From the Bookshelf of Read Between the Wines…

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World

Tracy Kidder

Start date: August 1, 2014

Finish date: August 31, 2014

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Why we're reading this: This book was nominated by Gary.
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Sep 05, 2014 Gary the Bookworm rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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“We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it is not worth it. So we fight the long defeat.”

Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World

Reading Tracy Kidder's engrossing portrait of Dr. Paul Farmer, a doctor and anthropologist, I came to understand that the above words weren't meant to be pessimistic or sentimental, they were simply a way of explaining the resolve which animates his extrao “We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it is not worth it. So we fight the long defeat.”

Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World

Reading Tracy Kidder's engrossing portrait of Dr. Paul Farmer, a doctor and anthropologist, I came to understand that the above words weren't meant to be pessimistic or sentimental, they were simply a way of explaining the resolve which animates his extraordinary efforts on behalf of his patients. A brief glance at the titles of a few of Dr. Farmer's books gives you a sense of his worldview - and his penchant for pithy alliteration - AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame; Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues; Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor; Haiti After the Earthquake.This is a man who believes with all his heart that the "idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world" and that "a social justice approach should be central to medicine and utilized to be central to public health....the well should take care of the sick."

Kidder spent a great deal of time with Farmer. He accompanied him on hospital rounds in Boston, Siberia and, particularly in Haiti, Farmer's home-of-choice, partly because it was - and is - so neglected and needy - which included day-long hikes across rugged terrain on house calls to assess living conditions as part of a patient's treatment plan. They shared grueling transcontinental flights for a brief meeting on behalf of Partners in Health, a global health organization founded by Farmer and Kidder came to an understanding of Farmer which goes far beyond admiration. There is a great deal to savor in his ode to this marvel of medicine "who would cure the world." His prose is provocatively persuasive: “I think Farmer taps into a universal anxiety and also into a fundamental place in some troubled consciences, into what he calls "ambivalence," the often unacknowledged uneasiness that some of the fortunate feel about their place in the world, the thing he once told me he designed his life to avoid.”

One of the many ironies is that Farmer's own childhood was anything but privileged. His family lived for years in a converted bus or on a boat captained by an unconventional father who knew almost nothing about maritime navigation. Reading about this heroic man may not change your life, but, at the very least, it may lead you to reconsider many myths about the origins of poverty, and its devastating consequences when it comes to basic health care access. ...more

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