Reading Wednesday
Mar. 24th, 2021 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoCurrently Reading: Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History by Paul Farmer. I don't know what possessed me to read a book about disease during a pandemic, but I'm glad I did, because this one has been incredibly difficult to put down.
Broadly, it's about the 2014 ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The first portion of the book is partially a memoir of the author's experience providing aid during the epidemic, and how lack of supportive care and basic material contributed to how bad things got. It also provides accounts from ebola survivors, and discusses how recent civil war in the area set the backdrop for the epidemic.
The second section deals with the history of the region, and how colonialism, the slave trade, war, and the diamond industry created the conditions that led this portion of West Africa to be a medical desert. And it discusses how the colonial control-over-care approach to disease was firmly established years ago, and led to the control-over-care approach during the 2014 epidemic.
Not sure what the rest of the book deals with - I haven't reached that part yet - but I'll probably get to it soon, because like I said before, I'm finding this book fascinating. Really hard to put down. It's very interesting and compelling, written in a very engaging way.
Broadly, it's about the 2014 ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The first portion of the book is partially a memoir of the author's experience providing aid during the epidemic, and how lack of supportive care and basic material contributed to how bad things got. It also provides accounts from ebola survivors, and discusses how recent civil war in the area set the backdrop for the epidemic.
The second section deals with the history of the region, and how colonialism, the slave trade, war, and the diamond industry created the conditions that led this portion of West Africa to be a medical desert. And it discusses how the colonial control-over-care approach to disease was firmly established years ago, and led to the control-over-care approach during the 2014 epidemic.
Not sure what the rest of the book deals with - I haven't reached that part yet - but I'll probably get to it soon, because like I said before, I'm finding this book fascinating. Really hard to put down. It's very interesting and compelling, written in a very engaging way.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.