Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Publication date/ Length: 2009 / 533

Synopsis (from the back cover): …An enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home….

First Line: “After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother’s womb, my brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954.”

Review: Sometimes before I begin a review, I think of a word that might best describe the work.  In the case of Cutting for Stone, the word is “alchemy.”  This novel works so well on so many disperate levels, that alchemy is the truly the result.

I decided to read Stone because it was set in Addis Ababa, where I recently met my niece and witnessed my sister become a mother.  In addition, I knew one of the main characters shared the same name as my niece: “Genet” (when the novel first arrived, I opened to a random page and saw this quite common Ethiopian name everywhere).  Then my interest was further piqued when a mother in a music class that my sister, Genet and I were taking said that her book club was reading it.  The long, long waiting list at the library merely cemented my desire to read this novel.

This novel functions — very well — on many different levels.  In one respect, Stone is a brief history of Ethiopia — the only country to resist colonialization until the Italians briefly resided there during WWII.  This colonialization is not apparent on a short visit to Ethiopia – the infrastructure of the country is quite untouched compared to Kenya or Egypt (the other two African countries I have been lucky enough to visit).  However, the characters in the novel do feel the lingering presence of the Italians, in mostly fond and pleasureable ways. 

The legacy of Haile Selassie and Mengitsu is obviously more pronounced and more complex and reminded me again to be grateful to be living in a time of domestic peace and stability, despite the recent, shameful behavior of those who oppose our current president. However, the history lesson of Stone is neither intrusive nor textbook, but more powerful for its effect on the Ethiopian people who lived through the various regimes.

On another level, Stone taught me more about medicine and surgery than I could have ever imagined learning — and this aspect of the novel was fascinating.  The author is a professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford, as well as the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas, in addition to authoring numerous award-winning works.  Apparently he must have more hours in his day!    But he integrates his knowledge of medicine in a very readable and interesting manner.  Most of the characters are doctors, so Verghese’s experience only deepens our experience of the individual characters.

And characterization is key in this novel.  I finished this novel knowing that Hema, Ghosh, Marion, Thomas, Shiva, and (unfortunately) Genet would never be forgotten. At 534 pages, engaging characters were a must — and I would truly describe this novel as a “page turner.”  The reader is compelled to discover what happens to each character and is compassionate toward even the most unlikable. 

I recommend this novel without reservation, and do believe it would be an excellent choice for book clubs.

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