Review by Choice Review
This work chronicles the life of Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician and medical anthropologist who has become a leading expert on infectious diseases. Farmer is also cofounder of Partners in Health, an organization that collaborates with indigenous health care providers to establish clinics for underserved rural populations in Haiti, Peru, and Siberia. He began traveling to Haiti in the early 1980s and established Zanmi Lasante, a clinic that is located in a setting so inhospitable that all but one of the Haitian doctors whom Farmer employed chose to live elsewhere. Though Mountains beyond Mountains is intended as a biography, it focuses almost exclusively on Farmer's medical practice. Kidder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, writes clearly and engagingly as he invokes Farmer's saintly presence (inviting comparisons to Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa). At other times, however, Kidder allows Farmer's less saintly ambitions to emerge. This book is being widely used in freshman seminars at colleges across the United States, and it will likely stir debates on such wide-ranging issues as the politics of health care, the role of government funding, and ethics. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers and undergraduates. S. D. Glazier University of Nebraska--Lincoln
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kidder's inspiring story of American doctor Paul Farmer has now been adapted to good effect for young readers, with the help of coauthor French. As Kidder demonstrates, Farmer is a remarkable man. A noted epidemiologist who has worked with such infectious diseases as tuberculosis and AIDS, he is also a medical anthropologist, a clinician, and an expert in public health. His ambitious goal is to improve health policy for the poor on a global scale. By making himself a presence in the book, Kidder becomes a surrogate for the reader as he travels with Farmer to the slums of Lima, Peru; the prisons of Russia and Siberia; and to Farmer's base, in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and a place Farmer has loved since he was a college student. Kidder expertly provides context for Farmer's life and work, including a look at his eccentric upbringing and his relationships with friends and colleagues. Though sometimes complex, the story is always accessible and often fascinating. Best of all, its focus on Farmer the humanitarian provides a much-needed education in empathy.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Pulitzer Prize winner Kidder delivers this remarkable account of the life and times of Paul Farmer-a doctor and Harvard professor-who has made it his life's work to cure highly infectious diseases and help people in the poorest areas of the world. Narrator Lincoln Hoppe offers a steady reading that is slow and subdued. While the source material can be intense at times, Hoppe reads as if listeners won't fully understand the gravity of the story. The result is a somewhat underwhelming performance of an inspiring tale. Ages 12-up. A Delacorte hardcover. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In his latest work, Pulitzer Prize winner Kidder (Among Schoolchildren; The Soul of a New Machine) turns his documentarian gaze on the life and work of Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician who has spent much of the past 20 years transforming healthcare in the impoverished central plateau of Haiti. Part biography, part public health text, and part travelog, his book follows Farmer from his childhood in Florida and Harvard medical education to his establishment of the Haitian clinic Zanmi Lasante and current status as an international expert in treating communicable diseases, such as AIDS and tuberculosis. Farmer's work is fascinating-as is the author's compassionate portrayal of the lives of the Haitians with whom his subject lives and works; if the book has a flaw, it is that it attempts to cover too much territory. Instead of trying to cram three books into one, Kidder could have taken any one of the three approaches that he used and made a complete and captivating study. However, he does include an excellent annotated bibliography for readers who desire more information on any of the themes covered in the book. Recommended for public libraries and public health collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/03.]-Eris Weaver, Redwood Health Lib., Petaluma, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-Tracy Kidder spent years following Dr. Paul Farmer's career and traveling with him. Dr. Paul decided at an early age that he wanted to help people, particularly the poor, and he felt the area of infectious disease was his calling. Shortly before starting Harvard Medical School, he traveled to Haiti and witnessed the devastating conditions there. He helped to found Partners in Health (PIH); led projects in Haiti, Siberia, Peru, and Russia; advocated for the treatment of multi-drug resistant TB for even the least fortunate, and helped with AIDs and tuberculosis research. Farmer embraced the idea of "mountains beyond mountains," tackling one problem and then starting on the others. He and other PIH members have changed the way people look at infectious disease and how the poor are treated. Lincoln Hoppe narrates this book (Delacorte, 2013) that has been adapted from a lengthier version (Random, 2003) for adults by Kidder. He speaks in a caring and compassionate tone, and the story flows just like a suspense novel. Farmer's story will inspire students. An excellent choice for current events classrooms as well as public and high school library collections.-Sarah Flood, Breckinridge County Public Library, Hardinsburg, KY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
With an MD and PhD from Harvard and a teaching position at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Paul Farmer states that what he wants in life is to be a country doctor. What he is, though, is a doctor to countries: poor countries around the globe such as Haiti, Peru, Russia, and Rwanda, where the citizens have major health problems and little access to care. Here, French adapts Kidder's adult examination of Farmer (first published ten years ago), leaving the ethnographic journalistic approach intact and allowing Kidder's personal interpretations about the man to surface. He retains many of Farmer's own observations about the "O for the P" (or options for the poor) and narrations about Haiti that represent Farmer's views on the political, social, and medical situations in a country he loves. What has been cut is much of the science behind Farmer's infectious disease research, although French does retain a basic overview that leads to an understanding of MDR (multi-drug-resistant) TB and the way, before Farmer's intervention, such illnesses were misreported and ineffectually treated by the World Health Organization. Without making Farmer a saint (and for such a dedicated and driven individual, that's not easy), French's adaptation gives young readers a thoughtful examination of a complex man operating in a complex world. An author's note updates Farmer and his team's activities over the past decade. betty carter (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Full-immersion journalist Kidder (Home Town, 1999, etc.) tries valiantly to keep up with a front-line, muddy-and-bloody general in the war against infectious disease in Haiti and elsewhere. The author occasionally confesses to weariness in this gripping account--and why not? Paul Farmer, who has an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Harvard, appears to be almost preternaturally intelligent, productive, energetic, and devoted to his causes. So trotting alongside him up Haitian hills, through international airports and Siberian prisons and Cuban clinics, may be beyond the capacity of a mere mortal. Kidder begins with a swift account of his first meeting with Farmer in Haiti while working on a story about American soldiers, then describes his initial visit to the doctor's clinic, where the journalist felt he'd "encountered a miracle." Employing guile, grit, grins, and gifts from generous donors (especially Boston contractor Tom White), Farmer has created an oasis in Haiti where TB and AIDS meet their Waterloos. The doctor has an astonishing rapport with his patients and often travels by foot for hours over difficult terrain to treat them in their dwellings ("houses" would be far too grand a word). Kidder pauses to fill in Farmer's amazing biography: his childhood in an eccentric family sounds like something from The Mosquito Coast; a love affair with Roald Dahl's daughter ended amicably; his marriage to a Haitian anthropologist produced a daughter whom he sees infrequently thanks to his frenetic schedule. While studying at Duke and Harvard, Kidder writes, Farmer became obsessed with public health issues; even before he'd finished his degrees he was spending much of his time in Haiti establishing the clinic that would give him both immense personal satisfaction and unsurpassed credibility in the medical worlds he hopes to influence. Skilled and graceful exploration of the soul of an astonishing human being. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
