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rlambertdo's review against another edition
3.0
Dr. Verghese earned four of my stars for his fictional [b:Cutting for Stone|3591262|Cutting for Stone|Abraham Verghese|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327931601s/3591262.jpg|3633533], but I only offer three for this memoir. He tells of his years as a rural Tennessee internist, in the era of the discovery of HIV. Verghese shares many vignettes of the HIV patients he managed and the resistance and fear often encountered in the community.
The story is historically interesting, as HIV/AIDs is discovered in urban centers and migrates silently to small-town America. Certainly Verghese performed an enormous service to the Johnson City, TN area in accepting patients otherwise shunned and educating the community concerning the illness. His story must represent many similar scenarios that played-out throughout the United States.
However.
The book became an exercise in tedium and redundancy. And sadly, I often find that physicians often come-off as self-serving when presenting autobiographical material. This may be my problem, because Dr. Verghese is an excellent writer and apparently, a compassionate and gifted physician. Per his memoir. Just sayin'.
The story is historically interesting, as HIV/AIDs is discovered in urban centers and migrates silently to small-town America. Certainly Verghese performed an enormous service to the Johnson City, TN area in accepting patients otherwise shunned and educating the community concerning the illness. His story must represent many similar scenarios that played-out throughout the United States.
However.
The book became an exercise in tedium and redundancy. And sadly, I often find that physicians often come-off as self-serving when presenting autobiographical material. This may be my problem, because Dr. Verghese is an excellent writer and apparently, a compassionate and gifted physician. Per his memoir. Just sayin'.
booksmarttn's review
5.0
An amazing book all on its own. For Verghese's obvious love for the people of East Tennessee and his clear eyed look at all their contradiction, this is a book I recommend that everyone who moves to East Tennessee read. It is one of the best books I've ever read.
hevleary's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very powerful account of the life if an infectious diseases specialist at the time when AIDS was first appearing in his area of rural Tennessee. I loved the writing of Verghese and it felt very like fiction at times and as I had loved his novel, Cutting for Stone, I found this an enjoyable way to tell his story and the stories of his patients.
The personal tales of his first patients and their local support group brought this book to life. I became quite emotionally involved with their stories. It was particularly difficult to read at times when you realised these people were given a death sentence at the time and a horrible death at that with little hope for a viable cure on the horizon. Verghese describes the medical side in a way which it found very interesting and each chapter was peppered with moral and ethical dilemmas which made you think.
Overall a good read into a fascinating period of medical history but also a touchingly personal memoir of a doctor trying to combine his life's work and the demands of a young family
The personal tales of his first patients and their local support group brought this book to life. I became quite emotionally involved with their stories. It was particularly difficult to read at times when you realised these people were given a death sentence at the time and a horrible death at that with little hope for a viable cure on the horizon. Verghese describes the medical side in a way which it found very interesting and each chapter was peppered with moral and ethical dilemmas which made you think.
Overall a good read into a fascinating period of medical history but also a touchingly personal memoir of a doctor trying to combine his life's work and the demands of a young family
eroggbyrne's review against another edition
4.0
I'm giving this book four stars not so much for the writing (it was obvious to me that this was Verghese's first book and could have used some better editing), but because as someone who has now been in the HIV/AIDS field for 8+ years, it was a fascinating look at the early years, in a small, Southern city and unlike many AIDS narratives written now, this was written without the hindsight of now having HAART - by the time the book was written (in 1992), AZT was still the "best" treatment option. I enjoyed Verghese's character descriptions, reflections on being a foreign doctor in the South, obvious love for his patients and his profession, and thoughts on how doctors who perform "procedures" are much more highly compensated than those who don't (still very relevant today!).
lizakessler's review
4.0
I read this book about the American AIDS crisis of the 80s in Appalachia while traveling in South Africa in 2006. It felt a little strange to be tearing up over things that happened 20 years ago while AIDS was still destroying many lives right around me at the time. That dissonance aside, this was a wonderfully written, rich book that somehow touched on such disparate topics as AIDS, immigration to America, the strain of a professional life on a marriage, and life in Appalachia.
juhivarshney's review
5.0
compassionate care at its finest. his story is rooted in an immigrant's desire to belong, rampant homophobia in the rural south of the 80s, a doctor's commitment to ease suffering, and an epidemic that shook and shaped america in ways no one could have predicted. definitely need to read more of his work!!
christinede3e1's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
emrmeier's review
5.0
A great story about the beginning of the AIDS epidemic from the front line of the battle.
courtney0217's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
northstar's review against another edition
5.0
This isn't a perfect book but I am giving it five stars because it provides a well-written and fascinating perspective on the early days of the AIDS fight. Dr. Abraham Verghese is best known for his novel, Cutting for Stone, but before he was a best-selling author, he was an infectious disease specialist. Early in his career, he landed in a small city in eastern Tennessee. This was the mid-1980s and AIDS cases were starting to appear in places other than San Francisco and New York. Verghese found himself treating a number of patients whose regular physicians had abandoned their care. It is difficult to capture the tone of this memoir, much of which came from Verghese's detailed journals. He catalogs symptoms and prognoses and the inevitable declines in those days when AIDS meant certain and painful death, but it is his portraits of his patients and his struggle to help them maintain dignity that makes this book such an incredible story.
Although the book was written in the early 1990s, parts of it already feel like ancient history. The attitudes toward gay people, while far from perfect in this country, have greatly advanced in the past quarter century. Verghese is unflinching in his descriptions of prejudice and his own changing views. He is honest about the bravery of his work but also about the toll it takes on him and his family. AIDS remains a terminal illness in many parts of the world and AIDS healthcare can always see improvement but the struggles of AIDS patients to even be acknowledged in Reagan's America are now an embarrassment to our country and a testament to the activism of the early victims and their survivors. I lived through this history as a self-centered teen and it was educational to read about it as a middle-aged parent.
Highly recommended.
Although the book was written in the early 1990s, parts of it already feel like ancient history. The attitudes toward gay people, while far from perfect in this country, have greatly advanced in the past quarter century. Verghese is unflinching in his descriptions of prejudice and his own changing views. He is honest about the bravery of his work but also about the toll it takes on him and his family. AIDS remains a terminal illness in many parts of the world and AIDS healthcare can always see improvement but the struggles of AIDS patients to even be acknowledged in Reagan's America are now an embarrassment to our country and a testament to the activism of the early victims and their survivors. I lived through this history as a self-centered teen and it was educational to read about it as a middle-aged parent.
Highly recommended.