hgranger's review against another edition
4.0
The book is alright, it’s a bit slow-moving—the four stars are really for Dr. Farmer and the amazing work he does. I don’t actually know what Tracy Kidder could have done differently to tell the story; he did a good job painting the picture of Farmer, PIH and the incredible suffering in the world that they’re trying to relieve. Dr. Farmer states at one point that he’s “running the long defeat” and it might seem futile to try to save one person when so very many are suffering, but Kidder does a good job getting the message across that we would each feel much differently if that one person was ourselves or someone dear to us.
Another quote that really stood out to me was at the Charles de Gaulle airport, when Kidder comments on how Haiti feels like a completely different world from where they are at that moment and Farmer responds with “but that would be...wrong.” It’s so easy to close our eyes to suffering and pain and pretend it’s in a different world when in reality we’re all in this same one together and are equally responsible in trying to make it a better place.
It’s hard to rate (and read!) a book that essentially just describes how awful and hopeless some people’s lives are, but perhaps that’s what makes this book important—to help us see what’s outside our comfort zones and maybe spur us into action.
Another quote that really stood out to me was at the Charles de Gaulle airport, when Kidder comments on how Haiti feels like a completely different world from where they are at that moment and Farmer responds with “but that would be...wrong.” It’s so easy to close our eyes to suffering and pain and pretend it’s in a different world when in reality we’re all in this same one together and are equally responsible in trying to make it a better place.
It’s hard to rate (and read!) a book that essentially just describes how awful and hopeless some people’s lives are, but perhaps that’s what makes this book important—to help us see what’s outside our comfort zones and maybe spur us into action.
littlealk7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
jennjames's review against another edition
3.0
Paul Farmer is an amazing man, and I'm very glad that I've read part of his story. But, this book was very hard for me to get through. There are very few books that I don't finish. And the only reason I pushed through on this one, is that a friend loaned it to me, and we are going to see a discussion by the author. I would have taken much longer to read it if it were my own book, because I would have read some other books in between to lighten things up a bit.