Mountains Beyond Mountains
Did anyone end up actually reading the book? The due date was Nov 1, right?
posted by Freedom Man at 1:22 PM
(bĕl-lĕ'trə) - term was synonymous with literature, referring particularly to fiction, poetry, drama, criticism, and essays
posted by Freedom Man at 1:22 PM
3 Comments:
Alright, it looks like no one has actually finished reading the book, and since I have read most of it (it's pretty hard to get motivated to read this thing), I think that I am going to go ahead and comment on it. Maybe I'll throw another one of these out there once (and if) I actually finish the book.
First thing, let me say that it really bothers me when a book says that it is going to inspirational, and then it is not. This happened with "The Life of Pi", which I hated, but everyone seemed to love. The introduction said that the story would make me believe in God again, and all it did was annoy me. Similar concept here with this book. The back of the book talks about modern day heroes, etc., but I found a lot of this guy pretty annoying.
Let me say before I go on to hit this book, that I really did like the writing. I was surprised by the author when I heard him talk - I thought he sounded surprisingly pretty smart. His writing, although stylistically sometimes imperfect (incomplete sentences, etc.), is very erudite and almost conversational. The style makes for an interesting read because it is such a strange perspective for a biography. I guess mean to say that I did like the trees, but not the forest.
Alright, so here goes. I was surprised to find out how much I identified with the main character of this book. I found a lot of his odd mannerisms, as they were described, were similar to ones that I possess. However, I did not find Paul Farmer to be that inspirational of a character. Maybe it is because I don't think that the book really did all that much justice to the fights that he sees. Maybe it is because I didn't get to see as much of the process of his creativity as Tracy Kidder did, but I found Paul Farmer to moody and arrogant. It bothered me that when Farmer was in a position of power, when he was the doctor treating a patient, he was much more friendly and open, as if he were putting on some facade (I think that quote from the book went something like. "Paul Farmer was not put on this Earth to make anybody comfortable besides his patients. And for the moment, I was lucky enough to be one of them."), but when he was relating with someone on a peer-to-peer level, he seemed a lot more aloof, and sometimes even a bit pretentious (for example when he has those few days of being angry at Tracy Kidder). It makes me feel that this whole thing is some sort of face that he puts on to feel powerful.
Of course, one of the more intelligent things that he said was taking preemptive strike against comments like the one I just made when I think Tracy said that people were always trying to find some fault with Paul to make themselves feel better. This is certainly possible, as is always the case when some criticizes another. Maybe I should make the distinction that it was the character Paul Farmer about whom I felt this way. In person, he might actually be the person that Tracy Kidder purports him to be.
I think that after seeing Tracy Kidder speak, I was much more impressed with both him and Paul Farmer. Maybe I should have just left it at that, and not have read the book, as I was planning on doing.
That's my impression. I'm interested to see what everyone else thought. Peace.
Well, I just finished the book, and I have to say that I think that I was pretty wrong about Paul Farmer. I think that my previous comments do sort of hold, but they were made without proper perspective on the book. The ending of the book is really well, attesting to Kidder's talent as a writer. It is odd that I found so many grammatical mistakes in his writing, yet I consider him a good writer. There is just something about the tone and pace that he uses that makes those mistakes seem like they belong.
Paul Farmer, while I am reluctant to use the word, is a genius of sorts. This especially shown towards the end of the book, where he refutes the argument about why the exorbitant amount of money spent to save just one patient was not a waste. I have to admit, I caught myself falling into the traps that he talks about, before he explained it. I think that Kidder is right, Farmer's "genius" is function of his ability to make apparent craziness work better than conventional wisdom, just by refocussing the perspective.
I have been on a roll of books that I have not liked, and am glad that I read this one. Not to bash it again (well, maybe I am), but I was sore at "Life of Pi" for not accomplishing the goal that it had set out to complete. However, the back of this book says that things along the lines of "genuine hero", "profoundly inspiring" and "unexpectedly revised set of values", and I have happy say that it did exactly that.
wow, I forgot that this was one of the books. I read this in August 2007 (well after the deadline) on the train from Gujarat (Western India) to Tamil Nadu (Southern India). It made the hot, sweaty 2 day ride fly by. Unlike Freedom man, I was inspired by it from the beginning. Which is funny because I originally avoided it as I thought it would be … fluffy.
Unfortunately, it’s been so long that I don’t have many direct quotes or examples to cite. I remember that I would re-read chapters of it to re-energize myself during the last few months that I spent volunteering in the hills. It is hands-down the most inspiring book that I’ve ever read.
If I think of more, I’ll write it up at some point.
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