The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande
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Book Brief
264
Book • Nonfiction
•
Anthropology•
Social ScienceNew Mexico • Early 2000s
•
Race•
Environment•
Psychology•
Health2010
University of California Press
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
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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.
837 ratings
Loved it
Mixed feelings
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The first patient introduced in the heroin rehabilitation clinic, whose experiences provide a lens into understanding the complexities of addiction and the impact of environmental and historical loss.
A patient at the clinic known for her challenging experiences with addiction and grief, which she candidly shares with Garcia, highlighting personal and historical loss.
A recurring patient at the Nuevo Día clinic whose struggles with addiction and personal grief exemplify the cycle of recovery and relapse, prompting reflections on institutional care.
A mother-daughter pair whose intertwined stories of addiction explore familial connections and the influence of kinship on drug use.
Another mother-daughter duo whose narrative, shared by the mother Lisa, delves into complex family dynamics, loss, and the shared experience of addiction.
A woman in a recovery group who manages the challenges of living with multiple sclerosis and addiction, concealing her condition and drug use from those around her.
264
Book • Nonfiction
•
Anthropology•
Social ScienceNew Mexico • Early 2000s
•
Race•
Environment•
Psychology•
Health2010
University of California Press
Adult
18+ years
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