MY OWN COUNTRY by Abraham Verghese

*****

Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Vintage (April 25, 1995) Language: English ISBN-10: 0679752927

Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern life. But on August 11, 1985, the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, and before long, 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 medical doctor exceptional in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; and, 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. It is, as Dr. Verghese writes, "the story of how a generation of young men, raised to self-hatred, had risen above the definitions that their society and upbringings had used to define them. It was the story of the hard and sometimes lonely journeys they took far from home into a world more complicated than they imagined and far more dangerous than anyone could have known. There was something courageous about this voyage, the breakaway, the attempt to create places where they could live with pride. No matter how long I practice medicine, no matter what happens with the retrovirus, I will not be able to forget these young men, the little towns they came from, and the cruel, cruel irony of what awaited them in the big city."In the tradition of Michael Harrington's The Other America, My Own Country is a work that challenges Americans to look beyond the myths they hold of themselves, to acknowledge and confront a social crisis being lived out in their midst."My Own Country is one of the most accurate books yet written about AIDS, but is yet so skillfully written to remain highly readable. Abraham Verghese is obviously a very special person, and My Own Country will long remain an essential work in the chronicles of the AIDS epidemic.... [It] tells a story of the AIDS epidemic that will be new to many readers--the perspective of a clinician with a largely rural Southern practice. Abraham Verghese writes clearly and compellingly of the layers of stigma surrounding the HIV epidemic, but also is able to help us feel his compassion for his patients and their families."

My View:

Dr. Abraham Verghese is one of those rare individuals for whom empathy is second nature, especially difficult for a man of medicine thought the art of detachment.

I finished reading "CUTTING FOR STONE" and needed to know more about this writer, I was not disappointed.

Dr. Verghese encounters his first AIDS patient in 1985. An unheard disease at the time in the town of Johnson City, Tennessee, citizens believe or like to believe, AIDS, homosexuality, belong far away, in big cities, and will never be a problem in their town.

Dr. Verghese encounters his first obstacles among his fellow physicians and nurses, to afraid to touch much less care for his patient (to be fair, in 1985 little was known about the risks of contact infection)but for a few brave nurses and interns the majority refuse to assist him.

Not afraid he decides to research this disease, from a medical point of view, but also from the Gay community which does exists in Johnson City as a well hidden secret.

As time passes, more cases show up and with Dr.Verghese's help the town learns to cope and open their hearts.

I am in admiration of this man of medicine and wish more physicians took his example into their practice.

More about Dr. Abraham Vergese