Spoiler Alert
TLDR: I rant about how the character spends the whole book pursuing knowledge to be the best physician only to end up up half sheep farmer half local physician wasting his talents castrating sheep
A little background: I like historical fiction books so I did some light research and saw that people were loving this book and figured I would give it a go.
After finishing the book I was so disappointed that I literally googled “The Physician by Noah Gordon ending disappointing” to see if there was anyone out there that was also let down by the ending. It was my sanity check. Like am I crazy here? Did I miss something? And of course nothing popped up on the internet of things.
So this post is for that one other person out there that might be in the same boat. Who might also be let down by the resolve of the book. I am not saying you and I are justified in not liking the resolve but maybe we can have comfort in knowing we are not alone 😂 and if there is no one else out there then this is just me screaming into the void lol
*spoiler alert*
Rant: So I enjoyed the first 80% of the book. I think the character development was great. I also enjoyed following along as this guy overcame obstacle after obstacle fueled by a passion to learn how to be the best healer in order to not waste the gift he was given. From almost dying in the desert, to changing his identity and religion to risking his life for the pursuit of more knowledge by opening up a cadaver he risked it all to be the best physician. And he does it! He establishes himself as one of the top physicians in the land! However circumstances push him to return to England but he had always planned on returning so he leaves Persia and finally makes it back to England! He is ready to bring all this Eastern knowledge to the west and propel western medicine forward and treat a great many patients as he doesn’t want to waste this gift he was given right?!
Wrong!
He starts off by pissing off the local physician guild because apparently he has lost all tact overnight. Then he flaunts a drawing that he made of the internal organs of the human body which immediately flags that he either broke the law, is a fraud or a witch . (Again, this guys is smart enough to learn multiple languages, live under a false name in a foreign country, adopt a new religion and not blow his cover but here he can’t think to say that it is a drawing of another drawing or any other story about how he came by the drawing.) Then he gets called out for being a Jew imposter (which he was) and was told to return with 10 witnesses saying he is who he says he is or he will be found guilty. So he is going to fight this right? Overcome this obstacle find some witnesses that he has treated since arriving here that can vouch that he is a good Christian right?
NOPE!
Instead he flees the country… That’s alright he will set up a hospital and continue his pursuit of advancing medicine there right?
NOPE.
He travels to his wife’s sheep farm and sets up as the country doctor. Where he helps his neighbors when they are sick and work as a sheep farmer helping deliver baby sheep. Oh I can’t forget he taught the locals that you can castrate sheep with a knife instead of biting the balls off. Oh and his kid watches when he makes house calls.
All that suffering, all that travel, all that education, all that deception, to wind up half sheep farmer half physician doing work that a barber surgeon could do and having to pick local subpar ingredients to make subpar medicines.
It MAKE NO SENSE!
It does not align with the character that we witnessed grow up before our eyes. Someone that has sacrificed so much, and worked that hard to acquire all that knowledge, driven by the idea that he has a gift his life’s mission is to heal people does not just say “well guess I will just settle down on this sheep farm and raise my kids and set the ocasional broken bone”.
Such. a. let. down.
Thank you for attending my rant.
by Deep_Challenge_3398