Reviews for The Caring Physician: The Life of Dr. Francis W. Peabody

The average rating for The Caring Physician: The Life of Dr. Francis W. Peabody based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-18 00:00:00 Bonnie Simon Lemke went to Cameroon as a missionary not long after finishing his medical degree, and he spent decades there -- it was his goal when he decided to become a doctor, and it seems to have been a profession that suited him. He saw thousands upon thousands of patients, many suffering from relatively mundane afflictions but many others with problems rarely seen in Canada, where he did his training. Unfortunately the telling of his experience is not nearly so interesting as I expect the actual experience was. In some ways the book may mimic the way things worked in his hospital -- patient after patient, case after case, with no follow-up or narrative thread. I respect Lemke for the work he did, but I would have loved to see characters developed more (read: at all) and some cases expanded upon -- say, a dozen patients/cases described in detail, with multiple pages devoted to each, and then anecdotal mentions of other patients filling in some blanks and providing more context. As is, this felt very scattered to me, very directionless. I'm glad I read this, mind, as the premise piqued my interest and he does have some potentially valuable insights -- I just wish they'd been carried through!

Review # 2 was written on 2010-06-09 00:00:00 Serena Sweet I wanted to love this book, but it gets 3 stars because it took me almost a year to finish. Like many do-gooders, Lemke is a poor writer. His style was very disjointed and had no storyline, just the everyday life of a bush physician. I did appreciate his humble tone throughout the many stories he related, but he hoped from one malady to the next in each paragraph. His discussion of the HIV/AIDS plight in Sub-Saharan Africa was incomplete but interesting. I have immense respect for him and his family and all they sacrificed to bring better healthcare to thousands and thousands of Cameroonians over a 20 year time period. And after some humanitarians admit to false information in their recent books to make them best-sellers, I will take a more realistic, difficult-to-finish story over lies any day. Lemke's goal is noble: Man no be God, but nobi man fit try. We aren't God , but let's give it our best.