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Title: My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by A. Verghese, Abraham Vergehese ISBN: 0-679-75292-7 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.66 (44 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: This account of the early days of AIDS rings true.
Comment: As a physician who was just finishing training when AIDS burst on the scene in the 80's, the panic and fear among medical staff described in this book are actually tame to what I saw in my hospital. I am one of those "who would, " as Dr. Verghese categorized those who would or would not care for HIV infected patients, and this truly separated us from the vast majority of those at that time who let their fear rule over their intellect. Dr. Verghese tells this exciting story with great compassion for his patients and their families, and it is clear that his emotional connection to them, which is stongly discouraged in medical training, came at great personal cost. As someone who now lives and practices in East Tennessee, I feel he accurately described the people, the culture, and the region's great beauty. His yearning to fit in--to have a home--is poignantly obvious throughout the book even as he becomes more and more isolated from his family and his collegues. Several of my collegues trained under or worked with Dr. Verghese during this time, and they all attest to his brilliance as a diagnostician, his great empathy for his patients, his nonjudgemental approach to the gay lifestyle, and his decency and approachability as a person. This book, in their opinions, is an accurate portrayal of the AIDS story in the rural setting. I am drawn to medical writing, particularly when written by physicians themselves, and Dr. Verghese is a master. This book moved me to tears as the deaths of all of these patients began to add up toward the end of the book, and one can't help but to feel the great waste of life that this virus causes. As a hospice medical director, I was also touched by Dr. Verghese's struggle to understand the process of dying, moving from his all-out attempts to save lives at the beginning of the book to his hospice-oriented approach toward the end. This is a masterful telling of how AIDS affects everyone -- patients, families, and doctors alike.
Rating: 5
Summary: Physician & Philosopher, Dr. V. illumines Aides' human face
Comment: Having read Dr. Verghese's Tennis Partner first, I wanted to read his first book as well. And then I wanted to read another book with his signature of insight, tenderheartedness, depth of understanding in the practice of medicine. There was no other to be found. What he is able to do in this human history of the appearance of Aides in a rural city, far from the places where Aides originally tallied high mortality rates, is to make you look again at who has the disease, what toll is takes on those who love them, and the very particular social structure in which they find themselves. He tells us, as well, about the culture of the hospital in its attitude toward the patients and he the physician in his treatment of the increasing numbers who seek his care--healing he cannot bring, but care in abundance. Best of all, he shares himself with us--as he did in the Tennis Partner. To expose oneself this way takes great courage. And that is what I like best about Dr. Verghese--his courage. Please continue to write, Dr. V., about the things which matter most. Thank you.
Rating: 5
Summary: My Own Country, my home town.
Comment: This book is an amazing way to discover the hardships that those must over come who are diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. I am from Johnson City, TN. As a part of a clinical I was doing in high school we were given many options of books to read for a grade, this was one. I was drawn to it because hey, this was my home town. But what I got from this book overcame everything I had expected.
I wept reading this book. It is amazing how you get to know Dr. Verghese and his patients. You, in a way, experience their hardships and triumps, even the families loss. He explains word for word the exhausting battle of finding out and forming a plan of action. He puts you into the realization of these individuals and what they felt. You begin to morn their loosing battles and celebrate in their strength in recovery.
He discribes this area of Tennessee with such effortless ease. It's beauty struck with something so horrid. Reading the book I forgot that this was my home, the people in it were people of my town. For a nieve high school student it made me realize that no matter what the year was this was real and it was here in my own back yard. "My Own Country."
I learned more than just about the people or about the land but the medical terminology was explained and he made you the reader understand what it meant to him and the world of medicine. Each detail will make you feel like you are right there in the ER of the "Miracle Center".
There were times I just could not put this book down. I have read it three times now and I am starting my fourth. The stories in this book of the patients are tragic. Anyone who has any type of preconceived notion of what it is like to have AIDS/HIV or what "kind of people" have AIDS/HIV should read this book. It will open your eyes to a whole new world.
This story of our small town, as it was then, has reached all over the world. It has inspired and educated everyone who has read it. I'm sure that it still means a great deal to the families of those in it.
AIDS will always be scary, it will always be something that will cause pain and horror to our ears, this book describes a small town with prejudice of it's own before a time of AIDS and how it conforms to another way of thinking. Just like in this book, not everyone will ever be accepting of those who contract this disease but everyone will be made aware of it.
I suggest this book to any reader with any reading taste. You will walk away with much more than what you came with. You will get to know our people and their stories from the mind of a man who knew them all. Abraham Verghese was brilliant in writing this collection of lives on paper. Thank you Dr. Verghese for letting their voices be heard all over the world and inspiring those who take time to indulge in your brilliance.
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Title: The Tennis Partner by A. Verghese, Abraham Verghese ISBN: 0060931132 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman ISBN: 0374525641 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 28 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880 by Allan Brandt ISBN: 0195042379 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1987 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: As I Live and Breathe: Notes of a Patient-Doctor by Jamie, Dr. Weisman ISBN: 0865476691 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the "Immigrant Menace" by Alan M. Kraut ISBN: 0801850967 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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