Mountains Beyond Mountains
Mountains Beyond Mountains Books
Product Description
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 right tale of a gifted man who is in like with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the focal top of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, celebrated 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 result in the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical exchange can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be made, as Farmer—brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a chief 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 consequences.
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 broadcast 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 axiom “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 exchange the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will exchange the way you see it.”
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Okay, Farmer’s a genius/saint–that’s a given.
But this book reads like a piece of hackwork.
Kidder follows Farmer nearly, one imagines, genuflecting.
The book lacks any critical/insightful analysis of Paul Farmer, and is more like a school boy’s puff piece on his favorite athlete.
(When Kidder says something that Farmer disagrees with, Kidder immediately regrets having spoken, writing that he feels he’s punched Farmer in the stomach. Give me a break.)
Geez, do I regret purchasing this book.
This is less a book about Paul Farmer, and more a book about Tracy Kidder, who seems like a wet rag.
(We get to read about Kidder’s concern when he feels a fluttering behind his nipple. A fluttering behind his nipple?!)
Lastly, Farmer, God bless him and his work, comes off having some pretty annoying personality traits.
And by the way, isn’t Tracy a girl’s name?
Rating: 1 / 5
Dr. Farmer grew up to be just like his father–he needs to be sought after, needs to dominate, and needs to be on the edge. He is the type of character who will win all kinds of humanitarian awards, but you wouldn’t want to be his son. Of the 3 Kidder books I have read, this is my least favorite and a let down.
Farmer is the type of person who gives fish to the poor so he can be appreciated and they will become dependent on him vs. teaching them how to fish so they can improve their lot in life. Of course there is a conspiracy behind everything to keep certain people poor. For example, a hydroelectric dam was built in Haiti to take away farmland from the poor rather than to provide clean, cheap electricity. He despises corporate types,but in the end reminds me of a workaholic corporate excecutive who is shallow and one-dimentional. He sees his wife and daughter for one night as he stops off on a flight from Haiti to Russia. I thought him in the end in a hotel room somewhere with a bullet through his head. The suicide note will
read–”Is that all there is?”.
Rating: 3 / 5
In Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, he tells the right tale of Dr. Paul Farmer, a man who gave up all private comforts to exchange the way medicine is practiced across the world. But, Kidder’s description of Dr. Farmer’s voyages is not as inspirational as the tale itself. Even as commenting on Farmer’s views on anthropology, Kidder describes how Farmer “had settled not for a synthesis between observing and acting, but for doctoring and broadcast health work that would be partly guided by anthropology” (Kidder 83). Even as Dr. Farmer’s opinions on the matter truly are monumental and indicative of his practices, the actual tales of Dr. Farmer’s quest are much more entertaining and effective in communicating the difference he has made. Rather than uselessly commentate on Farmer’s beliefs, Kidder may possibly have summarized his beliefs and described the countless tales he details in a much briefer make. Furthermore, Kidder does slightly play on the reader’s emotions by describing the “typical, substandard Haitian medical facilities that Farmer had come to loathe,” and the Haitian houses which had “only two rooms, and many still had dirt floors” (Kidder 107). Even as the vivid descriptions of the deprived, desperate lifestyle of many Haitians, Peruvians, Cubans, and Russians spark a desire to make a difference just like Farmer, the countless pages of commentary and description of Farmer’s beliefs result in the pace of the tale to a screeching halt, a halt from which Kidder struggles to recover. The incredible tale of Paul Farmer and the thousands of lives he has saved deserve more attention, interest, and emotion, and Kidder just may possibly not provide.
Rating: 2 / 5
Received book promptly and in new shape up as promised. I would rate seller as excellant.
Rating: 5 / 5
The challenges faced by Dr. Paul Farmer in his journey to aid impoverished countries are documented in Tracy Kidder’s biography Mountains Beyond Mountains. The author enlightens the reader through a narrative account of the years in which Farmer dedicated himself to the substandard villages of Haiti, the squalid slums of Peru, the inferior circumstances of Cuba, and the doomed prison cells of Russia to save victims of tuberculosis and AIDS. His touching experiences exhibit dedication and a rare mutual respect between himself and his patients which is when, ” `I [Paul] feel most alive’” (Kidder 295). Although this literary work contains classy humor, enjoyable characters, and regal achievements, it does not maintain the reader’s interest within the excessive pages of this private account due to unnecessary commentary.
The private narration starts with bittersweet provocativeness as Haiti’s pathetic conditions appeals to the reader’s sympathy when Paul comments, “They [Haitians] had dirt floors and roofs made of banana fronds, which, [...] leaked during rainy season, turning the floors to mud” (Kidder 40). The pace continues smoothly with a pleasant interruption with Dr. Farmer’s early life and a few charming of anecdotes of patients. Suddenly, the momentum dramatically ceases, and the reader becomes lost in a pandemonium of disconnected tales. Unfortunately, the pace doesn’t ever accelerate again. The conclusion was unsatisfactory with an inadequate and abrupt closure. There is no doubt that Paul Farmer was an incredible man with extraordinary talent; but, the lethargic flow of the plot quickly loses the interest of the audience. Although the book had excellent intentions, overall, the failure lies in the superfluous details and the differing tales.
Rating: 2 / 5