Helpful Score: 5
What an amazing story. A good doctor (an amazing talented writer) in a bad system. If more doctors were this involved with their patients well being we would have a much stronger medical system.
Well written examples of social stigmas and biases. An real eye opener.
Well written examples of social stigmas and biases. An real eye opener.
Helpful Score: 4
Out of Dr. Verghese's experience comes a startling but ultimately uplifting portrait of the American heartland as it confronts and surmounts it deepest prejudices and fears. A very good read.
Helpful Score: 2
Abraham is an impassioned man of Indian descent and who grew up in Africa. He became a physician and worked in rural US in the beginning stages of the AIDS epidemic. He is now a professor at Stanford University Medical School, teaching the more relationship side of medicine. He continues to write.
Helpful Score: 2
By the author of CUTTING FOR STONE, this is Verghese's autobiography beginning when he had arrived in the U.S. from Ethiopia and India. It is a fascinating story of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the States. In particular Verghese was located in rural Eastern Tennessee.
Although it sounds as if it must be a depressing book, in fact, it was wonderful. It was not a quick read as there was so much detail in it! But it WAS fascinating as the reader got to know Abraham's patients intimately. It was wonderful how much he loved them all and cared for them in a way that we all wish our doctors would care for us.
If you enjoy autobiography and you also are lucky enough to understand a bit of medicine, I think you will really enjoy this book.
Although it sounds as if it must be a depressing book, in fact, it was wonderful. It was not a quick read as there was so much detail in it! But it WAS fascinating as the reader got to know Abraham's patients intimately. It was wonderful how much he loved them all and cared for them in a way that we all wish our doctors would care for us.
If you enjoy autobiography and you also are lucky enough to understand a bit of medicine, I think you will really enjoy this book.
Abraham Verghese is a magnificent writer. I adored Cutting For Stone and this autobiographical book did not disappoint. I found it very poignant as I cared for many AIDS patient as an RN back in the early terrifying years. I have lost many belove friends to AIDS. I am so thankful for the compassion of the author and others like him.
Not what I was expecting, but a well-written book. Verghese was working as an Infectious Disease specialist in a small Tennessee community in the mid-1980s when the first wave of AIDS patients were beginning to return to their families as their disease -- still poorly understood and nearly untreatable -- began its terminal stage. His struggles to treat these patients and to comprehend what the epidemic meant to small towns and medical facilities forms the heart of the book, while his personal struggles to balance family and professional life are background issues.
Amazing story or an amazingly tragic episode in humanity. The selected stories of individuals made it more poignant and horrible. Glad to have the education.
