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A reader posted a review at 2008-05-19 10:50:54.
(Language: English)
In 1959, Anthony Burgess is sick. Or at least this is what his doctors think when they erroneously diagnose him a brain tumor which will let him live no more than one year. In this year he starts writing at an incredible rapid pace, in order to insure his wife a decent revenue. This is when the book "The Doctor Is Sick" comes out.As for the case of Burgess, also Dr. Spindrift, the main character of the book, is a linguist who has a brain tumor. He is recovered in a hospital in London to get operated; but he feels alone, he is afraid about what the doctors will truly do to him, his wife visits him every time less frequently and she is clearly entertaining herself with unknown people. Thus, the night before his operation he escapes from the hospital, throwing himself in the night of London. That will be a hell of a night for him, in that he will encounter all the delinquents that the city can offer and, in their company, he will discover aspects of himself he was not aware of. In particular, he will learn how to like live.Burgess gives, in my opinion, his best when describing the crowd in the London night and the metamorphosis that Dr. Spindrift goes through. It is impressive how, the morning after, Spindrift is unable to speak anything else than slang, being him one of the most known linguists of the kingdom. But something else is changed about him, he feels no guilt in stealing from libraries and restaurants (London is like a giant apple tree and no-one recognizes that they should rise their hands and grab the fruits), and he learned again how to love a woman.
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