Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
by Tracy Kidder
List Price:
Our Price: $4.60
You Save: $11.35 (71%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.19 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Tracy KidderEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-08-31
ISBN: 0812973011
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Book Review: Solving the World's Big Problems
Summary: 5 Stars
I haven't read Tracy Kidder since The Soul of a New Machine which I loved. Obviously that was a mistake. This book is excellent and its subject, inspiring: the life and work of Paul Farmer makes me believe that all the big problems of the world would be soluble if people had attitudes similar to his--and that he's capable of infecting anyone who gets anywhere near him, maybe even just reading this book. People don't of course generally have Farmer's attitudes, but still he has accomplished much by a relatively simple philosophy--that it's wrong (and unnecessary) for there to be desperately poor people in the world. For him that translates into bringing top notch medical care to every citizen of the planet. He thought that could be done without the usual rationale for how to help the poor: doing the greatest good for the greatest number with the resources you have. Farmer's biggest success was convincing the medical world that they were wrong in thinking the best way to fight TB was to concentrate on drug programs for those with TB which could be cured by the most common (read "inexpensive") drugs and ignoring (i.e. leaving to die) those with MDR (multi drug resistant TB) which needed careful diagnosis to figure out which combination of very expensive drugs were necessary. In Farmer's world view, every person on the planet deserved the same medical care; he was impervious to anyone who tried to suggest to him that that wasn't "practical". In the MDR case, he found a test site in Peru and proved his point, not the least of which was that if the world left the MDR cases went untreated, it would facilitate the spread of the most dangerous kind of TB. Farmer also thinks there's no population with AIDS that does not deserve to be treated with the latest drugs. Along the way he's brought dying children from Haiti to Boston for treatment and cures, and brought open-heart surgery to the poorest part of Haiti. The organization he founded, Partners in Health, perpetrates his messianic philosophy of medicine.
Farmer works in two very disparate worlds he very much wants to bring closer together: Harvard Medical School and the top notch Boston hospitals that gives him access to and his clinic in the central highlands of the poorest country in the western hemisphere--Haiti. He started the work in Haiti before he even went to medical school himself and obtained his medical degree plus a PhD in anthropology at the same time, while spending significant amounts of time at his Haitian clinic. He's clearly one of those smart, driven and extremely energetic souls whose drive to accomplish is nothing short of miraculous.
Kidder doesn't say how he chose Farmer as a subject for his book, but it's clear his research extended over several years during which he visited Farmer in Haiti and Boston many times--and traveled with him to international conferences and to places where Farmer was working such as the slums of Lima, Peru and the prison system of Russia. Kidder is one of those writers whose books evolve organically, without a clear chronology or even a topical outline. If there's one organizing principal it's Kidder's own experience with Farmer, from his first impressions through his broadening understanding of a complex man and his work. The book is a joy to read and Farmer's life is nothing short of an inspiration. This book may be the perfect melding of superb writer and worthy subject.
More Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Summary of Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer-brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti-blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this book is the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it."
From the Hardcover edition.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in General Books
Quiet Strengthby Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker
Tyndale House Publishers; Tyndale House Publishers; Release date: 2007-07-10; Published: 2007-07-10; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
For Laciby Sharon Rocha
Random House Audio; Published: 2005-12-27; Audio Cassette; Book
Price in other shops:
Trumanby David McCullough
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1992-06-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.95
Price in other shops:
Same Kind Of Different As Meby Ron Hall, Denver Moore
Thomas Nelson; Published: 2006; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.06
Price in other shops:
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst The Rwandan Holocaustby Immaculee Ilibagiza
Hay House; Published: 2006-03-15; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $14.53
Price in other shops:
Lost Boyby David J. Pelzer
Orion; Published: 2001-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $46.00
October Sky (The Coalwood Series #1)by Homer H. Hickam
Fourth Estate; Published: 1999-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.21
Price in other shops:
Seabiscuitby Laura Hillenbrand
Random House Audio; Published: 2003-06-05; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $9.88
Price in other shops:
" Have A Nice Day "by Mick Foley
HarperCollins; Published: 2000; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $51.48
The Revolution: A Manifestoby Ron Paul
Hachette Audio; Published: 2008-04-30; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $15.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Scienceby Atul Gawande
Picador; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performanceby Atul Gawande
Picador; Published: 2008-01-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldierby Ishmael Beah
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2008-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops:
The Uses of Haiti (3rd Edition)by Paul Farmer
Common Courage Press; Published: 2005-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle)by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Timeby Jeffrey Sachs
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.59
Price in other shops:
Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plaguesby Paul Farmer
University of California Press; Published: 2001-02-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.80
Price in other shops:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Downby Anne Fadiman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1998-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor (California Series in Public Anthropology, 4)by Paul Farmer
University of California Press; Published: 2004-11-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Timeby Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
Penguin Books; Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops: