RSSMay – Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics — their passion for the same woman — that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him — nearly destroying him — Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.
An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
Heather
Apr 21, 2010 @ 20:49:59
just ordered my copy…..wooot woot….
ps I will be better about updating this thinger…….I am awesome
Terrie
Jun 04, 2010 @ 20:58:44
I don’t know who else is read this book this month (or pretty much any of the other books) but I read this one. (as I always do) and here is my report:
This book had a lot of themes that were hard for me to swallow. I am not good around sick people and could never see myself as a medical professional, but this book was written by one so it has a lot of details that explain illness and anatomy and surgery etc. The details were graphic, sometimes I wanted to turn my eyes away but then I couldn’t see the words on the page so that didn’t work very well. That being said, I think that it shows that the author did a very good job of describing situations and events in the story that made them seem very real. After reading this book, I do consider Abraham Verghese a talented author. I had not heard of him before.
Mainly for the reasons above, I probably wouldn’t ‘recommend’ this book to another person, but when I cut out all of the parts that my mind wants to forget (my brain is pretty good at doing that) I found this book to contain an interesting story. The main character Marion and his twin brother Shiva are born in Ethiopia to an Indian mother (who is a nun) and a British father (who is a surgeon) The mother dies during childbirth, the father runs off, and the twins are left to be raised by Hema and Ghosh who are both doctors at “Missing Hospital” where the twin’s birth parents both worked, before the day of their birth.
They had an interesting upbringing, where they got to learn a lot about medicine from their environment and adoptive parents. I learned about some of the history of Ethiopia because of the political events that were mentioned. Events involving the Emperor, and how Ethiopia had once been conquered by Italy.
I liked the relationship between the twin brothers (at least until the ‘betrayal’ takes place) and how they really had very different personalities. The way that Shiva was described, parts of his personality always made me picture Abed (from the TV show Community) when I was reading about him. But I pictured a different persona entirely when I read about Marion, which is inaccurate because they were identical twins. Oh well.
I also liked the characters of Hema, Ghosh and Matron, who were the adoptive parents and mentors to the twins.
This story takes place in such a different world than anything I’ve known, third world country, primitive medical equipment, hospital run by a nun and from church donations in other countries… I guess it was kind of cool to step out and realize how many different types of circumstances people live in.
I don’t want to give away too much of the story in case people are finishing up, but I do like the way the story ended. Not a lot of the conflicts and problems that lead up to the end… but once the damage was done, I think the resolutions to that damage were good.
If anyone else has read or is reading the story please let me know what you think and if you agree or disagree with my assessment.
Peace!
AnnMarie Harris
Jun 06, 2010 @ 20:56:09
I DIDN’T READ THIS BOOK THIS MONTH BECAUSE I AM 9 MONTHS PREGNANT AND WAS TOLD MAYBE I WOULD WANT TO READ IT AFTER THE POSTPARTUM PHASE DUE TO CRAZY GRAPHICNESS STUFF.
( I DON’T KNOW WHY I POSTED IN CAPS )
Carlene Martin
Jun 08, 2010 @ 17:24:57
Okay, so I was late in reading my own pick. I have learned a valuable lesson: don’t recommend a book you have not read yourself. I picked this book because it got great reviews and sounded touching. But I am not the type to recommend things to others when there are hard language and sex within the story. So, to anyone that was shocked by my choice, I apologize. I enjoyed the book but the entire time I was reading it I was thinking, “I can’t believe I recommended this book to others!” It is hard for me to enjoy a story where I have to read the swear words and shadier scenes (it’s hard to tell your brain you didn’t just read “that”). So if any of you stopped reading this book, I don’t blame you!
That being said, this is what I liked about the book. I love reading about life stories from areas that are completely foreign to me. I get so caught up in my own life, it is like an adventure for me to read about life so different from my own and yet just as important (yes, these characters are fictional, but life in Ethiopia must have been like this). Secondly, I love the theme of consequences. Everything we do in life, whether positive or negative has it’s consequences. We don’t get to choose the consequence to each action and our choices can end up driving our lives. I thought this book was full of good examples of how each character’s life was influenced by not only their actions, but the actions of those they interacted with. I felt like the book gave the advice, “Think before you leap”. I may be off, but that is what it meant to me.
The thing that bothered me the most without a doubt was when Marion and Genet get together. Here he had waited his whole life to be with a woman and then it happened like that. I thought it was practically rape and that anger drove the encounter more than even lust. Being a completely sentimental person, this really didn’t sit well with me.
You are all probably tired of reading my long winded rantings. I am off to the bookstore to get “The Maze Runner”. Enjoy!