My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story
My Own People: A Doctor’s Tale Books
- ISBN13: 9780679752929
- Shape up: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City saw its first AIDS patient in August 1985. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases who became, by necessity, the local AIDS expert. Out of his experience comes a startling, ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland.
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What a lousy book! Verghese seems far more enamored with himself and his pen than the people he is supposed to handle. Yeccchh!
Rating: 1 / 5
Not only does this book provide a limited look at Aids in a small community, but gives us an thought of the mind of a foreign doctor’s prejudice towards what he sees as a backwards area of the USA. I am a native of Johnson City, TN, the location of his medical do described in this book. I was raised here, left in 1979 and traveled extensively till returning in 1995. I too view my home town with a certain quantity of detachment and objectiveness, which leads to a bit of embarrassment and distain. Yes, the rural parts of this mountainous area are full of the ancient ways. Our mountains provide isolation from new thoughts and changes to our regional dialect. But we all are not so ignorant as he would have you judge. Johnson City has a university and a medical school. I loved reading about my home town, the locations and streets of which I am familiar, BUT the attitude of superority in the doctors narrative is beyond condensending and is more insulting to the members of this city of over fifty thousand. The editors must have deleted part of his origonal title ” My Own People is Better Than Yours”. Doctor, go back to India and tell us how the “have nots” live there, and Please limit your insults to YOUR own people.
Rating: 2 / 5
This based-on the author’s right-tale details the time he was just starting out as a doctor. He picked a Sickbay in smalltown United States where he would be the infectious disease specialist. Suddenly, cases of AIDS appeared even in that small town. It was the 80’s epidemic and as it spread from the huge cities AIDS victims were met with dread and a lack of compassion from most doctors. Verghese was one of the few who truly listened to and cared for his patients through such a terrible disease.
Rating: 3 / 5
Having loved some of Verghese’s essays, I looked forward to My Own People. But I was disappointed by the clumsy writing and the lack of cohesiveness. And I was irritated by his persistent focus on his own feelings even as faced with the tragic tales of his patients. So often in the book, he relates some terrible anecdote and then goes on to say how it reminds him of his own situation–which, of course, is absolutely absurd. The value of the book lies in the tales of the AIDS patients, and I’m left wishing that Verghese had made this book more of a “patients’ tale” than a “doctor’s tale.”
Rating: 2 / 5
It was delivered very quickly, which I was pleased about. But, there was a small blood-like stain on the book, which I wish I knew about before purchasing.
Rating: 4 / 5