This is a
good read. A translation from the Dutch
2011 book, “Zomerhuis met zwembad”.
The stream
of consciousness narrative is from Doctor Marc Schlosser, a GP. He is a GP who has taken the easier pathways
presented to him: no post-school specialty; and he has customized his clientèle
to wealthier people who want to be coddled.
He looks the other way at excesses in drinking and smoking. He is free with drug prescriptions; after all
they’re adults who can make up their own minds.
He’s a very conservative and almost prudish man. He’s married with two young girls.
He ventures
slightly over the edge when his mid-life flirtation with a patient’s wife begins
to obsess him. This comes to fruition at
a two week summer holiday shared between his family and the other couple, who
have two teen-age boys; all at the eponymous rental house.
The writing
is solid and Marc’s thought processes are fascinating and realistic from a male
point of view. The author isn’t afraid
to delve into taboo topics that receive more circumspect coverage in most
novels: pedophilia, homosexuality, and philandering. There is a time he is prepping to do a
prostate examination, but goes off into a mental review of his Med-School
Professor’s philosophy, and when he snaps back to present time, he says to the
patient, “Maybe another day”, removing his gloves.
Dr.
Schlosser is a fallible man in a fallible world.
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