My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story
Posted by admin | Posted in Aid | Posted on 03-08-2010
5
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.
My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story
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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 treat. Yeccchh!
Rating: 1 / 5
Not only does this book provide a limited look at Aids in a small community, but gives us an idea 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 practice 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 amount 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 old ways. Our mountains provide isolation from new ideas and changes to our regional dialect. But we all are not so ignorant as he would have you believe. Johnson City has a university and a medical school. I enjoyed 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 Country 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 country.
Rating: 2 / 5
This based-on the author’s true-story details the time he was just starting out as a doctor. He picked a Hospital 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 big cities AIDS victims were met with fear 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
Abraham Verghese may occasionally turn a good phrase, but the book rarely gets deeper than that. It plods along the winding and convoluted path of his experiences treating AIDS patients in rural Tennessee.
His stories are occasionally interesting and enlightening, most particularly when they focus on the patients, their families, and how they deal with this devastating disease.
Unfortunately, the author suffers from self-centered myopia. He spends far too much time discussing himself–a subject he clearly finds fascinating. Even with all meandering introspection, he never manages to question his own convictions. He manages to question the integrity of the local culture, America, and even his ailing patients, but he never examines his own attitudes with the same scrutiny and condescension he applies to others’.
In the end, the book had a few redeeming qualities, but they were squelched by the author’s annoying know-it-all tone. His long-winded focus on self detracted from what could have been a powerful collection of stories.
Rating: 1 / 5
It was delivered very quickly, which I was pleased about. However, there was a small blood-like stain on the book, which I wish I knew about before purchasing.
Rating: 4 / 5