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3.0 

The Doctor Is Sick

By Anthony Burgess
The Doctor Is Sick by Anthony Burgess digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

"Fine, sly, rich comedy." —New York Times Book Review

Dr. Edwin Spindrift, a very ordinary lecturer in linguistics, has been sent home from Burma with a brain tumor. Closer to words than people, his sense of reality is further altered by his condition. The night before he is to be operated on, Spindrift decides—shaven-headed, shirtless, and penniless—to postpone the surgery by escaping from the hospital. Things and people he hardly knew existed outside of his dictionaries swoop down on him as he careens through adventures in nighttime London.

16 Reviews

3.0
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Bristol

Created over 2 years ago
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“I've had numerous people suggest this book to me, and every single one of them forgot to mention the absolutely insane amount of racism and racist language throughout this novel. There's a lot of word play, and linguistic references that I'm sure /someone/ interested in language would enjoy, but I found it horribly dull considering I do not have a particular interest in word breakdowns and latin root words. It's too bad because I had some interest in the storyline and enjoyed the hospital setting at the beginning and the interesting characters that the main character meets, but it was so filled with racism that there was no way that I could enjoy reading it. Not for me. It took me so long to read it because I was struggling to get through all the pages of slurs, racist descriptions, and the use of the N-word to describe a character's dog. Did not enjoy.”

About Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) is the author of many works, including The Wanting Seed, Nothing Like the Sun, and Re Joyce. A Clockwork Orange is one of the "100 best novels" of both Time magazine and Modern Library and is on David Bowie's Book List.

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