insightful, quite beautifully written and really quite special book.
Ultimately it's a tale of modern day grief, and the lengths we may find ourselves going to in order to avoid the overwhelming pain of the loss of others. In doing so, our oddly captivating protagonist, Sunless, has seemingly medicated himself into almost oblivion.
An incredibly perceptive novel which explores the fragility and multiplicity of the individual mind, and how we can so easily lose ourselves in the "simple" act of living, "Doctor Salt" is cleverly and effectively structured and employs some stunning uses of figurative language. It sounds twee, but the personification of everything from the moon, lakes, ice, through to pills is at times sublime in depicting the living, breathing world from the perspective of someone who is emotionally numbed to it.
And yes, it's a novel about pills. It casts a wry glance at the over-diagnosis and labelling of every conceivable ailment of the mind, our increasing reliance on a multitude of stimulants and suppressants to merely cope with the challenge of human existence, and the irony faced by those who, in the land of the free, are "too rich for government welfare, too poor for health insurance".
As the novel so wisely states, when dealing with life, and for that matter death, the "only thing you really need to take is time"
Ultimately it's a tale of modern day grief, and the lengths we may find ourselves going to in order to avoid the overwhelming pain of the loss of others. In doing so, our oddly captivating protagonist, Sunless, has seemingly medicated himself into almost oblivion.
An incredibly perceptive novel which explores the fragility and multiplicity of the individual mind, and how we can so easily lose ourselves in the "simple" act of living, "Doctor Salt" is cleverly and effectively structured and employs some stunning uses of figurative language. It sounds twee, but the personification of everything from the moon, lakes, ice, through to pills is at times sublime in depicting the living, breathing world from the perspective of someone who is emotionally numbed to it.
And yes, it's a novel about pills. It casts a wry glance at the over-diagnosis and labelling of every conceivable ailment of the mind, our increasing reliance on a multitude of stimulants and suppressants to merely cope with the challenge of human existence, and the irony faced by those who, in the land of the free, are "too rich for government welfare, too poor for health insurance".
As the novel so wisely states, when dealing with life, and for that matter death, the "only thing you really need to take is time"
August 14, 2012
Really strange book, but once you get used to the weirdness it's quite interesting.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews