Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. ...
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Jun 20, 2008
Lori
rated it: 
Am I a book snob?
Because I'm finding that as I read a book, like this one, I keep asking myself why someone would waste so many words to say, essentially, nothing that sheds light on the story.
Why do I need to know every time the author got in his car to go somewhere, that he turned right on such and such street, then left onto that highway, and then there was a bend in the road...
For real?
I understand that he was trying to give the reader a sens More...
Because I'm finding that as I read a book, like this one, I keep asking myself why someone would waste so many words to say, essentially, nothing that sheds light on the story.
Why do I need to know every time the author got in his car to go somewhere, that he turned right on such and such street, then left onto that highway, and then there was a bend in the road...
For real?
I understand that he was trying to give the reader a sens More...
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Jan 29, 2012
Colleen
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Sep 18, 2011
Pat
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This is about the early days of AIDS in a small city in eastern Tennessee for a young doctor born and brought up in an entirely different culture. It deals with his reactions, his patients, his life and the lives of all of the people touched by AIDS in that small city environment snuggled up against the Appalachians. I'll now be sure to put his other books on my reading list because he writes so well. His background is so unusual - Christian East Indian born and brought up in Ethiopia - and
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Apr 07, 2011
Carolinecarver
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Verghese is amazing...great writer, albeit a little detail overloaded--sometimes you get the feeling he is practicing his writing. Be that as it may, he is clearly a caring doctor on the cusp of what will become the AIDS epidemic of our time. Takes place in Tennessee where the first cases of AIDS reach his rural community, and the sense of place is as real as the people he treats. Insightful, sympathetic and exhausting all at once.
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Jan 31, 2011
Lisa
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Another good book by the author of "Cutting For Stone." He can be a bit wordy, though, so being anxious to see what was going to happen, I skimmed sections.
This is about Verghese's experience being an Indian doctor in a small town in Tennessee when HIV began to hit the news in the mid-1980s. Remember that time? No one knew much about this horrible disease and so much was speculation and fear. Being in the hospital setting when it happened, Verghese, an Infectious diseas More...
This is about Verghese's experience being an Indian doctor in a small town in Tennessee when HIV began to hit the news in the mid-1980s. Remember that time? No one knew much about this horrible disease and so much was speculation and fear. Being in the hospital setting when it happened, Verghese, an Infectious diseas More...
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Nov 08, 2010
Linda
rated it:
If I could give it a 6 I would...stories and passion from the frontlines of the AIDs epidemic in areas that were unknown and uncovered, not the big cities, but the small towns where there was much less support and recognition...but then maybe not.
"I have lived for five years in a culture of disease, a small island in a sea of fear. I have seen many things there. I have seen how life speeds up and heightens in climates of extreme pain and emotion. It is hard to live in these circum More...
"I have lived for five years in a culture of disease, a small island in a sea of fear. I have seen many things there. I have seen how life speeds up and heightens in climates of extreme pain and emotion. It is hard to live in these circum More...
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May 04, 2010
Shelah
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Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone was one of the best books I read last year. I'm not sure if it was my very favorite, but it was in the top two or three, for sure.
Although Cutting for Stone was fiction, My Own Country is a memoir, focusing on the years when Verghese, born in Africa to Indian parents, is a young infectious diseases doctor in rural Eastern Tennessee, right at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. As one of the only physicians in the area willing and able to take care More...
Although Cutting for Stone was fiction, My Own Country is a memoir, focusing on the years when Verghese, born in Africa to Indian parents, is a young infectious diseases doctor in rural Eastern Tennessee, right at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. As one of the only physicians in the area willing and able to take care More...
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Apr 24, 2010
Although written with Verghese's customarily deep psychological insight, and sensitivity, this book also contains frank and graphic discussions of the medical and sexual issues pertaining to the spread and treatment of AIDS from the point of view of an African born South Asian American doctor working in a rural community hospital in the US in the early to mid eighties, when awareness of the virus was just beginning to enter American consciousness even in the medical community.
The sometime More...
The sometime More...
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Aug 02, 2009
Reid
rated it:
This is a fine book about the early days of the HIV epidemic, and how perplexed and conflicted many were as they came to terms with their own feelings and reactions to the disease and those who contracted it. However, it also is a book in the longstanding tradition of HIV books that are self-congratulatory, maudlin, and self-pitying. The irony of HIV has often been that, while pleading for it to be treated as just another disease in order to normalize those who suffer from it rather than margina
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Jan 31, 2010
Amy
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I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but somehow stumbled on this with an Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket. It's the autobiography of an infectious diseases doctor of foreign descent during the mid- 80s, when AIDS and HIV were first being understood. Dr. Verghese is working in an East Tennessee hospital when their first AIDS case comes to his hospital.
What's fascinating about this story is the intersection of experiences as an outsider: an Indian doctor in Tennessee, th More...
What's fascinating about this story is the intersection of experiences as an outsider: an Indian doctor in Tennessee, th More...
Apr 15, 2011
Mike
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I hope those who found this author's ambitious novel "Cutting for Stone" problematic might consider turning to this earlier and eloquent non-fiction work of his, a highly meaningful, moving, and compelling personal memoir and thus a very different reading experience. I would actually give this book four-and-a-half stars. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction, and deservedly so. On the cover, lines about the book written by Perri Klass in "The
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Feb 26, 2011
Shannon
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I read this book after reading "Cutting for Stone;" I wanted to know more about the author who had penned one of my favorite books and what his real life was like. What I found was an intriguing story of what it is like to be an infectious disease doctor treating patients for which there is no known cure. Verghese struggled with all sorts of questions: How do you help prepare your patients for the inevitable? How do you council them through the ostracism of friends and family? How
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Aug 12, 2010
Linda
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Okay - so my brother Greg recommended I read Abraham Verghese's "Cutting For Stone". Since Greg has excellent literary taste I looked up the book and recommended it to many of my friends. However, I was "afraid" to read it because I thought it might make me sad. So instead I decided to read his non-fiction account of treating AIDs in Tennessee during the 1980s, "My Own Country". Cause yeah that wouldn't be sad! My gracious friend Molly had a copy of the book wh
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May 17, 2010
Bob
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The subject matter is interesting on its own -- how a small, rural, bible-belt town reacted to the outbreak of AIDS "at home"; early history of research to help sufferers; a young doctor just beginning his career -- but the themes are tied together in a lot of ways. Verghese, because "foreign," is sometimes seen as an "outsider" along with his patients. The time demands of his job and the perception of contagion distance him from his family. The faith of patien
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Apr 16, 2010
Melisa
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This book pretty much fits the bill for my absolute favorite type of reading: passionate people writing beautifully about whatever they care most about and the way in which they are transformed by that caring. Also I love a good medical memoir so I hit the jackpot with this one.
I looked for this book after reading Verghese's Cutting for Stone recently. That novel was brilliant and, as I didn't want it to end, I went looking for more of Verghese's writing. It would be hard for me More...
I looked for this book after reading Verghese's Cutting for Stone recently. That novel was brilliant and, as I didn't want it to end, I went looking for more of Verghese's writing. It would be hard for me More...
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Mar 30, 2009
Maggie
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This is a memoir about 5 years in the life of an infectious diseases physician, who practices in a small town in Tennessee in the 1980s and sees the onset and rise of AIDS cases in the area.
Abraham Verghese is a very intelligent, human, thoughtful, compassionate, ethical, and passionate doctor ministering as the only infectious diseases expert to Johnson City, Tennessee and the VA hospital there. He is also a husband and father of two infant boys, which commands and demands its ow More...
Abraham Verghese is a very intelligent, human, thoughtful, compassionate, ethical, and passionate doctor ministering as the only infectious diseases expert to Johnson City, Tennessee and the VA hospital there. He is also a husband and father of two infant boys, which commands and demands its ow More...
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Oct 29, 2010
Q
rated it:
this is a story of AidS in Eastern TN at the near beginning of the epidemic. its the story of a non-urban community, the patients and the young doctor that served them and who learned from them.
in one way it's period piece late 80's to early 90's. it's not new - the devastating effect of AiDs is known - and yet this book touched me deeply. The effect on Abraham Verghese's life trying to help his patients with limited resources at first and overcome his own ignorance and views and mtg. with th More...
in one way it's period piece late 80's to early 90's. it's not new - the devastating effect of AiDs is known - and yet this book touched me deeply. The effect on Abraham Verghese's life trying to help his patients with limited resources at first and overcome his own ignorance and views and mtg. with th More...
Jan 21, 2012
Josiah
rated it:
Dr. Abraham Verghese touches on his early years and medical school, but fills most of the pages with vignettes of his patients in rural Tennessee. Their tales trace the passage of HIV/AIDS from Africa to New York & San Francisco, spreading into the heartland of America as gay men returned home to spend their final days with family. The President, FDA, and CDC were still ignorant or skeptical of HIV (then known as ARC), and did little to provide blood testing and nothing to protect blood banks. T
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Oct 13, 2011
Marla
rated it:
(More review at the end)
Verghese's writing is so rich, every paragraph chock full of wonderful detail such as this:
"In their herald migration, my parents individually and then together re-enacted the peregrination of an entire race. Like ontogeny repeating phylogeny -- the gills and one-chamber heart of a human fetus in the first trimester re-enacting man's evolution from amphibians -- they presaged their own subsequent wanderings and those of their children."
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Verghese's writing is so rich, every paragraph chock full of wonderful detail such as this:
"In their herald migration, my parents individually and then together re-enacted the peregrination of an entire race. Like ontogeny repeating phylogeny -- the gills and one-chamber heart of a human fetus in the first trimester re-enacting man's evolution from amphibians -- they presaged their own subsequent wanderings and those of their children."
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Apr 28, 2010
Katie
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In this book, Abraham Verghese writes about treating AIDS patients as a doctor in rural Tennessee in the 1980s. Verghese was born and raised in Ethiopia to Indian parents, attended medical school in India, and completed his residency in Johnson City, Tennesee. He spent a few years in Boston, and then returned to Johnson City and worked in the hospital there, specializing in infectious diseases. By default, he became the HIV/AIDS specialist for Johnson City, and much of the surrounding rural a
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Sep 01, 2011
Betsy
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This book took me back to the days when HIV was a sure death sentence and there was much fear and uncertainty about what caused it. After reading Cutting for Stone, I had read about Verghese and his work in Johnson City, TN, a small city in East Tennessee close to where I was born and put this book on my list. I wasn't disappointed. Much like the doctor in Cutting for Stone, Verghese is a compassionate man who is genuinely interested in his patients' lives and stories. I was immersed in his worl
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Jul 14, 2009
Heather
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A moving and compelling book about a doctor's experience of caring for HIV/AIDS patients in rural Appalachia during the first years of the epidemic. It's non-fiction but it reads like a novel because the author creates such vivid portraits of his patients, their individual life journeys and psychologies, and their suffering. It's a serious book and has tragic moments, but I wouldn't call it depressing. The author is honest and introspective about his own status as a traveler and an outsider (as
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Sep 13, 2011
Corny
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Abraham Verghese, an infectious disease internist, has written a vivid memoir of his five year experiences treating AIDS patients in a small community in Tennessee. Written with humor and compassion but sparing none of our sensibilities, the story becomes most compelling when narrating the histories of the patients. The prose is flowery and at times a bit tedious but the patients are the heroes and their dignity in the face of this terrible disease transcends any defects in the writing. Interest
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Sep 01, 2010
Bobbi
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After reading, and loving, Cutting for Stone, I noticed that Abraham Verghese had been an intern at the VA and East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN which is a stone's throw from where I live. So I had to read his book about returning to Johnson City in the 1980s. He worked there for five years, just when AIDS was showing up in small towns all over the country.
As a specialist in infectious diseases, patients with unusual and undiagnosed symptoms were referred to him More...
As a specialist in infectious diseases, patients with unusual and undiagnosed symptoms were referred to him More...
Jan 02, 2010
Madeleine
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This was an interesting read. Verghese recently wrote a successful novel, Cutting for Stone, which means that this book, which was actually published in 1994, got some renewed attention as well. My Own Country is Verghese's story of his work as a straight small-town doctor during the AIDS epidemic. As such, it's also a story about solidarity with the Queer community in a place and a time when that was not a given...more with the solidarity/ally stuff, I know. You ever feel like a theme follows y
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May 10, 2011
Celeste
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I ordered this book on a whim from Amazon.com. I really enjoy finding good nonfiction books.
I couldn't help but inhale this book. Verghese writes so well. He seemlessly trasitions from paragraphs of informative medical background to heart wrenching narrative. He connected himself and the reader to each person in the book, each patient, doctor, nurse, and family member. I was vivid and touching. I found myself saying, "I never knew." I was a child during much of the se More...
I couldn't help but inhale this book. Verghese writes so well. He seemlessly trasitions from paragraphs of informative medical background to heart wrenching narrative. He connected himself and the reader to each person in the book, each patient, doctor, nurse, and family member. I was vivid and touching. I found myself saying, "I never knew." I was a child during much of the se More...
Jan 29, 2012
Cyndie
rated it:
I like non-fiction and this was a very powerful story. The author is an infectious disease specialist at the onset of the Aids epidemic. He studies not only the bodies but also the hearts and minds of his Aids patients and all the people around them. He can describe the agonizing symptoms in detail and in the next chapter describe the night sky on New Years Eve and it all works together to reveal the heart behind the story - Abraham Verghese. I am glad i read his novel first. It helped to
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Jun 27, 2010
Tim
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A stunning read, even now after reflecting on it after a couple weeks. It is about the author's experience of being a doctor in a rural setting - Tennessee no less - in the mid 80s when AIDS was just springing into the nation's consciousness. There were no cures, the mortality rate was high enough that a diagnosis was a virtual death sentence, and its presence unveiled a world of lifestyles and behaviors breathtaking for the nation, as well as its scope far beyond San Francisco and New York. T
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Aug 09, 2009
Amy
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An interesting memoir of an Indian doctor living in rural eastern Tennessee in the 1980's as AIDS is just coming onto the scene. The subject matter was fascinating because it covers his own transition as someone of Indian heritage, who was raised in Ethiopia but then emigrated to the US to complete his medical training and begin practicing as an infectious disease specialist. His life as an "outsider/foreigner" in such a rural setting is interesting in and of itself.
But th More...
But th More...
Jul 25, 2009
G
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Because this is both an Indian/Ethiopian-American doctor's immigrant memoir and an 80 AIDS memoir (which is to say, in large part a memoir about gay men - although Verghese isn't gay) I probably found this book more affecting than most. As AIDS spreads slowly and insidiously through Verghese's town, it touches more lives than just the ostracized gay men of rural Tennessee, although sadly acceptance of HIV/AIDS doesn't come as swiftly as it spreads. You can't help but feel the pain of both a doct
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