Larissa MacFarquhar

This book was put together in a creative way; it wasn't just philosophy and it wasn't just case studies, it was both, but interspersed chapter-by-chapter, sometimes multiple chapters of one followed by one chapter of the other, or vice versa.

MacFarquhar is fascinated by extreme altruists, or as she likes to call them, "do-gooders." She interviews a wide variety of them and lets them tell their stories, sometimes directly with their own words, sometimes through her. In between, she ponders show more what we owe to others vs. ourselves, and how we each answer that question differently, and what we lose - as well as gain - when we put others' needs above our own. "Others" in all these contexts means those who are neither ourselves NOR our family members, nor even our friends, acquaintances, or neighbors - the do-gooders chronicled here are all dedicated to helping strangers.

Personal interest: One case study involved a family that adopted 22 children, hailing from none other than my home state, in Barre, Vermont.

Enjoy her interview here with Tyler Cowen:
https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler-cowen-larissa-macfarquhar-writ... show less

I first learned of Larissa MacFarquhar from her excellent New Yorker piece, "The Kindest Cut," on altruistic kidney donation. It's sixteen years old now and much of the stigma and suspicion around non-directed donation has softened with time, but I still found the article thoughtful and fascinating.

See, in a month I'm due to donate my own kidney to a stranger. I read everything I could about the process as I went through it—accounts from living donors, medical articles documenting show more complications and success rates, even surgery videos. And, when I saw that MacFarquhar had written a book about extreme altruists, I read that too, since it promised to answer a question that came up when I told my family and a few close friends about my intention to donate: Why did people react as though this was such an extreme act, when, to me, it seemed both simple and natural?

I'm not an extreme altruist, not by a long shot. The people profiled in Strangers Drowning reside in the furthest reaches of generosity, often veering into the pathological (at least in my opinion). It's fascinating to read about their chosen causes—from chickens to children to the suicidally depressed—and the way they see this flawed world of ours. I had a gut reaction to something practically every time I picked up this book, whether that was the ethics of endangering one's children during charity work or fasting to try to stop nuclear bombs or the morality of adopting twenty-two children you can barely afford to care for. And I think that's a great thing, to have a book that's able to provoke me to that extent, so I could reassess my own values and beliefs. I also realized that other people must feel about my kidney donation what I felt about some of the do-gooders in this book: that they were going too far, that they were acting out of guilt or fear and justifying it post-hoc with moral superiority.

MacFarquhar is exceptionally measured in her descriptions of her subjects, never once appearing in the narrative itself, lingering instead like an omniscient ghost above them and their lives. This authorial absence and her unconventional way of quoting—framing them directly as a subject's thoughts or placing dialogue exchanges into the text like sections of a play—is controversial. And it's occasionally ill-advised, as in this quote, randomly dropped between paragraphs:

FISHER: When I was born my brother tried to stab me with a fork. I was my dad's favorite; he favored my over my brothers and sisters. I died in the hospital when I was little and came back to life. And then a gypsy lady told me I would take on the troubles of the family.

...What? And MacFarquhar never revisits or explains this. She's so averse to judgment or any sort of editorializing that she tends to take her subjects at their word without contextualizing, and that can leave the reader wanting for explanation.

Which leads into my two other main critiques of this book. First, the balance of content is off: there are just too many profiles, which are straight reportage, in comparison to the scant criticism. Second, the format is wonky. There are occasional shorter chapters titled "The Undermining of Do-Gooders," which give context to the actions and beliefs of the altruists profiled in the rest of the book, as well as the larger societal beliefs to which they stand in contrast. But I wish this stuff was incorporated into the profiles themselves, rather than being relegated to these short, weird chapters that feel random and out-of-place ("The Kindest Cut" is retooled into one of these).

Overall, this is a worthy and immensely thought-provoking book. I'm glad I read it and I certainly hope Larissa MacFarquhar writes more; her articles are wonderful and she pulls off long-form writing just as well. show less

This essay is about people who donate organs to strangers. You want to feel all warm and gooey about altruism and the best of humanity, but there is something really creepy about taking so much personal risk to save a stranger's life and MacFarquhar really brings that out.

Strangers Drowning by Larissa MacFarquhar begins with the hypothetical question: “If you had to choose between saving two complete strangers of your mom from drowning, would you pick the strangers?”

This concept grabs you right from the beginning. The book is a compilation of stories from people who were more than compelled to help others. Some instances so extreme, so drastic they damaged their own families. This book enlightened me in the area of idealism but also granted me the gift show more of knowing where to draw the line.

Strangers Drowning brought to mind the conflict of the two natures featured in the bible (Romans 7: 14-20). Many of these people started with good intentions, but they lost their way and ended up going so far beyond realism, they found they couldn't stop. They abandoned wives in labor, families and even a hospital to save the life of an unborn child- All in the name of helping others! Although God was sometimes mentioned, the book was not biblically based and was not preachy. There was also no true moral to the story. It was what it was, a great telling of people with an acute sense of obligation.

I appreciated the author’s writing style. MacFarquhar allowed you to come to your own conclusions and search yourself as to what you would do in each situation. I would definitely read more from this author. show less