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A review by rachelb36
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese
3.0
3.5 stars
Verghese is an infectious diseases doctor and tells of treating HIV/AIDS patients in rural Tennessee in the mid-late 1980s, when AIDS was seen as a "big city" disease. There were several things I didn't like about this book, but I think why I enjoyed it overall is simply because I learned a lot about AIDS (for instance, I never knew that AIDS dementia was a thing or that AIDS can cause blindness) and I really like learning!
I enjoyed hearing the stories of his various patients - how they came to acquire HIV and how they dealt with it. There were so many patients mentioned, however, that some of them began to run together.
I also enjoyed reading about his marriage - he and his wife went on three dates before he proposed and they asked their parents to arrange their marriage. They clearly didn't know each other well, or even try to, and didn't seem to particularly like each other. I was really hoping they would improve their communication and work things out, but this storyline never really goes anywhere in the book. (Google has confirmed that they opted to end their marriage. Sad.)
It's fairly impossible to read a memoir and not take into account the author's tone and personality. On that note, Verghese struck me as selfish and self-righteous. He portrays himself as an outsider and even a martyr, of sorts - he laments about being Indian among white people, Ethiopian-born among Indians, an AIDS doctor among other professionals who are in more estimable practices (according to society and their salaries). He complains that his wife doesn't understand his draw to work with AIDS patients and doesn't approve (though, as I said, he doesn't seem to know her very well). He actually says at one point that he views himself as non-judgmental, and he's clearly very proud of the fact that he can see beyond an HIV diagnosis to view a full person; while it's great that he doesn't pass judgment on his patients, he spends an awful lot of time judging everyone else. He jumped to a lot of conclusions about others' thoughts and opinions, which he had no way of knowing.
A few other points:
- There's quite a bit of profanity, including God's name taken in vain.
- Due to the nature of the book, it's not much of a surprise that there are a lot of sexual references (some stories go into more detail than necessary).
- A glossary defining some of the medical terms and Indian words he used (or at least explaining them when they appear) would have been helpful.
- There's a lot of detail of geography and medical procedures that could get tedious for anyone who doesn't really enjoy reading.
So overall, I liked this, but it would take a special person for me to recommend it to.
Verghese is an infectious diseases doctor and tells of treating HIV/AIDS patients in rural Tennessee in the mid-late 1980s, when AIDS was seen as a "big city" disease. There were several things I didn't like about this book, but I think why I enjoyed it overall is simply because I learned a lot about AIDS (for instance, I never knew that AIDS dementia was a thing or that AIDS can cause blindness) and I really like learning!
I enjoyed hearing the stories of his various patients - how they came to acquire HIV and how they dealt with it. There were so many patients mentioned, however, that some of them began to run together.
I also enjoyed reading about his marriage - he and his wife went on three dates before he proposed and they asked their parents to arrange their marriage. They clearly didn't know each other well, or even try to, and didn't seem to particularly like each other. I was really hoping they would improve their communication and work things out, but this storyline never really goes anywhere in the book. (Google has confirmed that they opted to end their marriage. Sad.)
It's fairly impossible to read a memoir and not take into account the author's tone and personality. On that note, Verghese struck me as selfish and self-righteous. He portrays himself as an outsider and even a martyr, of sorts - he laments about being Indian among white people, Ethiopian-born among Indians, an AIDS doctor among other professionals who are in more estimable practices (according to society and their salaries). He complains that his wife doesn't understand his draw to work with AIDS patients and doesn't approve (though, as I said, he doesn't seem to know her very well). He actually says at one point that he views himself as non-judgmental, and he's clearly very proud of the fact that he can see beyond an HIV diagnosis to view a full person; while it's great that he doesn't pass judgment on his patients, he spends an awful lot of time judging everyone else. He jumped to a lot of conclusions about others' thoughts and opinions, which he had no way of knowing.
A few other points:
- There's quite a bit of profanity, including God's name taken in vain.
- Due to the nature of the book, it's not much of a surprise that there are a lot of sexual references (some stories go into more detail than necessary).
- A glossary defining some of the medical terms and Indian words he used (or at least explaining them when they appear) would have been helpful.
- There's a lot of detail of geography and medical procedures that could get tedious for anyone who doesn't really enjoy reading.
So overall, I liked this, but it would take a special person for me to recommend it to.