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Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr Paul Farmer a Man Who Would Cure the World

by Kidder, Tracy
Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr Paul Farmer a Man Who Would Cure the World

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ISBN13: 9780812973013
ISBN10: 0812973011
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.

At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer — brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti — blasts through convention to get results.

Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity." He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.

"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it."

Review

"On every page, I wondered whether Farmer was going to be meek and gentle, as he often is with his patients, or whether he was going to turn his wrath on me, the reader. To the very end, Farmer made me nervous." Washington Post

Review

"Mountains Beyond Mountains is inspiring, disturbing, daring and completely absorbing. It will rattle our complacency; it will prick our conscience." New York Times Sunday Book Review

Review

"In this masterpiece, Kidder will take you so deep into their journeys that you can almost feel the oppressive Haitian heat." USA Today

Synopsis

" A] masterpiece . . . an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views . . . Kidder opens a window into Farmer's soul, letting the reader peek in and see what truly makes the good doctor tick."--Nicholas Thomas, USA Today

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life's calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder's magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease. Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes people's minds through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity."

Praise for Mountains Beyond Mountains

"A true-to-life fairy tale, one that inspires you to believe in happy endings . . . Its stark sense of reality comes as much from the grit between the pages as from the pure gold those pages spin."--Laura Claridge, Boston Sunday Globe

"Stunning . . . Mountains Beyond Mountains will move you, restore your faith in the ability of one person to make a difference in these increasingly maddening, dispiriting times."--John Wilkens, The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Easily the most fascinating, most entertaining and, yes, most inspiring work of nonfiction I've read this year."--Charles Matthews, San Jose Mercury News

"It'll fill you equally with wonder and hope."--Cathy Burke, People

"In this excellent work, Pulitzer Prize-winner Kidder immerses himself in and beautifully explores the rich drama that exists in the life of Dr. Paul Farmer. . . . Throughout, Kidder captures the almost saintly effect Farmer has on those whom he treats."--Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

" A] skilled and graceful exploration of the soul of an astonishing human being."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - " A] masterpiece . . . an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views."--USA Today

"If any one person can be given credit for transforming the medical establishment's thinking about health care for the destitute, it is Paul Farmer. . . . Mountains Beyond Mountains] inspires, discomforts, and provokes."--The New York Times (Best Books of the Year)

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life's calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder's magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease. Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes people's minds through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity."

WINNER OF THE LETTRE ULYSSES AWARD FOR THE ART OF REPORTAGE

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 20th Anniversary Edition, with a new foreword by the author - " A] masterpiece . . . an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views."--USA Today

"If any one person can be given credit for transforming the medical establishment's thinking about health care for the destitute, it is Paul Farmer. . . . Mountains Beyond Mountains] inspires, discomforts, and provokes."--The New York Times (Best Books of the Year)

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life's calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder's magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease. Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes people's minds through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity."

WINNER OF THE LETTRE ULYSSES AWARD FOR THE ART OF REPORTAGE


About the Author

Tracy Kidder has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Award, among other literary prizes. The author of The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, and Home Town., Kidder lives in Massachusetts and Maine.

Reading Group Guide

1. Paul Farmer finds ways of connecting with people whose backgrounds are vastly different from his own. How does he do this? Are his methods something to which we can all aspire?

2. Paul Farmer believes that “if youre making sacrifices…youre trying to lessen some psychic discomfort” (24). Do you agree with the way that Farmer makes personal sacrifices? For what kinds of things do you make sacrifices, and when do you expect others to make them?

3. Kidder points out that Farmer is dissatisfied with the current distribution of money and medicine in the world. What is your opinion of the distribution of these forms of wealth? What would you change, if you could?

4. Farmer designed a study to find out whether there was a correlation between his Haitian patients belief in in sorcery as the cause of TB and their recovery from that disease through medical treatment. What did he discover about the relative importance of cultural beliefs among his impoverished patients and their material circumstances? Do you think that this discovery might have borad application — for instance, to situations in the United States?

5. The title of the book comes from the Haitian proverb, “Beyond mountains there are mountains.” What does the saying mean in the context of the culture it comes from, and what does it mean in relation to Farmers work? Can you think of other situations-personal or societal-for which this proverb might be apt?

6. Paul Farmer had an eccentric childhood and his accomplishments have been unique. Do you see a correlation between the way Farmer was raised and how hes chosen to live his life? How has your own background influenced your life and your decisions?

7. Compare Zanmi Lasante to the Socios en Salud project in Carabayllo. Consider how the projects got started, the relationships between doctors and patients, and also the involvement of the international community.

8. Kidder explains that Farmer and his colleagues at PIH were asked by some academics, “Why do you call your patients poor people? They dont call themselves poor people.” How do Farmer and Jim Kim confront the issue of how to speak honestly about the people they work to help? How do they learn to speak honestly with each other, and what is the importance of the code words and acronyms that they share (for example, AMCs, or Areas of Moral Clarity)?

9. Ophelia Dahl and Tom White both play critical roles in this book and in the story Partners in Health . How are their acts of compassion different from Farmers?

10. Tracy Kidder has written elsewhere that the choice of point of view is the most important an author makes in constructing a work of narrative non-fiction. He has also written that finding a point of view that works is a matter of making a choice among tools, and that the choice should be determined, not by theory, but by an authors immersion in the materials of the story itself. Kidder has never before written a book in which he made himself a character. Can you think of some of the reasons he might have had for doing this in Mountains Beyond Mountains?


Author Q&A

A Conversation with Tracy Kidder, author of MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS

Q: How did you meet Paul Farmer, and what made you want to write about him?

A: I met him in Haiti in 1994. I was doing a story on American soldiers sent there to reinstate the country’s democratically elected government. Farmer showed up one night at the barracks and got into an argument with the commander. I wasn’t very interested in him then, but a few weeks later I ran into him on the plane to Miami and I began to learn some of the outlines of his life, which I found very interesting. Farmer was the second of six children, and spent most of his childhood in Florida, the whole family living on a bus and a houseboat that was moored in a bayou on the Gulf Coast. He went to Duke on a full scholarship, and then, while he was earning his M.D. and Ph.D at Harvard, he conceived and helped to build an amazing health care system in one of the poorest corners of Haiti. Around the time when I met him, he and his small band of colleagues were about to go to war against the dominant ideologies in international health — eventually they’d actually win some significant battles.

And I was drawn to the man himself. He worked extraordinary hours. In fact, I don’t think he sleeps more than an hour or two most nights. Here was a person who seemed to be practicing more than he preached, who seemed to be living, as nearly as any human being can, without hypocrisy. A challenging person, the kind of person whose example can irritate you by making you feel you’ve never done anything as important, and yet, in his presence, those kinds of feelings tended to vanish. In the past, when I’d imagined a person with credentials like his, I’d imagined someone dour and self-righteous, but he was very friendly and irreverent, and quite funny. He seemed like someone I’d like to know, and I thought that if I did my job well, a reader would feel that way, too.

My favorite teacher once used to talk about how writers often have their best stories bestowed upon them, seemingly by accident. I felt as though, in meeting Farmer, I’d been offered a rare opportunity.

Q: What was Farmer’s initial response to your wanting to write a book about him and his work?

A: I think the idea made him uncomfortable. At any rate, it took him some months to make the decision. I can’t speak for him, but I think he agreed mainly because he was persuaded by some of his closest friends that a book about his life and work might bring attention both to the issues that he cares most about and also to the little organization that he helped to create — Partners In Health.

Q: What was involved in doing the research for this book?

A: A lot of time in airplanes. I traveled with Farmer to Haiti more times than I can now remember. I also went with him twice to Moscow, and to Siberia, to Peru, to Cuba, to Paris, to Chiapas in Mexico, to Montreal and New York City and, many times, to Boston. And I went to Geneva, Switzerland, with one of his closest colleagues.

I also visited his mother and some of his siblings, and the places of his childhood. I interviewed dozens of people. And I read a great deal, about medicine and public health, about the places where Farmer works, especially about Haiti.

Q: What does the title, MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS, mean?

A: The title comes from a Haitian proverb, which is usually translated as: “Beyond the mountains, more mountains.” According to Farmer, a better translation is: “Beyond mountains there are mountains.” I first heard the proverb from Farmer, and I remember that he told me, “The Haitians, of course, use it in a zillion different ways.” Sometimes it’s used to express the idea that opportunities are inexhaustible, and sometimes as a way of saying that when you surmount one great obstacle you merely gain a clear view of the next one. Of course, those two meanings aren’t inconsistent, and I meant to imply both in the title. To me, the phrase expresses something fundamental about the spirit and the scale and the difficulty of Farmer’s work. The Haitian proverb, by the way, is also a pretty accurate description of the topography of a lot of Haiti, certainly as I experienced it in my hikes with Farmer through the mountains of the central plateau.

Q: Farmer didn’t have a conventional upbringing. Tell us more about that. Do you think Farmer’s childhood was influential in the path he’s chosen?

A: Farmer’s father was a great big man, a ferociously competitive athelete nicknamed Elbows by people who played basketball with him, a sometime salesman and school teacher, with a lot of unconventional ideas and an absolutely pig-headed determination to have his family live by them. He took his family to a town north of Tampa, Florida, where for about five years they all lived in a bus in a campground. Then he took them to a bayou on the Gulf Coast where all eight of them lived in a leaky old 50 foot-long boat. As a boy, Farmer thrived in these unusual circumstances. He was a tall, skinny kid and he disappointed his father by not being much of an athelete, but he excelled in every intellectual department. He seems to have been precocious spiritually as well. At 11 he was given a copy of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which he read and then immediately re-read in the space of a few days. Then he took it to the public library and said to the woman at the desk, “I want more books like this.” She gave him adventure and fantasy novels and he kept coming back and saying, “This isn’t it.” Finally, she gave him Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which he devoured, at the age of 11. It wasn’t adventure or fantasy that interested him; it was the epic struggle between good and evil. He didn’t have the words to say that then. Returning the library’s copy of War and Peace, he simply told the librarian, “This is it! This is just like Lord of the Rings.”

It was a childhood full of family adventures and misadventures and completely unconventional. Farmer himself didn’t like to make too much of the connections between his background and the life he chose. At the very least, though, that childhood was good preparation for a life of travel and doctoring in difficult places like Haiti. He emerged from living on a boat in a bayou with what he called a “very compliant GI system,” and from dinners of hot dog bean soup without much fussiness about food, and from years of cramped quarters with the ability to concentrate anywhere. He could sleep in a dentist’s chair, as he did at night for most of one summer in a clinic in Haiti, and consider it an improvement over other places he had slept, and I imagine that his fondness for a fine hotel and a good bottle of wine had the same origins.

There were other advantages, Farmer insisted. The kind of father who thought it reasonable to house his family in a bus, then a boat, was also the kind who saw no reason his son shouldn’t keep a large acquarium inside. Farmer insisted that he never really felt deprived throughout his childhood, though he did admit, “It was pretty strange.” After living through some of his father’s very public misadventures, it was hard to feel embarrassed or shy in front of anyone. He allowed that growing up as he did also probably relieved him of a homing instinct. “I never had a sense of a home town. It was, ‘This is my campground.’ Then I got to the bottom of the barrel, and it was ‘Oh, this is my hometown.’” He meant the central plateau of Haiti.

Q: In your travels with Farmer, what most surprised and interested you? Did you learn something from the experience?

A: The thing about travel with Farmer is that you don’t visit the brochure sights. His itinerary is pretty much restricted to visiting hospitals, slums, and prisons. The dreadful places of the world. I hadn’t imagined that there were so many of those, and I hadn’t known just how dreadful they were. But the trips weren’t dreary and depressing, because Farmer and his colleagues were doing something tangible, something meaningful, something that was actually improving those places. This was especially true in Haiti and Peru. I’d say that I learned two things above all. That medicine and public health are a powerful lens for looking at the world. And that a small group of determined people can actually alter some of the pictures seen through that lens. I think that as a very young man Farmer chose to work in one of the most impoverished parts of Haiti because he was moved by the suffering he saw there. But if he’d wanted to prove a point about what is possible in public health, he couldn’t have chosen a better site. If you can do a good thing in central Haiti, it stands to reason that you can do it anywhere. And what he and his friends have done and are doing in Haiti — and elsewhere - is nothing short of remarkable.

Q: Has your life or outlook about life changed as a result of spenind time with Farmer and writing this book?

A: One of my favorite characters in this book is a woman named Ophelia Dahl. She met Paul Farmer when she was 18 and he was 23. She told me that she remembered, from many years ago, deciding that Farmer was an important person to believe in. Not as a figure to watch from a distance, thinking, Oh, look, there is good in the world. Not as a comforting example, but the opposite. As proof that it was possible to put up a fight. As a goad to make others realize that if people could be kept from dying unnecessarily — from what Haitians call “stupid deaths” — then one had to act. I don’t plan to give away all my worldly goods and go to work with Farmer in Haiti. For one thing, I’d just get in the way. But I can’t tell myself anymore that the great problems of the world, such as the AIDS and TB epidemics, are beyond all hope of amelioration, or of repair. In other words, I don’t think I can feel comfortable anymore in this world, by resigning myself to despair on behalf of billions of other people. There’s always something one can do.

It’s not my place to make a fund-raising pitch for Farmer and his organization, Partners In Health. Well, actually, I don’t know why it isn’t my place. I happened onto something remarkable and I sat down to try to describe it to others. I hope what I’ve written is artful. I believe it is at least accurate and truthful. And one true fact is that Farmer’s organization, Partners In Health, represents a real antidote to despair. A person with a little money to give away can send it to Partners In Health and be certain that it will be used well. 95 percent of the money that’s donated to Partners In Health goes to pay for direct services to people who are both desitute and sick — in Boston, in Russia, in Chiapas, in Peru, and especially in Haiti, where the poorest and the sickest people in our hemisphere reside. A donation to Partners In Health of, say, $200 will save an impoverished Haitian from dying a horrible death from tuberculosis.

Q: How does this book differ from your other projects?

A: Well, for one thing this book has a pretty large geographical spread, whereas all my previous books are set in New England. And all the others are about what might be called “ordinary people.” Of course, no one is ordinary. But Farmer is less ordinary than anyone I’ve ever met. This is the main reason I wrote this book in the first person, something I’d done in only one other book. After I’d spent a lot of time with Farmer, I began to feel that altruism was plausible after all, indeed maybe even normal. But the sacrifices he’s made aren’t usual, and I knew that readers of my book would need an everyman, someone a lot less virtuous than Farmer, to interpret him and to make him believable. Someone to testify, in effect, that this guy is for real, and someone who could register the occasional discomfort that anyone would feel in such a person’s company. Finally, although I like to think that the subjects I’ve written about in my other books are important, I don’t think there’s much question but that the subject of this book is more important. After all, what it’s about at bottom is the attempt of one small group of people to heal a sick world.

Q: Farmer doesn’t work alone. He is surrounded by some extraordinary people. Can you tell us a little about some of them?

A: There are more than a thousand people working for Partners In Health these days. They range from Haitian peasants who have been trained as community health workers to extremely bright young American epidemiologists, medical students, and doctors, who have enlisted to work in places such as central Haiti and Siberia and the slums of Lima, Peru - some of them work for nothing, some earn much less than they could elsewhere and some raise their own salaries through grants. Ophelia Dahl has been involved in Farmer’s work from the start, and she’s a crucial member of Partners In Health, the manager, the peacekeeper. She’s a warm and charming person, and she knows how to manage Farmer and Farmer’s colleague, Jim Yong Kim. Kim is, like Farmer, a Brigham doctor. He joined up only a few months after Partners In Health was founded. He’s brilliant, an inspiring speaker, a fountain of ideas, and indefatigable.

Finally, and maybe most important, there’s a man named Tom White. He built a small family business into one of the largest heavy construction firms in Boston. He and Farmer met when Farmer was still a doctor in training. He founded Partners In Health along with Farmer and until recently provided most of the money for its projects, millions and millions of dollars over the past 20 years. White is in his eighties now, and has given away almost all of his large fortune. He told me once, “Sometimes I think how much money I used to have before I met Paul and Jim. But that’s all right. If I go to a restaurant and they give me a steak, I can only eat half of it anymore.” He plans, he told me, to leave this life without a nickel. I think it’s accurate to say that White has lifted death sentences from thousands of people, and the organization, the movement, that he helped to start may in the end save millions.

###

From the Hardcover edition.


4.7 19

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Average customer rating 4.7 (19 comments)

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lychfa , January 04, 2012
Paul Farmer's life story has changed my understanding of poverty, access to health care and the affordability of life saving drugs.

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reader1221 , January 11, 2011
Amazing, inspiring, thought-provoking, and for me personally, life-changing. One of the best examples I can think of regarding what one person is capable of, the difference one individual can make on the world. Expertly written, with some of the best vocab of any book I've read recently. Dense with details, so it isn't a particularly fast read, but is fascinating throughout and certainly worth reading.

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Jeff Kleen , January 03, 2011
Tracy Kidder provides an amazing and inspiring account of Paul Farmer's work in Haiti and beyond. In light of the recent earthquake in Haiti, this book is as timely as ever.

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Raymond Saunders , January 01, 2011 (view all comments by Raymond Saunders)
One of my favorite books of all time - an inspiring story of one man's pursuit of what is right.

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Bentley , June 21, 2010 (view all comments by Bentley)
After this book was recommended to me years ago, I finally got around to reading it. This story is so moving, it makes me want to change the world by helping the poor too. Truly inspiring.

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crund , January 14, 2010
Amazing man & his efforts to help the poorest of the world... especially timely given the tragedy in Haiti now.

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rhill639 , January 04, 2010
One of my favorite books of the past decade, Tracy Kidder has brought the inspirational story of Dr Farmer to life. Dr Farmer is an amazing man. I laughed & I cried when I read it. It made me want to go to Haiti, to medical school and to Church...and this book reminded the sceptic in me that the "power of good" from just one person CAN make a huge difference in peoples lives.

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sharbear , January 03, 2010
An amazing well crafted story that leads one to believe that there is hope ahead!

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Middle Sister , January 02, 2010
I was going back to graduate studies in public health when I was introduced to this book. It reinforced my decision to study international health. Paul Farmer, the subject, embraces his humanity and that of others in a superhuman way. He never gives up looking for multi-sector solutions to what appear to be insurmountable health problems.

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Raymond Saunders , January 02, 2010 (view all comments by Raymond Saunders)
One of the best written and most inspiring books I've every read.

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transom , January 01, 2010
This is one of the very few books that has stuck with me since I first read it. I have long been a fan of Tracy Kidder's but this book introduces Dr. Paul Farmer to those of us who were unfamiliar with his contributions to humanity. Dr. Farmer is an interesting subject who I can easily imagine as a Nobel Lauriate in Medicine and the Peace Prize.

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Susan Beecher , January 01, 2010 (view all comments by Susan Beecher)
Not only was this book exceptionally well-written, the subject, Dr. Paul Farmer, is such an inspiring person. I vote this my favorite book of the decade.

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Lori Dugdale , January 01, 2010
This well-written book and the book's subject, the inspiring Paul Farmer, has stayed with me since I read it in 2005. It renewed my interest in connecting Americans to the struggles beyond our boundaries and our comprehension. Paired with Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson, I am encouraged to look at my life in a broader context and to nurture my own passion for making the world a better place through my work and actions.

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bruce erickson , August 19, 2008 (view all comments by bruce erickson)
Eloquent and inspirational. Tracy Kidder is perhaps the best writer of nonfiction narrative writing today. Paul Farmer is a Harvard-educated physician and epidemiologist who has focused his energy, talent and intellect on solving big problems, in some of the world's poorest regions. He reminds us all that there are higher callings than making a buck and settling in our overstuffed lounge chairs every night.

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Robert Howard , December 15, 2007
This is an outstanding book, one of the best books about health care I have ever read. Tracy Kidder's book about Paul Farmer is about much more than one man, though; it asks profound questions about the role of first world professionals in third world societies, and presents a vivid account of life in Haiti. It is comparable to Anne Fadiman's book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. You are not likely to absorb its richness in three pages, though.

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Ricky Musgrave , September 16, 2007
After 3 pages i wanted to shoot myself. It was the worst book I have ever attempted to read. After reading this my I.Q. went down. This story of Dr. Farmer is good but the book is a waste of time. He is what happens without reading 301 pages of terribleness. He helps people.

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peter teiman , August 24, 2007 (view all comments by peter teiman)
A person with rare idealism, who inspires us all. Read it! Peter Teiman Rejavik

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Shoshana , March 28, 2007 (view all comments by Shoshana)
+ Satisfying tone and pace, an uplifting and far-flung narrative - Nothing substantive to critique Highly readable and very satisfying, this is, to the best of my knowledge, the first of Kidder's books in which he appears other than as a distanced narrator. While House and The Soul of a New Machine were certainly very enjoyable, Mountains beyond Mountains is simply engrossing. This is due not only to its subject, the eccentric, opinionated, and deeply generous Dr. Paul Farmer, but also to Kidder's participation as an active player. Given the subject (poverty, disease, and class bias), Kidder's vulnerability, sometimes-irritation with Farmer, and willingness to slog over Haitian mountains hour after hour to visit patients with him lend the narrative a personal immediacy that is both consonant with those foci and serves as an enactment of the effects of Farmer's works: The event may be a world AIDS conference with global implications, and Kidder reports both the unfolding medical policy decisions and his concern about having offended Farmer with an offhand remark. Farmer is a character, and Kidder gives the reader ample opportunity to see his many facets: Brillian intellectual, maddening boss, odd duck, lovable eccentric, annoying narcissist, and others. Farmer is a man with a vision, one with an admirable talent for sitting down and whipping out such seminal works as Infections and Inequalities and Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor in record time. Clearly deeply committed to his work and to humanity, Farmer seems like a hard person to live with, and I admire both his deeds and the people committed to supporting him in them. Central to Farmer's work, and hence to Kidder's narrative, is the question of triage: How are resources allocated? Who is first in line? To what extent should affluent nations provide external (non-sustainable) resources for poor nations? Less well-treated, but amply alluded to, is the question of the balance between indigenous and Western allopathic medical practices. In this regard, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is an excellent companion piece. Kidder's voice, self-reflection, and observations here were sufficient to make me buy his next book, My Detachment: A Memoir, which treats Kidder's Vietnam service.

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Adrienne , September 16, 2006
I couldn't put this book down. It made me think about the order of the world, and my place in it.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780812973013
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
08/31/2004
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Pages:
322
Height:
.75IN
Width:
5.15IN
Thickness:
.75
Number of Units:
12
Copyright Year:
2004
Author:
Tracy Kidder
Author:
Tracy Kidder
Author:
Tracy Kidder
Subject:
General science
Subject:
Biography/Medical

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