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Summary: A Man With A Plan
Review: The book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder has left me with a new found appreciation for people such as Dr. Paul Farmer who put their own lives behind the lives of others. Although lengthy at times the message was still very powerful. I found this book to be a true inspiration. The writer exposed the harsh reality of the conditions in Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia. His graphic descriptions allowed the reader to feel like they had walked in Dr. Farmer's shoes for a short while and were honored to have done so. This book was both insightful and moving.
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Summary: It's all true-Paul Farmer is the real thing
Review: The book was great. Tracy Kidder writes the truth and his wanting to write about Paul Farmer shows his insight, his awareness. I know Paul Farmer and what Kidder has written in this book is all true. The beauty of Paul's life, person and mission aside-he has the ability to inspire people, to bring the best out in people. Even if he meets them only once-as he did me. The fact that Kidder wrote this book will multiply that effect to thousands more people. The strong reactions that Paul's life and work has on people shows how many of us share his love for humanity, and his story wakens what is inside us. Not everyone has the god-given gifts of Paul Farmer but many relate to his heart and spirit. I like the idea that he is a professor. I know before I met up with him I was doing nothing in my field and after just a few words with him, I managed to accomplish a few steps toward human rights advances for women. He is someone who is almost christ-like in this way and no wonder Tom White and others wrote checks and made the commitment to the poor. I cannot say enough good things about this man, and his flaws-his humanity- just make him closer to all of us. His academic work reminds me sometimes of the great writer Ben Okri-the notion of innocents caught up in difficult and wicked worlds a recurring theme in his work. Paul loves and puts that love into transcendant forms -spirit transformed into concrete results. People wonder why his beautiful wife and child are not mentioned in the book. They are, and the story told is quite enough. Nabokov never wanted anyone writing about his wife either. Why do people need to hear this detail-its already admitted by Kidder, by Paul Farmer himself that he is human, no more, with flaws, with limits despite no sleep etc., he is a workaholic and yeah that is a problem. We know that it is Tom White's money that gave credibility to Paul at a place like Harvard-but Paul proved Tom right. He is real and that is the hope of his story-if he can do what he dreams and knows is right, in spite of his shortcomings, human limitations, it gives fuel to the rest of us. He reminds me of a kindred spirit, Jonathan Mann, MD, also a very approachable, compassionate man, who could inspire people to access the best in themselves and move mountains. There are many people like Paul who do the work he loves in obscurity. We never hear about them or meet them so we lose the gift of thier inspiration. Paul in being public, writing and extending himself out there gives us a view of that world. The book is marvellous and the best part about it is that it is true story!
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring, emotional, flawed, but recommended
Review: The work of Paul Farmer and the conditions in the world that motivate him are presented in a compelling eye-opening narrative that makes a good read.However, the reader is not sure if this is a Tracy Kidder journal about a Tracy Kidder life experience or a biography about Paul Farmer. In the two other Kidder books I read and loved (Soul of a New Machine and House), there was no Kidder, just wonderfully interwoven narrative and factual background. In Mountains, Kidder keeps intruding in the first person, and I find it distracting. And, if one is to assume that there was an editorial decision to include Kidder at the expense of something else, WHERE is Farmer's wife Didi and daughter Catherine? We hear about a one-night stopover from Haiti to Russia and a vague reference to summers together in Haiti. If that's all there is, then surely Farmer and Didi must have some feelings about this. I would have much rather seen some of the book devoted to this than Tracy Kidder's fitness level when hiking the central highlands. And without more on that personal side of Farmer, we are left with too much of Kidder's observations and conclusions, and not enough with which to get our own full, emotionally complete portrait. I kept looking in the back for a couple of more chapters. That criticism aside, Kidder is an author who always deserves attention, and has focused his attention on a truly remarkable man and story. I do recommend this book, and just allow myself the fantasy of being the editor and demanding a bit more Farmer and family and a bit less Kidder.
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Summary: Will stir debates on wide-ranging issues
Review: This book chronicles the life of Dr. Paul Farmer -- a physician and medical anthropologist who has become a leading expert on infectious diseases in Haiti. Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder's prose is both clear and engaging as he invokes Farmer's saintly presence (inviting comparison to Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa). At other times, however, Kidder allows Farmer's less saintly ambitions to emerge. This book will likely sir debates on such wide ranging issues as the politics of health care, the role of government funding, and ethics. Highly recommended. Stephen D. Glazier, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Geography, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story
Review: This book not only is an excellent story to read, but also is inspirational and good for personal reflection. I highly recommend it!
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Summary: One to be sure your children read
Review: This is a wonderfully written account of some of the most significant health care activities of the past 30 years. The work, the people, and the accomplishments surely rank with our new health care innovations. The book is well written, I laughed, cried, and was moved. Upon completion of the book I let my two teenage duaghters know I am ordering one for each of them so at some point in their lives they will pick up and read and feel this description of work that is based both on the heart and the mind. This is a book to keep on your desk.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: This is an exceptional book written by Tracy Kidder. So much depth. I recommend it highly. also want to recommend Nightmares Echo and Secret Life Of Bees
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Summary: Can I Still Get Into Medical School?
Review: This is the kind of book that makes you want to change your life. Paul Farmer is an inspiration, a sort of secular saint. His devotion to others is incredible, his wisdom awesome, and his consistent ethic of service heroic, but it all seems humanly possible as well. As result, you want to go out and volunteer. If I were younger, I'd seriously consider medical school -- as it is Kidder's book provides strength for the journey I'm already on. Farmer's example has been in my heart ever since I read the book a month ago. I feel better for knowing him -- his example makes it easier to serve others without resentment and to listen to them with eagerness and interest. Not only is Farmer an extraordinary human being, but even his story makes us better too. I recommend this to everyone, young and old. This is what life is all about.
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Summary: Patria Es Humanidad--the only real nation is humanity
Review: This is Tracy Kidder's chronicle of Paul Farmer's ongoing quest to wake our consciousness to the plagues coming out of third world poverty and to shake us into recognizing the suffering of our fellow humans around the globe. Paul Farmer is a super-hero on the front lines of infectious disease, attacking drug-resistant TB in Haiti, Peru and the prisons of Russia. His global fight for funding for AIDS and TB treatment has gained his organization Partners in Health huge grants from the MacArthur, Gates and Soros foundations. Farmer backs down from no obstacles in his quest to bring health care, one patient at a time, to the poorest and most down-trodden patients on earth.
A natural leader, his influence has drawn nations together in
their fight against poverty, hunger and disease. This is the most important story Tracy Kidder has told. Farmer's constant questioning of why some individuals need so much wealth, when most of the world goes hungry, is not an easy thing to take.
Should be required reading for high school seniors.
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Summary: A first-rate hagiography that's deeper than it first seems
Review: Tracy Kidder brings his outstanding powers of insight and narration to the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, who runs a unique medical clinic in Haiti that at its best bring first-world caring to third-world patients. Farmer seems to spend half of his year on the Harvard faculty as an infectious disease specialist, half the year managing other worldwide health programs targeted to the poor through his organization Partners in Health, and half his year at the clinic. If you added that up to three halves of a year, that's intentional on Kidder's part: Farmer is entirely tireless and seems to work as hard as six ordinary people. The focus of the book's narrative is really Farmer himself. Kidder seems fascinated with Farmer as a person: his background growing up in Florida, on boats and in trailers, a step up from poverty himself. His early experiences in Haiti. His eccentricities and even his romances. Kidder does not exactly make Farmer seem saint-like (he's definitely capable of losing his temper), but he does seem to have cast him as the hero of an adventure movie of some sort. Beyond the hero, though (maybe Matt Damon in the movie? Jude Law?) there is a more important, serious message about the perilously entwined nature of poverty and health-care. To Farmer (and Kidder) providing sub-standard healthcare to the 3rd-wolrd poor is not merely injust, it is also ineffective. Read this book, then go on to read something more by Farmer, who is a great writer in his own right: Ineffections and Inequalities, for example. Although the heroic part of Kidder's book makes the book highly readable, the real benefit to reading the book for me personally has been motivating me to learn more about this essential subject.
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