Cutting for Stone
- Author: Abraham Verghese
- Published: 2009
- Type: Fiction / Historical Fiction
- Pages: 690
- Finished Reading: October 22, 2024
- Personal Rating: ★★★★ (4 Stars)
- GoodReads Rating: 4.3 (401,615)
After finishing Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything I went through my e-Book library to see what might spark my interest. When I saw this title I couldn’t remember why I bought it. Happily, my past self had given an unexpected gift to current self. I started reading and was immediately hooked. Sister Mary Praise, a Nun, learned nursing as a novitiate in India; after her training is complete she is sent to Africa. The sea voyage is horrific and when she arrives in the city of her post, it gets worse. In desperation she makes her way to Addis Abba, Ethiopia to join the doctor, Thomas Stone, she met on the ship.
A few years later Sister Mary Praise ends up in the emergency room – in labor, surprising everyone – and gives birth to identical twin boys Marion and Shiva – or as Marion later thinks of he and his brother: ShivaMarion. Through this core of the novel we get so much more. ShivaMarion’s father is gone and they are raised by another couple who work in the hospital: Ghosh and Hema.
We are identical twins, but the truth is we aren’t exactly identical. No, not the way a none-birr not is identical with another birr note in all bu the serial number. Shiva is actually my mirror image.
I’m right-handed, and Shiva’s left-handed. The swirl on the back of my head is on my left. Shiva’s is on the right.” [Page 333]
A severe rift occurs between the brothers, although Shiva can’t appreciate how it affects his brother. The emotional rift becomes a physical one. Shiva is focused on surgery – he says his job is to “repair holes” – to the detriment of understanding human feelings and interactions.
Shiva was so tuned to the distress of animals and pregnant women, yet he could be blissfully unaware of the pain of other humans, especially if he was the cause. [Page 334]
Their journeys separate and eventually come back together. Around this core are wrapped revolution, love, heartbreak, the suffering of the poor, and how to make one’s way through this world of need. Shiva creates a new way to help women with a specific type of pregnancy problem; but, doesn’t have the emotional capacity to care for people or understand their needs. Their father’s approach was to put his heart and soul into surgery at the expense of being a parent or a caring person at all. Foster parents Ghose and Hema use their medical skills mixed with large doses of humanity. Marion struggles to find his path through his love for Genet, the break with his brother and the absence of his father .
The novel’s length – almost 700 pages – allows Abraham Verghese to go into depth on the events and themes and many characters. There is so much in this novel to unpack and I risk spoiling much of it by going into any detail. It is a splendid mixture of plot and themes of humanity and history. One thing to be aware of before diving into this novel is that the main characters are all surgeons (as is the author) and there are long passages describing anatomy and disease.
