What readers think of Mountains Beyond Mountains, plus links to write your own review.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder is an eye-opening book. You can find it on the “must read,” table at Barnes & Noble. This non-fiction book takes you through the journey of Dr. Paul Farmer’s life. Kidder travels with Farmer and gets to experience many of the great things that Farmer does first hand. Kidder also doesn’t just give the opinions of Farmer and himself, be he gathers information from many other important people in the journey. Farmer studied at Harvard Medical School then worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Despite the busy schedule he had in Massachusetts, he devoted a lot of his time to helping start up Partners In Health. Farmer opened a health care center in Haiti and treated everyone. Farmer had a rule that, “Every patient had to pay the eighty cents, except for women and children, the destitute, and anyone who was seriously ill…and no one could be turned away”. He was devoted to his patients, no matter how serious their illness was. Farmer spent a lot of his time trying to come up with a cure for Tuberculosis and Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. He traveled to many countries, and raised a lot of money. Farmer saved a lot of lives.

This book is true, and it really gave me an understanding of what life is like in a third world country. The only thing that I did not like about the book was how confusing the sentence structure was; I had to reread some sentences multiple times before I understood what it meant. I really liked this book and recommend it, especially to people who want a career that is health related.

Whatever criticism you may have of Farmer, he has been proved correct by recent events. The story is AMAZING, and well-written. Heroes have a right to be self-absorbed.

While Tracy Kidder does an admirable job of recounting the efforts of Paul Farmer, he also paints a vivid portrait of the messianic personality at work.

Farmer seems incapable of delegating work to others. When he does, he wallows in self-absorbed angst over whether they'll do it adequately in his absence. The good doctors's righteousness at putting "bandaids" on global medical problems permeates the book.

I just read the other reviews. I'm stunned. What a terrific man Paul Farmer is. Tracy Kidder did a good job. The book asks us to think, not just follow a story.

"watching grass grow..." Good grief.

I think it probably could be a tad more concise about 2/3 the way through, but all in all it is compelling.

How can one read this and not see how myopic our view often is?

The key is now what do we do to make a difference.

The book was not good I'm not going to lie. There was nothing exciting at all about the book and I would rather watch the grass grow.

This wonderful book shows a compelling picture of someone making change in the world. Both Farmer & Kidder don't lose sight of the different levels in the book. Most superficially, this book is about a gifted, sometimes tortured individual following a personal goal. At a deeper level, Farmer & Kidder explore the different roles of individuals in creating change, the importance of respecting different cultures and the impact of national decisions on the international community.

This book will appeal to anyone with a interest in the larger world, different cultures and the lives of people working to make the world a more equitable place.

I found this book very repetitive and not interesting. Its amazing what Farmer this book does not do his story justice. Kidders writing is drawn out and some points made in the book were pointless. I did not like the book.

I thought this was the most mundane dull book I've ever read. Although Paul Farmer seems to be an extroadinary man, I found the book impossible to get through and absolutely terrible. I though the story line went nowhere and it literally put me to sleep on several occasions.