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A review by tjwallace04
A Country Doctor by Sarah Orne Jewett
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I read "The Country of the Pointed Firs" by Sarah Orne Jewett in my early twenties and really liked it. I remember thinking it felt like an American version of L.M. Montgomery for adults.
Unfortunately, "A Country Doctor" will not be a favorite. It also had a bit of the flavor of L.M. Montgomery, especially in the flowery descriptions of the landscape and the overall gentle tone. (And even some of the plot elements were...oddly familiar. The main character is an orphan named Anna/"Nan" who lives in a house with a strict, sniffy housekeeper named Marilla. There is also a neighborhood gossip character who is a dead ringer for Mrs. Lynde.) (To be clear, "A Country Doctor" was published 25 years before "Anne of Green Gables," so if there was any borrowing of ideas going on, it was not Jewett doing it.)
But "A Country Doctor" has none of the heart or human interest or action of Anne...or any other book I have read recently. It is a glacially slow book that is tragically lacking in meaningful character development. Looking back, just a day after finishing it, I am having trouble understanding how the book could have lasted 300+ pages because so little happened. Other than a lot of philosophical rambling about the meaning of life and what it means to have a calling.
It's a shame because the premise is very promising: Nan decides she wants to be a doctor like her guardian but must fight past her own doubts and the disapproval of the community. (It is the 1880s, after all). But Nan is basically cardboard; you never get to know her at all. (One thing that weirdly frustrated me throughout is that Jewett never tells you her age at any point other than when she is introduced as a toddler. When her guardian says things like "she's becoming quite companionable"...I want to know. Is she 8?? 12? 16??) Towards the end, there is a trumped up "conflict" between Nan's professed calling to be a doctor (a single, unmarried doctor) and a potential romance, except for the romance is completely unbelievable, coming out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly.
Overall, this book was a chore. The main thing I will remember from this reading experience is my curiosity about whether Montgomery read "A Country Doctor" in her youth and either consciously or unconsciously plagiarized some of it.
Unfortunately, "A Country Doctor" will not be a favorite. It also had a bit of the flavor of L.M. Montgomery, especially in the flowery descriptions of the landscape and the overall gentle tone. (And even some of the plot elements were...oddly familiar. The main character is an orphan named Anna/"Nan" who lives in a house with a strict, sniffy housekeeper named Marilla. There is also a neighborhood gossip character who is a dead ringer for Mrs. Lynde.) (To be clear, "A Country Doctor" was published 25 years before "Anne of Green Gables," so if there was any borrowing of ideas going on, it was not Jewett doing it.)
But "A Country Doctor" has none of the heart or human interest or action of Anne...or any other book I have read recently. It is a glacially slow book that is tragically lacking in meaningful character development. Looking back, just a day after finishing it, I am having trouble understanding how the book could have lasted 300+ pages because so little happened. Other than a lot of philosophical rambling about the meaning of life and what it means to have a calling.
It's a shame because the premise is very promising: Nan decides she wants to be a doctor like her guardian but must fight past her own doubts and the disapproval of the community. (It is the 1880s, after all). But Nan is basically cardboard; you never get to know her at all. (One thing that weirdly frustrated me throughout is that Jewett never tells you her age at any point other than when she is introduced as a toddler. When her guardian says things like "she's becoming quite companionable"...I want to know. Is she 8?? 12? 16??) Towards the end, there is a trumped up "conflict" between Nan's professed calling to be a doctor (a single, unmarried doctor) and a potential romance, except for the romance is completely unbelievable, coming out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly.
Overall, this book was a chore. The main thing I will remember from this reading experience is my curiosity about whether Montgomery read "A Country Doctor" in her youth and either consciously or unconsciously plagiarized some of it.