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A review by bwguinig
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and its People in the Age of AIDS by Abraham Verghese, Abraham Verghese
3.0
I read this title as a book club entry. When I borrowed it from the library, I was surprised to find it under the biography section. And I guess that's what kind of threw me for a loop when reading. As a time period piece, it certainly is interesting to see the view of AIDS and HIV as it went from nonexistence to ever-prevalent, particularly as the disease affected a very specific population of people.
That said, reading the book today, I felt the narrative framework to be heavy-handed and not particularly illuminating outside of fulfilling any number of stereotypes of doctors, foreign-born subset. The language reads as someone wanting to be deep, not dissimilar to what I think when I re-read something I wrote when I was in high school.
It is not to discount the experiences or stories of those contained within the memoir. The memoir, itself, seems at times exploitive and patronizing of and to its many subjects. The story concludes in the early 90's, and no epilogue provides the certainly seemingly brighter outlook for many that have HIV.
That said, reading the book today, I felt the narrative framework to be heavy-handed and not particularly illuminating outside of fulfilling any number of stereotypes of doctors, foreign-born subset. The language reads as someone wanting to be deep, not dissimilar to what I think when I re-read something I wrote when I was in high school.
It is not to discount the experiences or stories of those contained within the memoir. The memoir, itself, seems at times exploitive and patronizing of and to its many subjects. The story concludes in the early 90's, and no epilogue provides the certainly seemingly brighter outlook for many that have HIV.