The Strange Case of Dr. Simmons and Dr. Glas

by Dannie Abse

product_description

Genres: Mystery

195 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 2002

About the author

Daniel Abse CBE FRSL (1923–2014) was a Welsh poet, author, doctor and playwright. He wrote and edited more than sixteen books of poetry, as well as fiction and a range of other publications. His poetry won him many awards. As a medic, he worked in a chest clinic for over 30 years.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dannie_...

Reviews

[notgettingenough · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abse has a hard act to follow here. Doctor Glas, which I've discussed elsewhere, is a superb existential story of alienation, told from the point of view of a doctor who by virtue of his position in society is both especially connected to people - he is privy to their secrets - and especially disconnected - he is privy to secrets. The very fact that his job is to be privy to their most private thoughts means that the nature of his social relationships is compromised and ambiguous. He finds it hard to understand what his relationship is to individuals and that is connected up, of course, to his relationship to society.

Abse continues on this theme with the profound understanding that comes of being both a doctor and a poet. He is at the time of penning this, furthermore, an eighty year old Jewish doctor and poet.

The rest is here

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a strange book - the premise is a young physician Dr Simmonds practicing in 1950 London, mostly to a Jewish cliental, finds himself unprofessionally attracted to Yvonne, the wife of one of his patients. Having been gifted a book originally published in 1905 which details the life also of a physician (Dr Glas) with an attraction to a patient's wife and ultimately murders the patient/husband to sustain the relationship, Dr Simmonds begins to postulate that he is in a similar love triangle which will necessitate a similar ending. The bulk of the book consists of Simmonds' journal entries which details over the course of many months this infatuation though it opens with a present day editor being solicited by Yvonne herself to read the journals for possible publication as she is in need of funds. The book is rather short and easy to get through and I did find the juxtaposition between the two doctors to be interesting. It is a book within a book within a book if you will. The original story of Dr Glas is in fact an actual published work from the early part of the 1900's so I'm guessing the author took inspiration from that story and interspersed his own. In the end I didn't love it so much though I respect the craft of the author to combine these two tales so effortlessly.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This veers between dark comedy and a philosophy of doctoring. The author was a doctor and brings some knowledge of medical dilemmas to his stories of patients in Hammersmith. He twists that with some self-deprecating comedy on the part of the GP protagonist, with his doomed erotic enchantment with one of his patients and his desire to save her from her husband. Is he anti-Semitic? Will his talk to the local community group be well-received? Can he keep the respect of his chess sparring partner Rhys after he insults the object of his affections? Can he find a reason to keep on living or will melancholy floor him in the end?

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strangely subtle book, well written and intriguing, it deals with one man's obsession and how this comes to dominate his life and pushes him towards the moral edge both professionally and morally.