Cutting for Stone

“Call me unwanted, call my birth a disaster, call me the bastard child of a disgraced nun and a disappeared father, call me a cold-blooded killer who lies to the brother of the man I killed, but that loamy soil that nurtured Matron’s roses was in my flesh."

It's taken me a few weeks to finish reading, but I devoured the last couple of pages of Cutting for Stone (560 pages) this afternoon. From the publisher:

Lauded for his sensitive memoir (My Own Country) about his time as a doctor in eastern Tennessee at the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, Verghese turns his formidable talents to fiction, mining his own life and experiences in a magnificent, sweeping novel that moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York City over decades and generations. Sister Mary Joseph Praise, a devout young nun, leaves the south Indian state of Kerala in 1947 for a missionary post in Yemen. During the arduous sea voyage, she saves the life of an English doctor bound for Ethiopia, Thomas Stone, who becomes a key player in her destiny when they meet up again at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa. Seven years later, Sister Praise dies birthing twin boys: Shiva and Marion, the latter narrating his own and his brothers long, dramatic, biblical story set against the backdrop of political turmoil in Ethiopia, the life of the hospital compound in which they grow up and the love story of their adopted parents, both doctors at Missing. The boys become doctors as well and Vergheses weaving of the practice of medicine into the narrative is fascinating even as the story bobs and weaves with the power and coincidences of the best 19th-century novel.

Let me begin by saying that I haven't had a love/hate relationship like I did with this book since the last time I put on a pair of Spanx (and no - I will not tell you when that was!). Vergheses jumps straight to the point with the novel, opening with the doomed Sister Praise, bloody and dying, in the middle of labor with her quickly-arriving twin boys. I was both amazed and frustrated at his ability to thrust me into the bedlam and chaos of the operating theater, forcing me to feel the confusion and panic that the characters were enduring. I hated how he jumped from character to character and from setting to setting, and I foud myself angst-ridden, grinding my teeth and mentally pleading with him to go back to the hospital and deliver those damn babies! Only an extremely clever writer is able to make the reader feel the madness, the anticipation, and the confusion that the characters are experiencing - without even knowing it! This is Vergheses' talent... and he is indeed a master.

CTS is a story with strong characters whose lives are affected by the events of revolution, and it does a tremendous job of portraying Ethiopia. Unfortunately for me, I am completely ignorant of African history, so I spent quite a bit of my time merely skimming the chapters detailing the revolution and the politics of the era. If I had a complaint about the novel, this would be it. I lost interest several times, and nearly stopped reading the book completely. But I'm not a quitter (when it comes to books, at least!), so I dug in my heels and vowed to finish, and boy, am I glad I did! What the middle section of the book lacked, it more than made-up for toward the close. Perhaps it was because I had nearly given-up and thought the book was a lost cause, but the last several chapters completely trapped me, and I found myself fighting-off droopy-eyes and Ambien late on several nights, just to read a few pages more.

Cutting for Stone is a sweeping novel, broad in scope and with deep characters. Marion (one of the twins) recounts his life story, and the stories of his parents. There are a ton of side stories and what initially appear to be meandering reflections, but Verghese ties everything together. And not in a neat, organized manner. If he includes the most random detail, you can be assured it’s for a darned good reason. This book left me teary-eyed and week at the knees, despite my early disinterst. It was a heck of a ride, and I’m bummed that it had to end. If you're not a patient reader, stay away from this one. But, if you're looking for something to challenge your grey matter and tear at your soul, here it is, my friend!