My own country - BookWyrm.de

Hardcover, 347 Seiten

Sprache: English

Am 21. April 1994 von Simon & Schuster veröffentlicht.

ISBN:: 978-0-671-78514-7
OCLC-Nummer:: 29565231

(1 Rezension)

By the bestselling author of Cutting for Stone, a story of medicine in the American heartland, and confronting one's deepest prejudices and fears.

Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had once seemed an “urban problem” had arrived in the town to stay.

Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became by necessity the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a shocking number of male and female patients whose stories came to occupy his mind, and even take over his life. Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City: as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, …

By the bestselling author of Cutting for Stone, a story of medicine in the American heartland, and confronting one's deepest prejudices and fears.

Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had once seemed an “urban problem” had arrived in the town to stay.

Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became by necessity the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a shocking number of male and female patients whose stories came to occupy his mind, and even take over his life. Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City: as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, as a writer of grace and compassion who saw that what was happening in this conservative community was both a medical and a spiritual emergency.

4 Auflagen

technicat@bookwyrm.social hat My own country von Abraham Verghese besprochen

by the way, still around with no vaccine

5 Sterne

The current lackadaisical attitude toward pandemics is bad enough, but this book is a reminder (not that long ago, the Reagan AIDS years) of what total indifference looks like, as long as the disease is seen as targeting a marginalized community. I found the book to be a semi-slog, I mean, it's a chronicle of suffering, but nothing compared to the author who actually endured it during five years of treating AIDS patients in a non-supportive (with occasional surprising exceptions) environment, in addition to the stresses it added to his home life and his identity as an outsider (Indian descent, born and raised in Africa, practicing in the rural south). It's just a slice of his life (at the end I wondered where his life journey went on from there), but autobiographical and imbued with outrage and melancholy.

Themen

AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects -- Tennessee -- Johnson City