Mountains Beyond Mountains

Rating:
Summary: uphill battle that needs to be won
Review: focusing on the philosophy and character of Dr. Paul Farmer, the book chronicles the development of Partners In Health and its Haitian counterpart, Zanmi Lasante. often in the face of incredible need, it is difficult to believe that the efforts of an individual can actually make any impact. this is encouraging evidence that the impact can be world changing. in describing the medical successes of PIH in the desitution of Haiti/Peru/Siberia, the narrative balances between hope and despair. the most valuable thing i took away from the reading was hope that there are concrete steps that can be taken in the face of great adversity. the problems that PIH chose to confront have disabled entire countries for decades. instead of accepting defeat, they have proven that poverty does not necessitate shoddy & inept healthcare. Dr. Farmer's unorthodox approach to public health is inspiring, but admittedly unreproducible. i was very moved by the book, and am challenged to consider what i can do to support equity in healthcare.

Rating:
Summary: We're all called to be healers
Review: Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. The per capita income there is around $1 (US) a day. It has the worst health statistics of any nation in the Western hemisphere. Political and social unrest are ripping the country apart. AIDS, tuberculosis, and hunger-related diseases are epidemic. And for some reason--could it be because there's nothing to be gained or feared from Haiti--the world's powers don't seem to care.

Kidder's book tells the story of one man who does care: Dr. Paul Farmer, the founder and energizing spirit of Zanmi Lasante Hospital. Farmer tends to the people of Haiti, and unashamedly begs from those of us who live in wealthy, developed countries to do so. It's astounding what he does with minimal medical supplies. He brings life back to those who have almost lost it. He creates hope.

The standing joke at Zanmi Lasante Hospital is that each patient is required to pay 80 cents for treatment--but children, women, the destitute, anyone who's seriously ill, and anyone who can't afford it, are all exempted.

Think about that. Physical and emotional healing is given out with nothing expected in return. Care is given not because there's something in it for the giver, but because that's simply what ought to be done. It's the decent thing to do. If more of us had come to the same place that Paul Farmer is at, the world's healing would be a reality rather than a distant dream.

Please read this book, roll up your sleeves, and join the effort. Become a healer.

Rating:
Summary: I Browsed Through it Yesterday and Couldn't Put It Down
Review: I am very busy right now, and like Kidder, am an author and journalist. But I read about this book, and as a result, was in a bookstore in Brooklyn Heights yesterday and browsed through it. I could not put it down. Here's what interests me about this doctor. As an African American interested in the issue of why, collectively, we haven't advanced intellectually, any further than we have, I am jealous of Caucasians who harbor the self-confidence to change the rules, rather than have to try to prove they even belong in the room. I think that Afro-America needs more people like this, rather than those of us consumed with "proving" that we are just as intelligent as everyone else. Hats off to Kidder and Farmer. This guy is truly inspirational, and I intend to use his story as part of a book I'm working on (my fourth). My only caveat to his attitude is his belief that there's something to the religious beliefs of the poor. I happen to think that religion has been the bane of the poor, especially to people of black African heritage. Subscribing to it too much has been one of the principal reasons that not enough of us have adequately developed our intellects.

Rating:
Summary: Transformational
Review: I don't really recommend many books, tastes being what they are.
But let me tell you, that each person to whom I have given this book has been grateful for having had the chance to read it, and to pass it on.
I have never read a book that so truthfully explains the complex roots of poverty, and our complicity in it. In writing about Paul Farmer, Mr. Kidder uses brushstrokes that are sometimes gentle, and then he gives us a Paul Farmer truth to jolt us out of our comfortable chairs. As one reads, one sees Mr. Kidder himself transformed. And one also sees that, complex as poverty is, there are solutions. In reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, one finally understand that vital to its cure are working personally and in community with those who live it every day. I regret having to say that I had not heard of Paul Farmer before reading this book. I received it as a gift, out of the blue and for no special occasion. I will always be grateful, to the gifter, to Tracy Kidder and most of all, to Paul Farmer and the community around him.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Man; Pretty Good Book
Review: I first read of Paul Farmer in Tracy Kidder's New Yorker profile of the doctor two years ago. That article was a depth charge in my consciousness. I was awestruck that Farmer, a man exactly my own age, had made such an incredible difference in the world. I photocopied the article and pressed it on many friends. For this reason I was very eager to read Kidder's book. I'm sorry to say that I was slightly disappointed. It's a good book, but not a great one. Kidder does a fine job with Farmer's complexity; he does not present the doctor as a plaster saint but as a brilliant, driven, emotional, tireless, funny, occasionally arrogant but always questing real person. Kidder also makes the medical science and politics understandable. However, while I understand the reason Kidder dwells on his own reactions to Farmer (it's brave of the writer to admit his insecurity and occasional exasperation with Relentless Energy and Moral Goodness) this last theme is occasionally tiresome and makes for a flabbier book. One is too aware of Boswell. (One begins to wonder why there is a photograph of Kidder on the dust jacket, but none anywhere of Farmer. Surely an editorial decision, even at Farmer's request, but still it seems symbolic.) I suspect the editing at the New Yorker was more rigorous, which made the profile more powerful and gripping than the longer book.

Rating:
Summary: Viagra for the Heart and Soul
Review: I got a copy of Tracy Kidder's book to read and my wife started it early this morning. She is a voracious reader and a very critical reader, not easy to please. When I woke up she had been reading since 4:30 am and I have never seen her so excited by a book. She thought Kidder did an extraordinary job of going far beyond the New Yorker piece and explaining not just HOW Paul Farmer is an amazing human being, but attempting to explain WHY Paul is the way he is. (She is a psychotherapist, and looks at this question all the time. She has an extraordinary ability in her work to see the kernal.) She was also awed by how Kidder drew on so many different fields and conveyed explanations about anthropology, religion, politics, and medicine in a clear and compelling way.

I repeat: I have lived with this woman for 30 years and I have never, ever, seen her so excited about a book. I know this is not the stuff that blurbs or NY Times book reviews are made of, but I wanted to pass this on to other readers.

Rating:
Summary: Strange Life Encounters
Review: I had the joy of meeting Dr. Farmer in March of this year. I had no idea who he was. I do remember being very impressed with him, his staff, and the hospital in Haiti. I wasn't expecting this book to be as good as it is. I just bought it to find out more about Dr. Farmer. I appreciate the every man out look that Mr. Kidder used in writing this book. This style makes it easier for anyone to read. I have only recommended one other book besides this one, to read. I like the fact that it takes a more humanistic look at doing work in other countries. We should all try a little harder.

Rating:
Summary: Be Careful: Makes You Think
Review: I like Tracy Kidder, but think his writing here is weaker than it has been in other books. However, I couldn't put it down. Not just because Dr. Farmer is a compelling person. Somehow, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Dr. Farmer, the problems he's dealing with, Kidder's reaction: together, this book somehow manages to be both enjoyable and unsettling. the lyric in Jesus Christ Superstar said "there will be poor always." It's a great read -- fast, interesting, lots of human interest -- but the bottom line is that this book forces the reader to try to reason through what's the right approach to inequity, what's our duty to the poor, how can national borders matter in the face of suffering. Very inspiring to learn about Dr. Farmer's successes; can't stop thinking about what my OWN sense of the issues are. One thing's for sure: while I may not agree 100% with Farmer's approach as a model for everyone to follow, there's no question he's made complacency less of an option I can live with. I highly recommend this book for anyone who cares about issues of human suffering, poverty, health, philanthropy, international relations, race relations, leadership.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Book
Review: I take issue with those who have given this book a low rating. It seems to me that they have failed to take it on its own terms. Each of us has thought at some point, "What could I do to make a difference and to help change the world?" If you are interested in how one very bright and energetic young man, Dr. Paul Farmer, has answered that question, then I highly recommend this book. Will you agree with him on everything? Are there inconsistencies in his approach? Does he have character flaws or is he a saint? Are the solutions clear? I know you can answer these questions for yourself--Mountains Beyond Mountains will give you plenty of material.

Yes, the writer, Tracy Kidder, is present in the book--but he is such an honest and clear writer that he gives the reader a vivid sense of who Dr. Paul Farmer is and also of his own reactions in traveling with Farmer.

I can imagine that some people would not like the sometimes lengthy stretches of the book devoted to how Farmer and his colleagues strategize and work with international organizations, pharmaceutical companies, governments and foundations in order to create effective programs and treatments. I found this to be a fascinating glimpse into how public policy is made. It doesn't offer pat ideological solutions and raises questions about the role of government and private organizations in tackling local and global problems--and of course it makes you think of the role of the individual. I can assure you that you will find it fascinating and stimulating to compare your life, as Tracy Kidder does, with that of Paul Farmer.

Rating:
Summary: Twofold story about a single person, and the army behind him
Review: If you ever thought, I can fix this problem those people in that far away place are having...if only I had the time or money. Or, I could help those people with a simple tool, or seed money for that, but no, my little contribution is so insignificant it could never matter, well ...Simple things can make a difference, and what's more, you don't "not" help because you can only help one person at a time, leaving many wanting. Paul doesn't teach this. His lives it (which is refreshing), and by his example, wakes people up to the positive power they can have over other people's misery. In the end, the powers that be doubt the survivability of his work. Paul does have a repeatable formula, though we are confusing the formula with his zest for living an intense and exhausting life. All solutions that are repeatable are systematic. Paul's approach is a combination of not only asking why, but "why not"? -thinking outside of the box. And, he applies that tried and true method of divide and conquer, each problem is divided into smaller, manageable problems with a simple or short term solutions (medication in his case). And, while he was out on a 11 hour house call he could see solutions in solutions: I would no longer need to treat these people if a simple solution (unrelated to medicine) was applied in a global or at least regional manner, making the whole reason I'm out here unnecessary. Articulating the obvious and asking, why not? is what he does, frustrating those who's feet are stuck in the cement of, but why? Wearing the nay Sayers down is an age-old tactic, and by it very nature, repeatable. Tracy Kidder did a wonderful job of presenting a "current unraveling of many soul's life", making you feel, taste and smell the heat and cold, joy and despair, and leaving the obvious unsaid: namely weaving a construct that will eventually bring continuous solutions to the must fundamental causes of misery and death is attainable, if we first ask, but why not fix this? What's more, he did this through many people, cultures and countries, walking us through mountains, beyond mountains.