Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House Reader's Circle)
ISBN:9780812980554 read summary

Wow! Talk about an amazing human being. I felt so unaccomplished, and yet very inspired.

This book reads like a thriller; you can't put it down. The depressing thing is that years after it was written, the situation in Haiti has not improved! Will it ever? Can we ever do enough? Even if we spend as much time, energy and resources on it as Dr. Farmer?

Wow, what a read. Neat to think of Paul Farmer as a contemporary -- not some saint who lived in the days of yore. Although I enjoyed it, I thought it was a little long and speed read some of the sections, but overall this is an inspiring, compelling book.

This is a fascinating and fascinated account of Dr. Paul Farmer, a heroic doctor who has dedicated his life to helping the poor and combat infectious diseases all around the globe, but especially in Haiti. In the age of the monstrous celebrity and the muckracking biographies, it is refreshing to come across such and individual as Farmer, and such an account as Kidder's. The book chronicles Farmer's life and lifework, from his time as a child living in a ship in Florida with a colorful family, through his first experiences in dealing with poor patients in the US and then Haiti, and potentialy deadly TB outbreaks in Peru and Russia. The book is at its best when Kidder focuses on Paul Farmer in the hot zones, battling bureacrats and even revolutions; it's at its weakest precisely when it tries to focus on Paul Farmer, the person, and when it flirts with the obligatory temptation to explain Farmer's heroic, obsessive, desire to do good as a symptom of some monomaniacal disorder. Fortunately, Farmer and the author himself put quickly a stop to this line of thought. What the book makes clear is that Paul Farmer's life IS HIS WORK, and we are all better off because of that. This is an important book, and this account of Farmer's life should be an antidote to any despairing pessimists about human nature and humans ability to do good and change the world.

I loved the way this book was written which drew me into the story of Paul Farmer from the start and found it hard to stop reading. Paul Farmer is a very inspirational person and I hope to be able to do at least a fraction of what he's done in the future. Great read for those who are interested in humanitarian work, public health and international health.