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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Such An amazing read! This guy is my inspiration and someone I also don’t want to turn into.. show does he do it? Idk man. Super good book. Highly recommend. It’s got public health! Global health! Narrative! Adventure! Heartbreak! So much more.
Biography of Paul Farmer, MD PhD, who was an infectious disease anthropologies who founded "Partner in Health (PIH)". The book provides background on Paul's youth, education and how he began his efforts working with patients in Haiti. Also provides detailed info on early PIH efforts, founding/growth and partners (Ophelia, Tom White, and Jim Kim). Book also talks about Paul's efforts with patients with multiple-drug resistant (MDR) Tuberculosis (TB), HIV and his global efforts (Haiti, Peru, Cuba & Russia).
Perhaps one of the most influential books I’ve read in a long time. It’s been on my shelf for far too many years, and seems serendipitous that I finally read it at this time. Deeply moving, a reminder of the inequities that haunt our world, and more specifically healthcare, and an inspiration to do more, to break the barriers and find ways to provide care for all, not just for some. Dr. Paul Farmer was truly a revolutionary, and his legacy lives on, not only through Kidder’s words, but through PIH and the monumental influence he had on international public health.
Amazing look into a relentless doctor who has done so much for the people of Haiti, and around the world. Tracy Kidder is a fantastic writer and true journalist and this book reads like one great, long magazine or newspaper article at times (and I mean that in the best way possible). Inspiring book, even though Farmer clearly takes on much more than any other person ever could. My favorite part is that it challenges you to think about your own relationship to the world - especially in the parts where Farmer explains why he is ok with being away from his own family, saying that when he is not working people die and why is it more important to see his own child than to save the lives of other children - that each person is the same to him. Wow.
paul farmer is an extraordinary person. though highly respected and able to work at almost any hospital, he chooses to devote his energy to haiti, the poorest in the western hemisphere. this book is about his life and work and it is very interesting (and an inspiration too!)
A pinnacle example of outstanding reporting and a template for how to write an engaging profile. What a subject Kidder has in Dr. Farmer, a modern-day saint who has dedicated his life to serving the poor.
My critique is not with the book or its subject, exactly, but in the larger political, environmental, and cultural forces that have made Farmer's work so necessary. Indeed, Farmer is an inspiration and a hero, a one-man counterargument against the policies of entire governments and international consortia. The flip side of his story is how much we, collectively, have created the conditions for abject poverty, then failed (and continue to fail) to address even most basic needs. Reading this during the COVID pandemic, years after the book was first published, it felt like an indictment: I felt fully invested and inspired by what Farmer has accomplished, and simultaneously saddened that our greediest impulses have become ever more emboldened and sanctioned--a world that requires his heroics, then and now. Wouldn't it be amazing to have systemic progress, so that Farmer's story could become something of a time capsule; where in future generations, readers would wonder, puzzled, at what type of society required someone like Farmer at all?
My critique is not with the book or its subject, exactly, but in the larger political, environmental, and cultural forces that have made Farmer's work so necessary. Indeed, Farmer is an inspiration and a hero, a one-man counterargument against the policies of entire governments and international consortia. The flip side of his story is how much we, collectively, have created the conditions for abject poverty, then failed (and continue to fail) to address even most basic needs. Reading this during the COVID pandemic, years after the book was first published, it felt like an indictment: I felt fully invested and inspired by what Farmer has accomplished, and simultaneously saddened that our greediest impulses have become ever more emboldened and sanctioned--a world that requires his heroics, then and now. Wouldn't it be amazing to have systemic progress, so that Farmer's story could become something of a time capsule; where in future generations, readers would wonder, puzzled, at what type of society required someone like Farmer at all?
First, let me confess I fell "in love" with Paul Farmer. It's the kind of love I have for all people who spend their adult life making a difference for others. It's never about "them" but about "others." Tracy Kidder writing style and smooth and conversational. He story about this incredible man, Paul Farmer, is a story of the best of humanity. It's a salve on a cruel people in power who make bad decisions about others. I loved it.
What a powerful, powerful story. May he rest in easy peace.
A life well lived
Well written and we'll researched book about Paul Farmer....but really it's about the moral imperative to treat everyone as we treat ourselves and our own family.
Well written and we'll researched book about Paul Farmer....but really it's about the moral imperative to treat everyone as we treat ourselves and our own family.