Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group after 3 in the group said they’d read it before, loved it and wanted to read it again. I’m glad they did.

Summary in 4 Sentences: This novel is written in the first person from the perspective of a young man who grew up in Ethiopia at a Christian hospital with physicians and nurses primarily from India. The protagonist is one of identical twins born in the hospital under difficult circumstance – which led to the death of his mother, his father a surgeon disappearing, and a lot of mystery around what happen. The rest of the book is his story of growing up in the hospital he and his brother being adopted by two other doctors until he decides to become a surgeon and greaduates from medical school in Ehtiopia.  Political instability forces him to leave Ethiopia and emigrate to America, where he becomes a surgeon while also unravelling the mystery of his birth and his parent. 

My Impressions: Cutting for Stone is something of an epic tale of a young man’s life, that begins with his mother, a nun who had grown up in India, meeting his biological father, a doctor also from India on a ship to Ethiopia, where both of them on their way to serve.  Then our protagonist recounts his life in Ethiopia, ultimately moving as an adult and a newly minted physician to America, then finally returning to practice in Ethiopia. It is a longer book at 655 pages bit beautifully written and easy to read.  The story is told from the perspective of Marion Stone, one of twins born near the beginning of the book. It begins with Marion looking back and describing how his parents came to be in the (fictional ) “Missing” hospital in Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia.

Strengths of this book are the elegant writing, Marion’s descriptions of his childhood growing up in the suburbs of Addis Ababa in the mountains of Ethiopia, and his maturing into young adulthood.  We also learn something of the key events in Ethiopia’s history, the idol worship that many Ethiopians had for Emperor and dictator King Haile Selassie, the political unrest and efforts to overthrow him and how that political turmoil affected the people in Addis Ababa.  And then later, Marion’s fascinating descriptions of his impressions of NYC as he arrives from Ethiopia and how he adjusted to the crazy culture of Brooklyn. 

  Another key strength of the book are the many fascinating characters in Marion’s life – from his childhood and young adulthood in Ethiopia, to the people who shape his life after he gets to America.  The character development for the main characters is well done.   Our view of the characters is from Marion’s perspectives and prejudices, though Verghese does step into a “God’-eye-view”  to provide background and important insights into the lives of several of the key characters central to the story.  In that most of the key characters are surgeons, Verghese (also a surgeon) introduces us to some of the challenges and satisfactions of surgery – he walks us through some of the procedures and indeed I learned quite a few things about human biology and surgery as a side benefit to the book.

The Story Very early in the book, Marions describes – ostensibly from what he had learned from those who had been present – his own very difficult birth with that of his twin brother, and then the sudden disappearance of his surgeon father immediately after his mother died in childbirth.  Marion and his brother Shiva are then raised by two of his father’s colleagues at the hospital. A background theme and question throughout his childhood is why his father left so abruptly, abandoning his two sons, and where did he go?  Marion and his twin Shiva grow up on the hospital grounds, with medicine, surgery, disease, suffering, healing, and dying all around them. As identical twins they are initially inseparable, but eventually grow apart and actually become estranged (over a girl friend, not surprisingly)  Also, not surprisingly, they both eventually go into medicine. 

As is the case in most good novels, there are a number of love stories that move the story along – between his parents early on, between the male and female surgeons who became Marion and Shiva’s  adopted parents, the troubled love story between Marion and his childhood sweetheart, in contrast with the promiscuous Shiva’s many adventures.  But there was also the familial love story between Marion and his adopted family and care-givers in the hospital compound, the long term and troubled brotherly love story between Marion and Shiva, as well as the love – hate – love story between Marion and his biological father.

Wisdom and quotes There was also a lot of wisdom in the book, and i highlighted a number of passages.  Here are a few with page numbers from the paperback edition pictured above.. 

• But she was also filled with a nameless ambition that had nothing to do with love.  What exactly did she want? It was an ambition that wouldn’t let her compete for or seek the same things others sought. p57…….In the last few years she’d come close to defining the nameless ambition that had pushed her this far: to avoid the sheep life at all costs. p 59
• Wasn’t that that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted? p95
• It was called “Tizita“; there was no single equivalent English word.   Tizita meant “memory tinged with regret.”  Was there any other kind, Ghosh wondered. p152
• Maybe it was written on my face that I’d become aware of human complexity – that’s a kinder word than “deceit.”  I was trying to decide where to peg my own truth, how much to reveal about myself – it helped to have such a  steadfast father in Ghosh, never fickle, never prying, but knowing when I needed him.  p272.
• The parable of Abu Kassem’s Slippers (p 350-351) impressed all of us. It concludes with: “If you keep saying your slippers aren’t yours, then you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more.  Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.” 
• What human language captures the dislocation , the acute insufficiency of being in the presence of the superorganism, the sinking, shrinking feeling at this display of industrial steel and light and might?   It was as if nothin I’d ever done in my life prior to this counted.  p464
• Being the first born gives you great patience.  But you reach a point where after trying and trying you say, Patience be damned.  Let them suffer their distorted worldview.  Your job is to preserve yourself, not to descend into their hole.  p467
• B.C. sat back in his chair.  “Whatever America needs, the world will supply.  Cocaine? Colombia steps to the plate.  Shortage of farm workers, corn detasselers? Thank God for Mexico.  Baseball players? Viva the Dominican Republic.  Need more interns? India Philippines zindabad!” p491
• “Call me old fashioned,” Deepak said,”but I’ve always believed that hard work pays off.  My version of the Beatitudes.  Do the right thing, put up with unfairness, selfishness, stay true to yourself…one day it all works out. Of course, I don’t know that people who wronged you suffer or get their just deserts.  I don’t think it works that way.  But I  do think one day you get your reward.” p508

And Finally Cutting for Stone was a fascinating and fun read. In our reading group, some were put off by some of the soap opera-like aspects of the love stories,  though I’m something of a sucker for that human drama. Indeed Verghese did tie up a lot of loose ends at the end, which was satisfying for me as a reader, but which, had he left more questions unanswered, it might have made it a more classic novel.  It was a worthy selection for our group and we had a great discussion – a highlight being which of the many interesting characters intrigued or inspired our readers most, 

I’d also recommend another short review of Cutting for Stone by Kelly Pettyjohn – which is very much in harmony with mine, and can be read here.