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A review by bartendm
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese
3.0
Cutting for Stone is one of my absolute favorite novels, so I was excited to read this memoir of Dr. Verghese's actual practice. It was very interesting to learn more about his actual life and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and homophobia that was so much attached to attempts at treatment. I am glad to have read the book to gain an understanding of real people's lives affected by the disease and also how hard it must have been for those caring for them.
I was disappointed in the quality of the writing though, as it felt more like a diary than a memoir with a significant story arc and transformation of the author. As a result, I had to force myself to continue at times. This was his first major work after completing an MFA and we are lucky that his skill as a writer continued to improve as evidenced in Cutting for Stone.
My Own Country felt like a eulogy for many of the patients highlighted, as if each patient needed to be honored with as many words as possible. As a result, the life of the memoirist felt like it was more in the background and we lost the benefit of the transitions in his own life that happened during that time. There were the bad dreams and the sense he was getting burnt out, but it took reading his interviews for me to understand more of what happened to Abraham the person during those years.
I was disappointed in the quality of the writing though, as it felt more like a diary than a memoir with a significant story arc and transformation of the author. As a result, I had to force myself to continue at times. This was his first major work after completing an MFA and we are lucky that his skill as a writer continued to improve as evidenced in Cutting for Stone.
My Own Country felt like a eulogy for many of the patients highlighted, as if each patient needed to be honored with as many words as possible. As a result, the life of the memoirist felt like it was more in the background and we lost the benefit of the transitions in his own life that happened during that time. There were the bad dreams and the sense he was getting burnt out, but it took reading his interviews for me to understand more of what happened to Abraham the person during those years.