Cutting for Stone

This is a long emotional beautifully written novel with characters you can't forget. It's beautifully plotted - well, maybe too well plotted because the ending is almost potboiler gooey - and the action takes place in two hospitals in two countries - Missing (for Mission) in Addis Ababa and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the ghetto of New York City. It's written by an Indian doctor who was raised in Ethiopia, schooled in Madras, turned internist and academician in the US then turned writer out of the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa and is now a tenured Professor of The Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford'

If I were to sum up my reaction to this book I would just say that it's a novel with good people in it - and that's a relief these days; it's a novel all the more interesting to us because of the colorful back-drop of Ethiopia in the first two thirds of the book; it's a novel with a bit too much surgical detail for me - a lot of OR description - and I still don't know whether the operating surgeon stands on the right or the left of the table. (What do you with a left-handed surgeon?) And it's a novel, which presents us with the problems of a foreign doctor, (particularly one with a dark skin) entering practice in America: Are they entitled to compete on the same level for the same choice residencies at the same choice hospitals as our domestic graduates? Coming from a different culture can they apply what they have learned medically with the same sensitivity and skill as a graduate of, say, the University of Kansas Medical School?

I'll review it by telling you about the characters because in the end it's mostly about people. No big moral or political issues Sisteer Mary Joseph Praise - a Carmel;ite nun from India posted to Missing Hospital. It's 1954. Working there as assistant to Thomas Stone. Very religious.. Becomes pregnant byh one time incident with Stone. Conceals the pregnancy under her sari and when found delivering identical twins is rushed to operating room and dies in complicated delivery by Stone.

Thomas Stone - a young. brilliant, Indian trained English surgeon who is so overwrought with the death of the woman he loved because of his bumbling delivery of his twins he rushes form the operating room and is not seen again on the pages of this book - or anywhere else for that matter - till thirty years later when he appears in the operating room of Our Lady hospital in New York as his son Marion is assisting another surgeon in a complicated liver repair. He's now the leading liver surgeon in the world and practicing in a Mayflower hospital in Boston.

Thomas Stone, - Young and brilliant English surgeon. Raised in and trained in India. Father of the twins. Becomes so distraught at the botched delivery he vanishes and doesn't come back to the story till thirty years later when he's found to be the leading liver surgeon in the world, practicing in Boston Hospital.

Marion Stone/Shiva Stone. Identical twin conjoined lightly at the top of the head at birth and separated in the delivery room. Some trouble (?) in detaching Shiva's head may have lead to his death thirty years later from an arteriovenous malfunction caused by blood thinner and which flooded his brain and left him brain dead within a mater of hours - in Our Lady Hospital in NYC.

Marion Praise Stone. The other twin and the narrator of this novel from page one to the end at page 651.

Both Marion and Shiva are raised by Ghost and Hema (see below) at the Hospital in Ethiopia. Lovely scenes of Ethiopia. A warm family feeling at the hospital with many retainers and helpers. Both are close in boyhood with Genet (see below) but drift apart over Genet as adolescents. Marion goes to medical school. Shiva goes only part way but is the brighter. Marion becomes a general surgeon and gets an internship at Our Lady in NYC.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help - it's the "Ellis Island" for young doctors from India, Africa. They can't get jobs in the "Mayflower " hospitals. But it's the place to learn because it's in the ghetto and gets the real problem cases twenty-four hours a day. Exhausting. No sleep. But you learn. (Vershage knows because he was one of them,)

Ghosh. One of the loveliest characters in the book. Indian. Internist. Stationed at Missing. As the Sister Mary Joseph Praise tragedy opens the book he is forced to become a surgeon because Thomas Stone has disappeared and the hospital has no one else to turn to. Marries Hema. (See below) Becomes father to the twins for all intents and purposes. A truly loving man and great doctor.

Hema. An Indian trained OB-GYN specialist at Missing who doesn't get into the operating room in time to save the Sister Mary Joseph Praise situation but delivers the twins successfully. Another lovely character andtruly good person. Marries Ghosh. Raises the twins as her own for thirty years as their real mother for all intents and purposes. Otherwise no children of her own.

Genet. Beautiful daughter of Rosina a retainer at Missing. Same age as the twins. The three of them grow up together in Ethiopia at the hospital. All one family. However she's a tragic figure and the deus ex machina of the tragedy which ends this novel.(As a matter of fact she's such a tragic figure that she's grist for an independent novel about her alone.)

To make a very long story really short this is what happens - all told in superb prose:. There is an idyllic period while the three children grow up and go to school together. Marion loves Genet. They go to medical school together but drift apart. Genet is ready for love and allows Shiva to make love to her unbeknownst to Marion. Now it's the old triangle situation except Marion doesn't learn the truth for some time. .Learning that her daughter has been deflowered Rosina forces Genet into female circumcision. Genet flees and becomes one of the Ethiopian rebels. She is one of four who hijack an Ethiopain Airlines plane during the civil war. She's now a refugee and wanted person and all of her friends are suspect and subject to arrest by the secret police. (This is a Communist state.) Of course, one of her friends is or was Marion Stone and they set out to arrest him. He is warned of the pending incarceration and flees; and in one of the great escape chapters gets out of the country and to America to Our lady hospital where the rest of the story takes place - at about page 400. Shiva remains in Ethiopia and is interested in the treatment and prevention of vaginal fistulas in women, so prevalent in a society which has poor obstetrical and genealogical services.

In America Marion completes his internship and his residency and is now, years later, a Board Qualified General Surgeon. He practices at Our Lady still. One day, anxious for Ethiopian food, he's told about the Queen of Sheba restaurant in NYC - best Ethiopian restaurant in America. Goes there. Finds it's run by Tsegue who he has helped in Addis Ababa years before. She reunites with him and tells him Genet is now in NYC. They find each other. Genet has had a rough life. Finally he makes love to her. But he gets Hepatitis B from her and is at death's door..

Now Marion is dying from liver failure but Shiva comes to America and suggests transplanting a portion of his liver into Marion. Should work because of identical twins. But no one has ever done it before. Call in Thomas Stone the greatest liver surgeon in the world and father of his twins. He does it successfully the first ever living donor liver surgery of its kind. Marion recovers. Shiva dies from the brain bleed. In the meantime Genet has died. in prison - dregs etc.

So as the curtain comes down on this drama there are really only three people left alive - Marion, Thomas and Hema who has lost her husband (Ghosh died some years ago) she has lost one of her "children" (Shiva) but she still has Marion. Everyone else we were close to is dead.

But there is more. Remember I told you it was gooey? Now there is peaceful music. Marion goes back to Missing where he remains as the surgeon. Hema is with him. She's interested in Shiva's program for the eradication and/or proper treatment of vaginal fistulas in African women. And now the program is well funded. Thomas Stone is retired with his reputation intact. Our Lady is famous for the first liver operation of it/s kind and all is well at Missing.

Great novel. Great characters. Lots of plot. Long. But worth it. Please read it. You'll like it.

I just finished this book last night. It took me 10 months to read. Why?? Because I'm not sure why. After reading the first few intense chapters (no spoilers), I put the book down. Took a break. And realized I had trouble engaging with the characters. Or maybe last summer got in the way. I really can't explain it, but for the next several months, this book sat in my Kindle. I kept thinking about it, wondering what was going to happen next, but other interests got in the way. I read several books in between and 2 weeks ago, finally decided to pick up Cutting for Stone and the story line once again. Surprisingly, it was quite easy to pick up where I left off even after all these months. Suddenly and surprisingly, the characters came to life...in a big way. The story unfolded and was captivating. I had trouble putting the book down.

I woke up early in the morning to read before work. I picked up the book as soon as I was done work, and I read before bed. The writer has a style that is not only beautiful and poetic in it's rhythm, but so descriptive and alluring. I could picture the characters and locations in my mind and I became engrossed. Despite my college education and post-graduate degree, within almost every chapter, I found myself looking up the definitions of many words unfamiliar to me on my Kindle. I love that. I love learning new words as I read books for enjoyment.

Finishing the book at 1am last night, I exhaled a huge sigh and sat in my bed staring into the dark. I wanted more, but the story ended quite perfectly as writers' want them to....with the reader sitting back and thinking to themselves...."What the hell kind of roller coaster ride did I just take??"

I actually thought this was a true story. I know you're laughing, but it doesn't matter. It's ok. Imagine reading a novel so well written that it made me believe that this story actually happened. It was a thrilling experience to enjoy the book in that manner. When I realized I was wrong all along, I admit I was a bit disappointed. But quickly snapped out of it and realized that I wasn't so much disappointed as I was in awe.

Great story. No, outstanding story! Will this ever be made into a movie? If it does, it better be epic. This book is so memorable. I'm so glad I chose to finish reading it, even though it took me 10 months to do so.

Abraham Verghese is a brilliant writer. His stories are complex, filled with fully described characters who are sympathetic even when their actions seem cruel or unkind. His settings are authentic and the book is full of interesting historical and cultural realities in places often overlooked in the world of fiction. The medical aspects of the story are fascinating and informative. And his writing allows readers to feel they are sitting with Verghese as he speaks directly to them.

This is not an easy read; some of the topics are painful, some of the events tragic. But it is an incredible journey that will leave you better informed, kinder, and more hopeful about humanity. Don't miss this book.

This brilliant novel revolves around what is broken -- limbs, family ties, trust -- and the process of rebuilding them. It starts with the birth of twin boys to a nursing nun, Sister Mary Praise Joseph, in a small hospital on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; an event which no one had expected: "The everyday miracle of conception had taken place in the one place it should not have: in Sister Mary Praise Joseph's womb." The delivery rapidly becomes a debacle when it's clear that Mary Praise Joseph can't deliver her baby normally; the last minute arrival home at "Missing" (the Mission Hospital) by Indian obstetrician Hema saves the children, but their mother dies and their presumed father father, surgeon Thomas Stone, disappears into the night.

That brief summary does no justice to Verghese's powerful and remarkable prose style or the structure of the first part of the book which, although it revolves around the tragedy that claims the life of the twins' mother, also introduces the other main characters who will take the place of their biological parents. Darting back and forth between the events in the surgical theater (as Thomas Stone, horrified at what he sees, first tries to save Mary Joseph Praise's life by collapsing the skull of the infant he believes cannot be born alive), the mundane daily activities of his fellow doctor, Ghosh (trying to escape what he believes is a hopeless love for Hema) and Hema's struggle to get home to Missing from her annual holiday in India, the reader will find it impossible to put the book down and wants only to find a way of reading faster and faster to discover what happens next. By the time the twins are born, attached by a blood vessel at the head and separated at the last moment by Stone and Hema to save their lives, the reader will find himself or herself resenting every moment not spent following this story until the tale is told. And even when you are finished, the novel and its more-than-compelling characters will linger on in your mind...

Separated at birth, the twins grow up in the Ethiopia of the Emperor Haile Selaisse's reign, and Verghese introduces the reader to an ancient world that will be new to most readers, with all its flavors, colors, scents and sounds. His remarkable artistry ensures that this is never jarring but always intriguing and that the characters -- Indian expatriate doctors raising their two foster children, born to an Indian nun and an American surgeon, with the help of an Eritrean caretaker and her own daughter -- feel as familiar to us as if they were members of our own family. In the manner of a classic epic, Verghese picks his themes -- separation, the intersection of sex and death, wounds and what surgery can and can't accomplish -- and sticks to them throughout. And yet, those themes -- sweeping ones for any novelist to tackle -- never overshadow the fact that this is, at its core, the story of two brothers, Shiva and Marion -- or ShivaMarion, as Marion, the narrator, describes their single-minded unity in their youngest years.

Ultimately, the political events in Ethiopia and family betrayals send Marion fleeing to the United States. His odyssey seems to rupture all these ties and yet by the time the novel ends, we realize that every step has, in fact, been bringing Marion, Shiva and their extended family closer together as well as toward a resolution of the various plot twists. Training as a surgeon in a Bronx hospital where the only interns are from overseas ("the bloodlines from the Mayflower hadn't trickled down to this zip code", Marion reflects wryly), the finally encounters his birth father in person -- with dramatic consequences -- and has a chance to make peace with Thomas Stone, Shiva -- and himself.

Anyone familiar with Veghese's non-fiction writing (two very compelling memoirs,

Abraham Verghese, a Stanford professor and medical doctor, an essayist, short story writer for The New Yorker and many others, authored CUTTING FOR STONE (CS), his first novel, published in 2009. It was made into a movie into 2011 and was widely praised by reviewers. Although heavily medical, it is a sheer delight, providing fascinating data about life and culture in Ethiopia, the esoteric world of surgery with some loving relationships in the bargain. It is current, “hot” (probably to many) and well worth reading.

It centers upon Siamese twins (Marion, the narrator, and Shiva) who were joined at the head but were separated at birth. They were the illegitimate children of a Catholic Nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise and a great surgeon, Thomas Stone. Much of the story takes place in Ethiopia and brings into focus the culture, endless military coups, poverty and travails of that nation, even under the rule of Haile Selassie, the Emperor for eons, who is depicted variously as good ruler and a ruthless murderer of suspected foes (like so many dictators and rulers in all forms of governments); it then moves to New York City. It is marked, above all else, by detailed and sometimes gory descriptions of medical procedures, which may interest some but will become tedious or macabre to many, but those segments can be scanned rather than read. The characters are given rich histories, believable feelings, and largely realistic actions, and the prose that surrounds them is well above average and often elegant, deeply moving, unforgettable.

There is a recurring theme of fatalism and a recognition of the futility of most human life:

“If we are lucky, we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery and early death Which, lest we forget, is the common lot…”

Ministering to others heals and is implied as one form of salvation. The author aptly defines home as “not necessarily where you were born or raised but where you are wanted.” The author’s Dr. Thomas Stone, “The master-word is Work. Write it in the tablets of your hearts; fight sleep for it; wake up to it; it is our meat, our drink, our politics, our “ism”, our salvation.” Thomas Stone gives a chilling epitaph to the novel’s fatalism: “Call no many happy until he dies” -- a view which many of us soundly reject for ourselves, but it is well to recognize the justifiable prevalence of such a nihilistic view.

An illustration of the author’s facility with staccato metaphors: “A fleeting, fragmented vision seen through an ice-crusted window…a perturbation in space, a gap in time, an ignominy imposed by powerful forces whom I disrupted too many times; a perturbation of a brain undone by alcohol…I reassemble the memory like a shattered relic; finally making it whole; melancholia, conveying the feeling that the worst punishment sometimes can be to live…He lingered, finally becoming one with the dark shadows that enveloped the room, as the light of day vaporized…”

In sum, a griping novel but too much medicine for those uninitiated by that esoteric world -- and who do not wish to be -- but redeemed by the loving introspection of the minds of its loving narrator, Marion, and a number of other admirable characters (Gosh, Henna and, of course, the late Sister Mary Joseph Praise, the books beloved, iconic nurse). This is clearly rewarding to read. Do it. BookAWeekMan. ([...])