48 pages • 1 hour read
The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande
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Book Brief
264
Book • Nonfiction
New Mexico • Early 2000s
2010
Adult
18+ years
Super Short Summary
Angela Garcia's The Pastoral Clinic is an ethnographic study that examines heroin addiction in the Española Valley, New Mexico, through her work at the Nuevo Día clinic. Garcia's research investigates how factors such as land loss, cultural history, and systemic institutional practices shape addiction and recovery. Her narratives and data critique conventional treatment approaches and emphasize the link between community, grief, and individual identity in the addiction experience. The book contains graphic descriptions of drug use, overdose, abuse, and suicide.
Melancholic
Contemplative
Unnerving
Informative
Dark
Reviews & Readership
719 ratings
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Review Roundup
Angela Garcia’s The Pastoral Clinic explores heroin addiction in New Mexico with empathy and depth, offering both personal and scholarly insights. Reviews praise its ethnographic richness and emotional resonance. Some critique the dense academic prose and occasional lack of clear narrative direction, but overall, it is lauded as a profound, impactful study.
Who Should Read The Pastoral Clinic?
Readers fascinated by the intersection of addiction, rural life, and medical anthropology will be captivated by Angela Garcia's The Pastoral Clinic. Comparable to works like Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Garcia's book provides an immersive, empathetic exploration of human resilience.
719 ratings
Loved it
Mixed feelings
Not a fan
264
Book • Nonfiction
New Mexico • Early 2000s
2010
Adult
18+ years
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