48 pages • 1 hour read
Angela GarciaThe Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Before You Read
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.
Reviews & Readership
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.