Thursday, October 21, 2010

Cutting For Stone, Abraham Verghese

Well, what a beautiful and satisfying book.  The author weaves a tale of twin brothers who are raised in a hospital in Ethiopia during an era of revolution.  They are aware of the unconventional family in which they find themselves in and excel in their own ways.

They are at the core of a tragedy, a mystery, lost and missing family.  They are well cared for and loved.  Their story unfolds mostly through the narration of one of the twins.  Marion, like all the characters in this book, is well rounded, complicated and human.  His maturity expands as the story unfolds and his transformation from child to man is stunning.

Our book discussion jumped from topic to topic mostly on the bent of "I LOVED THIS PART" and "I loved how this was written."   We found that in spite of the books 650 pages that it was a quick read.  To say we devoured it would be an understatement.

Dr. Verghese, if you ever Google your own name and find our silly little blog we want to invite you to come to dinner.  WE LOVED YOUR BOOK!

We were infinitely impressed with the amount of medical information in the story, especially around surgeries and illnesses and how it was extremely accessible to us non-doctor type people.  The journey of our characters to become a doctor and the involvement of the multiple doctors and medical personnel could have been tedious, but it wasn't, it was lovely.

The only loud and remotely negative comment related to this story is the general outrage that smart men have trouble walking away from women who are 'trouble'.  This isn't a complaint about the book as much as a commentary on humans (women do it too.)  What is it about us that we see others for who we want them to be, rather than who they may have become?    Is it so hard to accept that if someone hits you, lies to you, manipulates you, sleeps with your best friend, kills your cat, sets your house on fire, takes your savings or other general malfeasance that maybe, just maybe they aren't worthy of your love???  Sorry for the side track - I'm not suggesting that forgiveness isn't an option, but snap out of it, some people are douche bags.  Learn to recognize them and get them out of your life!

Back to the point.  Cutting for Stone, confusing title and all, was well received by our humble group, come dine and discuss with us Dr. Verghese.  We want to shower you with our appreciation.

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