Just finished reading Abraham Verghese’s engaging book, Cutting for Stone. It’s one of those novels that pulls you so completely into its world that you feel sorry when it ends.
It’s the story of the orphaned and abandoned twin sons of an Indian nun and an Anglo doctor who grow up as Ethiopians in a charity hospital near Addis Ababa. The main protagonist is forced to flee during a period of civil unrest, goes to medical school in the U.S., and ends up as a respected surgeon, along the way nearly dying when his past comes back to haunt. The novel follows the two boys’ lives—and those of the people around them—from their birth into their adulthood.
The vividly drawn characters, interesting narrative line, and abundant detail create a rich tapestry, so that even when the plot waxes a bit melodramatic, you willingly set aside disbelief. It’s a hefty, solid, and highly enjoyable novel.
Verghese, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, has been compared to Salman Rushdie. Maybe. To my taste, there’s a significant difference: Verghese is crystalline in his clarity. He seems not to be drawn to the postmodernism that makes some of Rushdie’s work inaccessible to the literal of mind. And, it must be said, no one is likely to burn this book in the village square.
Whatever its literary merits (which I think are significant), Cutting for Stone is highly recommended.