Rough Sleepers

Outstanding

As is legally required for all Peace Corps volunteers, I read and loved Kidder's book [b:Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World 10235 Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World Tracy Kidder https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433156001l/10235.SY75.jpg 1639628] so I was eager to check this one out. I really admire both these books for the honest way Kidder treats their subjects as men who are doing admirable work but who also, maybe, wouldn't be the easiest people to live or work with. I think Rough Sleepers does more than Mountains Beyond Mountains in terms of also profiling and interacting with the patients too (in this case ofc there's much less of a language barrier between Kidder and the patients). I think of myself as someone who's relatively well-informed about the garbage state of social services (since as a public librarian I'm often trying to work as an ad hoc social worker...) but whew even I had no idea how convoluted some of these fucking issues were. Anyway I think Kidder is great at both showing how fucked up it is while giving some optimism. And also creating a compelling narrative. Just really skilled journalistic work highlighting important medical/social work.

Reposted from elsewhere. I wrote this quickly and may eventually come back and do a full review; I've had a lot churning in my head around this work for the past few weeks and need to let that settle before I attempt a full review.

—

Started and finished this book this week. I read it basically in two sits. As someone who works on homelessness policy, and used to work in direct service, I just couldn't put it down. So much of what Dr. O'Connell says I could hear coming out of my mouth, and out of the mouths of folks I've worked with over the years.

There were several moments when I just put the book down and started at the coffee shop table. I kept thinking, “man, we need to do so much better.” It had an odd effect of both depressing and motivating me.