When companies have to make really hard decisions everyday, they create a protocol to take the emotions out of the process and to focus only on value. When governments do it, it's called collateral damage. Paul Farmer doesn't believe in protocol OR collateral damage. He believes in curing people of curable diseases, no matter where they live, who they are or how much money they have.

I keep trying to think of a metaphor to describe Farmer's drive. Imagine if your house was on fire and all your favorite things and people were inside of it. Paul Farmer operates on that level every single second of every single day, except his house is the third world and his favorite people are the world's poor. He's happy to have the fire department come with their technologies for fire fighting, but he's also happy to literally throw water on the fire bucket by bucket. He is most at peace when walking 4 hours through Haitian tundra to treat one family with a history of tuberculosis.

If you read this and think oh, this book must be just a tremendous guilt trip for the rest of first world humanity - you're right. But Paul Farmer doesn't care. He thinks guilt is good, it's important. If it makes you question privilege, if it makes you uncomfortable with how little you do to eradicate inequality, if it makes you write a check to Partners in Health, that's just fine with him.

It's hard to separate Tracy Kidder's work from the story itself - Paul Farmer is a fascinating character and the work he's done in places like Haiti, in Russian prisons, in Peru is amazing and most health organizations think the work he has done is impossible to replicate. Treating one person at a time. But by the end of the narrative, you'll have bought into Paul's ideology as well.

I do wonder how much the people he loves and who love him suffer for this mission, but the fact that he thinks it would be selfish to even discuss that makes me understand why Kidder doesn't delve too deeply into that.

Paul is frustrating, brilliant, and has more energy and drive than any other human being I have ever met or read about. The book is worth reading for many reasons - why do the poor suffer? how does the first world continue to turn its back on suffering? You'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll feel guilty and most importantly - this book will make you think.