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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
Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
5 people are currently reading
48 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 19, 2012
Worst book ever written!!! I want my time back!
December 2, 2018
To say that I enjoyed this book would not be entirely true. I say this for a number of reasons.
First, this book is sad. I am not someone who enjoys spending much of my time being sad, I’ve found life gives one plenty of reasons for sadness on it’s own.
Second, this book is confusing and unclear. Sunless is excellently written, routinely using incredible word pictures to describe somewhat mundane things. In the midst of this however, it’s sometimes difficult to know what’s going on. It’s easy to get lost in the wordplay and find yourself clueless as to who’s who or what’s what.
I say this to be clear as to why I personally didn’t enjoy the book.
Should you read it?
If you’re looking for a unique piece of fiction that leans almost into prose, then I would recommend this book to you. I say this, because the two things that I dislike about this book are what give it meaning.
This is a story that is sad. It’s about sad things. It’s about loss, and grief, and escapism.
And yes, this story is confusing but it’s supposed to be. It’s told through the eyes of a young man slowly drifting further and further into the world of drugs. It aims to capture the feeling of drifting, of needing a pill in order to be at ease in the world. It brings you into a world that’s unclear and uncertain. In this respect I think it performs exceptionally.
So while I wouldn’t read it again myself, I thought it was an impressive work of story that might be something someone else might enjoy.
First, this book is sad. I am not someone who enjoys spending much of my time being sad, I’ve found life gives one plenty of reasons for sadness on it’s own.
Second, this book is confusing and unclear. Sunless is excellently written, routinely using incredible word pictures to describe somewhat mundane things. In the midst of this however, it’s sometimes difficult to know what’s going on. It’s easy to get lost in the wordplay and find yourself clueless as to who’s who or what’s what.
I say this to be clear as to why I personally didn’t enjoy the book.
Should you read it?
If you’re looking for a unique piece of fiction that leans almost into prose, then I would recommend this book to you. I say this, because the two things that I dislike about this book are what give it meaning.
This is a story that is sad. It’s about sad things. It’s about loss, and grief, and escapism.
And yes, this story is confusing but it’s supposed to be. It’s told through the eyes of a young man slowly drifting further and further into the world of drugs. It aims to capture the feeling of drifting, of needing a pill in order to be at ease in the world. It brings you into a world that’s unclear and uncertain. In this respect I think it performs exceptionally.
So while I wouldn’t read it again myself, I thought it was an impressive work of story that might be something someone else might enjoy.
December 26, 2009
I did not like this book for a good majority of it. The writing is beautiful, but I found the story depressing. However, as usual, I reserve judgment until the end and came around to really liking it.
Some favorites:
"Fear is the greatest poison, certainty is the greatest pain."
"...a flag is a cloth version of a drug--play some music and hoist it, and if taken with a gentle breeze, people will feel the surge of chemistry fuel their beating hearts. Quite simply, they feel better. The anthems of the world are medicine."
I love the sentiment of trying to define a father or a person and how we can get so caught up in something that it distracts us from being who we really are or can be. getting "defeated in so many insignificant ways" as Mr Swan says. He continues: "My cockpit dreams got replaced by other people's dreams, my wife's , my daughter's, college, finding money for this and that. I don't doubt that they earned them more than me, but I wish I could have those days back, he said. I was so afraid of dying--and so afraid I would never live like that again.
He held his shaking thumb and finger to a pincer: and I never did. I was this close to death, and I never felt so alive, so fast, so clean and strong... Now I've lived long enough to be the same distance from dying. This time I don't mind."
I think a lot of military men and women's experiences are summed up poignantly here in the author's revised ending to the Jack and the beanstalk story:
"Swan had escaped the bad Giant and made it down the beanstalk. He landed on the ground and ran home with what he brought back with him to set up a new life. But his mother did not recognize him anymore. He tried to tell her he was still the same boy. I don't know hwo you are, she said. And his friends, they said the same. He tried to explain that up in the sky was so different that he could never explain what he experienced there, what he saw, what he felt, the colors, the speed of everything. Nothing he said helped. He did not belong on the ground and he could not go back up the beanstalk. And so for the rest of his life, Jack lived a little bit up in the sky. The price of winning was losing what he had before." Actually reminds me of how if feels to be a cutter; you can never really explain and you never completely live your own life. It's like you're scratching at the surface of your life trying to get in and live it with your whole self, but you can't.
Incredibly beautifully written!
Some favorites:
"Fear is the greatest poison, certainty is the greatest pain."
"...a flag is a cloth version of a drug--play some music and hoist it, and if taken with a gentle breeze, people will feel the surge of chemistry fuel their beating hearts. Quite simply, they feel better. The anthems of the world are medicine."
I love the sentiment of trying to define a father or a person and how we can get so caught up in something that it distracts us from being who we really are or can be. getting "defeated in so many insignificant ways" as Mr Swan says. He continues: "My cockpit dreams got replaced by other people's dreams, my wife's , my daughter's, college, finding money for this and that. I don't doubt that they earned them more than me, but I wish I could have those days back, he said. I was so afraid of dying--and so afraid I would never live like that again.
He held his shaking thumb and finger to a pincer: and I never did. I was this close to death, and I never felt so alive, so fast, so clean and strong... Now I've lived long enough to be the same distance from dying. This time I don't mind."
I think a lot of military men and women's experiences are summed up poignantly here in the author's revised ending to the Jack and the beanstalk story:
"Swan had escaped the bad Giant and made it down the beanstalk. He landed on the ground and ran home with what he brought back with him to set up a new life. But his mother did not recognize him anymore. He tried to tell her he was still the same boy. I don't know hwo you are, she said. And his friends, they said the same. He tried to explain that up in the sky was so different that he could never explain what he experienced there, what he saw, what he felt, the colors, the speed of everything. Nothing he said helped. He did not belong on the ground and he could not go back up the beanstalk. And so for the rest of his life, Jack lived a little bit up in the sky. The price of winning was losing what he had before." Actually reminds me of how if feels to be a cutter; you can never really explain and you never completely live your own life. It's like you're scratching at the surface of your life trying to get in and live it with your whole self, but you can't.
Incredibly beautifully written!
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 6, 2012
I am attempting to write my memoirs and my writing mentor, Les Edgerton, suggested I read this man's story. I'm glad he did. Donovan's skill of telling his story and his command of prose just blows me away. I could only dream of such mastery. Newsday called it "haunting' and The Observer (London) hailed it "a devastingly good novel". I couldn't agree more. Anyone who is considering to pen his or her story ought to take time and read this. I have just now comppleted my second read and fill I still need to read it again. Thanks, les, for a great recommendation.
November 19, 2007
I received this book as an advanced copy first of all. I thought it was a little strange due to the fact that there are no chapters in this book, not sure if this was because it was the unedited version or not. I like the way that this was written but i did think that it was truly bizarre. But I did like the fact you are able to draw your own conclusions and they are not drawn for you.
April 16, 2014
I wanted to give this two stars, but I think that's just because I really wasn't in the mood to read all of the depression and hopelessness that is this book. However, the character's voice is well-developed, it's unique, and it clearly has something to say about the urge some people have to medicate, so it seemed only fair to give it three stars.
December 19, 2008
I find books about addicts exhausting. Otherwise, it's good. The doctor's lecture on medication and religion is really revealing. I also love how Sunless murders a man and just blows right over it with no emotion or comment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2008
Very quick read that is dizzying at times. The book's warmth quickly cools and there is the subtext against contemporary and post-modern pharmaceuticals.
December 30, 2010
Picked this one up for a whopping .99 cents. Would have bought it for about 5 times that much.
August 14, 2012
Really strange book, but once you get used to the weirdness it's quite interesting.
October 24, 2008
Really lovely writing, awesome subject topic, fairly meandering plot.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews