Point of View

The Good Doctor is written in first person omniscient, with Dr. Frank Eloff as the narrator.

Setting

The Good Doctor is set in a poor, small, rural hospital in the former 'homeland' (black) part of post-apartheid South Africa. This is an important backdrop as it is the reason for the hospital's existence and for its disrepair. The town itself Frank calls a "ghost town" (p.5), which is, "uninhabited, in which nothing has ever happened," (p.4). It was, 'a town that had been conceived and planned on paper, by evil bureaucrats in a city far away," arbitrarily choosing it and marking it as their 'homeland' (p.4). The hospital is, 'not a real hospital. It is a joke' (p.5) according to Frank. The people do not come there because, "It's where the army came from. It's where their puppet dictator lived. They hate this place." (p.6) The hospital...