Lois is a small-town doctor in Walesland wondering if she should become a partner in her practice - and then her estranged mother shows up after twenty years apart! Pobol y cym, wha she dooo?
I really liked Ian Williams’ The Lady Doctor. This dude’s a real life doctor AND this accomplished a cartoonist? Some people, eh?
Having been born and raised in Wales (Cardiff mostly but I’ve been to the valleys many times), I thought Williams captured small-town Welsh life perfectly. I appreciated the inside look at a doctor’s day-to-day though I’m also very familiar with the NHS.
The various patients Lois deals with were mostly interesting to read about. One older dude has a Pinocchio tattoo above his penis, which is, of course, the nose (“He doesn’t tell so many lies, nowadays” - HA!), another is addicted to diazepam and will do anything to get his scripts filled, and I laughed out loud when Lois had to do the Heimlich in a restaurant on a poor old lady who ended up shitting herself instead!
The drama with her mum was a bit predictable, a tad daytime TV movie-mawkish, and was the only real part of the book that I didn’t find as compelling. Lois’ occasional rants about “the patriarchy” were cringey and I don’t think those parts will age well.
Mostly though I was thoroughly entertained and impressed with this skilfully made and well-told story of a modern day country doctor. Da iawn, Ian!
No comments:
Post a Comment