Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
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Book Summary Information
Author: Abraham VergheseEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-01-26
ISBN: 0375714367
Number of pages: 667
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Cutting for Stone
Book Review: "..pregnancy is a sexually transmitted disease."
Summary: 5 Stars
This wonderful novel has found a much wider audience now that it's in paperback. As of this writing, it sits on the trade paperback best seller list, among the top ten. There are so many good things to say about it that it's hard to begin. Rich in exacting detail, populated by wonderful and fascinating characters, well plotted, and loaded with action, this book should soon be crafted into a screenplay and make its way into the movies. But it's difficult to imagine a movie treatment that will do it justice.
It begins in 1947 with the rough passage of a brilliant and beautiful nun nurse, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, from her Carmelite Order of Madras to Missing Hospital's Operating Theater 3 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Along the way, she meets Dr. Thomas Stone, an eccentric but commanding surgeon whom she nurses back to health during their hellish boat trip from India. The narrator of this work is Sister Mary's son, Marion, fathered in 1954 along with his twin brother Shiva by Dr. Stone. Sister Mary, in her shame, has hidden her pregnancy from everyone, including Dr. Stone, until one day she cannot assist Stone because she has gone into labor. Stone is furious at her absence and seeks her out, only to find her unconscious in her room. He carries her to the operating theater but is at a complete loss as to what to do next. The pregnancy proves to be deadly, but the twins are saved through the forceful intervention of the hospital's gynecologist, Dr. Hemlatha, freshly returned from a three-week visit to her parents in India. Stone is incapable of caring about the babies who have killed the woman he realizes he has deeply loved and disappears from the hospital. From here, this marvelous tale spins forward, encompassing the lives of the twin boys and their wonderful surrogate parents, the rule of Emperor Haile Selassie, and the daily routine of Missing Hospital. So much more than that is also here, which makes this work a joy.
This book is about loss, dislocation, redemption, and the mysteries and agonies of love. It sometimes teeters on the melodramatic and contrived, but ultimately it is a tremendously moving and satisfying work. A slight warning: If detailed descriptions of medical procedures make you queasy, be prepared to encounter them here. The highly acclaimeed author, after all, is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and a dedicated surgeon. He pulls no punches in describing what goes on in the human body and in the operating room. The greatest thing about him, though, is that he also knows what goes on in the human heart. Highly recommended!
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