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Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
: I had to read this book for my political science class on contemporary political issues. The book was part of the section on issues of power. Although I started the book reluctantly, to my surprise I put off my pleasure reading to finish it in three days. The book is nonfiction and tells the story of Paul Farmer, a young doctor and Harvard professor who starts a comprehensive health care system called Zanmi Lasante ("Partners in Health" - also the name of the parent organization based in America) in the Cange in Haiti. Farmer develops innovative techniques to help poor patients take care of diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis. Partners in Health's work expands to Peru, Cuba, and Russia, and Farmer becomes a main player in the World Health Organization (WHO)'s treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in several poor countries. It's both inspiring and entertaining.
Farmer's life is instrumental to the success of this book. His work is interesting and shows clearly how one person can make a world of difference with an understanding of politics, disease, and power. The book is also engaging because of Kidder's writing style. In class, we talked about how Kidder has never written a book in which he has chosen to make himself a character, except in this one. It works very effectively though because Kidder has many of the same questions and responses that we would have if we were to encounter Farmer, and through Kidder we're able to understand and appreciate his work more.
 I am a fan of Tracy Kidder's books and was delighted to find this book to be well-rounded and thoughtful. Paul Farmer's childhood, education background, social service, and medical experiences are presented to us in a way that allows the reader draw his or her own conclusions. I found it easier to read this book slowly as a lot of information is there all at once. Then after a while, I went back to re-read some chapters or sections that resonated.
 Mountains Beyond Mountains is an excellent work of inspiration and hope. Obviously it's a look inside the life and career of Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer came from a meager background but excelled enough in his studies to find himself in a unique position. He could doctor to the world-not just the affluent but the poor. Perhaps the people who need it most. At a young age Farmer found himself visiting Haiti (one of the poorest and most third-world of places) and was changed forever. He set up a health clinic there that provides services to the poor and even occasionally hikes hours into the countryside of this tumultuous country to call on patients. This book shows that being a good human, that is, doing what's right pays off even if everyone doesn't follow suit. Farmer wouldn't like it but this book shows him to be a moral exemplar of how we all should be. Throughout the book you'll read about how Farmer has been involved globally to help eradicate TB in places like Peru and Russian prisons, how he has spoken at various forums around the world to show that each patient is a priority regardless of if it is cost-effective or not to treat them. Also, one comes to realize by Farmer's example and efforts that there are more important things in the world than accumulating wealth. What's the old saying that it's better to give than to receive? Early on in the book one of Farmer's patients proclaims that he's a saint. After reading the book it's easy to see why.
As Mountains Beyond Mountains tells the story of Paul Farmer, a moral saint and co-founder of Partners in Health, it makes an excellent study of the effects that one man, or a small group of dedicated individuals, can have on the world. Paul Farmer has certainly made a difference, especially in providing remarkably high quality medical care to the desperately poor in Central Haiti. The book is also excellent as an emotional appeal, because it is written in a style that helps the reader to believe he is standing nearby as the events of the narrative unfold.
The one flaw in the narrative is its somewhat excessive use of guilt, which to his credit the author admits in the text as intentional. My personal belief is that, rather than simply exhorting support and involvement with movements to help the Haitian poor, it would have been more productive to give a general outline of what generally needs to be done to help bring Haiti out of abject misery and into "decent poverty" - as former President Aristide once said.
Nevertheless, on the whole, this is an excellent introduction to the basic problems confronting Haiti, as well a solid biography of the one man who jump-started the effort to fix the problems rather than merely bemoaning the impossibility of solving them.
If you read the first page, you will continue to read. You will lose sleep, just like its subject, because there is far more to do. This is the account of a man, Dr Paul Farmer, who is willing to travel across the world in a rumpled suit to fight for social medical equalities, and across Haiti in 7 hour treks by foot to make 'house calls' to the most oppressed peoples in the Western Continent. 'House' is an irony, because in this Tracy Kidder book 'house' is a 2 Haitian room hut with a mud floor that is lucky to have a straw mat and rat-proofing on the grain equipment. Paul Farmer's clinic in Haiti is really the Soul the New Machine. Children, in a country that has been raped of all hope and the deforestation to symbolize it, are gathering water in terpentine cans. Can you imagine if it were you who was sick in the rainy season, hungry, ill, in the mud, and on a straw mat, and with no hope? It is an outrage to think that this happens in a world where the US spends more on pet grooming than on meeting even the basic needs of the oppressed. DOESN'T THIS MAKE YOU ANGRY??????
This is a great book about a man that has so much passion to get at the heart of what really matters, doing onto others how you would have them do onto you. I have read and enjoyed other Tracy Kidder books, but I think this one is especially wonderful. Kidder trails Paul Farmer who is an amazing, energetic, passionate person who takes the Golden Rule to the nth degree and will stop at nothing, neither in Boston, nor in Haiti or Lima or Siberia. The book is about dialogues, Farmers' youth, Farmers' loves, about Farmer's quirky and feisty way with the English language brought on by his passion for equitable public health and medical care. I can't tell you exactly what makes this a great book, but Tracy Kidder has a great way with words and you both will not want to put this book down. And then you will go to Partners in Health and wonder what you can do from afar (or perhaps nearer).
What can I say. You must read the book. And I do hope that Amazon,com is contributing to Partners in Health, for every sale of this book. I just saw something by the Earth Institute that says that the US media spends 1/10th of what European countries spend on hunger and issues of the developing world. The US IS ASLEEP!!! Let's get out of the thread-count mentality and start thinking what sanitation and potable water could do as starters!
This is a must-read for any citizen of the world.
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