Recently I was watching a music channel, when it played a lovely song from a Hindi film, Tere Mere Sapne. I have watched the movie on two occasions - once when it was telecast by a TV channel and later by casting it on YouTube through Chromecast. I like the movie for the story, the performances by the lead actors and the direction by Vijay Anand. I know that the movie was inspired by the novel, The Citadel, by A. J. Cronin. Suddenly I had a desire to buy the novel and read it.
I read The Citadel the first time while I was a student and liked the story then. The story deeply affected me not only because it showcased the struggles of a physician, but also the dilemmas affecting the doctor, his idealism, which slowly gave way to the pursuit of money, and which resulted in his moving away from his wife.
The story is set in England and Wales in the 1920s. That is about a century ago. The labour laws aren't strict and the medical profession is dominated by independent doctors who are after money.
The central character is a physician fresh out of college, Andrew Manson who comes from Scotland to Wales to a colliery town as a medical assistant. He is honest, hard working, exploited by the sister of the doctor who is employed by the colliery, where the doctor is immobile due to paralysis. His earnings are meagre and the place challenging. The folks take time to accept him as a good doctor. Just when things are going well, he is forced to quit. He gets another job in another colliery nearby, gets married to his sweetheart, Christine and takes up work there. The struggles do not end. Again he has to prove himself to the townsfolk, which he does. Meanwhile he starts his clinical research into determining why some workers have lung problems. After many years he gets his research published and gets his MD as a thesis submission of his research. Meanwhile he has studied hard and passed his MRCP. With all these qualifications he again faces challenges by his antagonists who are out to defame him. He does come out of this; but is disillusioned by the whole process of defending himself and decides to leave for London, where he keeps his idealistic principles in abeyance and starts to make money; not always by ethical means. But he defends his actions by consoling himself that that is how all doctors work in London. This action of Andrew Manson results in his estrangement from Christine, his wife. The rest of the story is about Andrew redeeming himself after a few unfortunate incidents.
The story has many medical terms, illnesses, medications, etc. which I couldn't understand; but that doesn't take anything away from the flow since we can understand what is happening to the characters. The author, a physician turned writer, has an easy flow and etches each character well with their good qualities and their flaws. Except a couple of characters, you wouldn't dislike anyone fully; though you may not like Andrew too!
I bought the book after listening to the song on TV and the book was delivered in a day. I read the whole book of 400+ pages in less than 48 hours, which says a lot about how good the book is and how gripping the storyline. One may be tempted to compare this book with other books written about the medical profession, notably by Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, and Arthur Hailey. Each author has written classics and they are equally un-put-downable. I found The Citadel too to be like that. Having been written about 90 years ago, they predate the works of other authors I have listed above.
To the author's credit, there are articles mentioning that NHS in England was created based on the facts that A. J. Cronin highlights in this novel. Though a fiction, I think the author's experiences of being a physician would have come in handy. The language is simple and easy to understand, though some conversations in Welsh are challenging.
The novel was a big hit and translated into many languages, has inspired many movies and has been converted into serials too. Worth a read. No actually worth buying the book.