Book Review: CUTTING FOR STONE by Abraham Verghese

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Make something beautiful of your life."

THIS MADE ME CRY!!!

Okay. I'll admit that I'm probably predisposed to crying, because I happen to be an identical twin myself. But I dare anyone to read this novel about two Ethiopian twin doctors with dry tear ducts. It's impossible!

Warning: Clear your schedule over a three day weekend for this 657 page tome. It will consume you from the first page, with the most vivid description of a problematic birth that could only have been written by a physician. That first scene seized me by the throat, I was invested!

Focusing on the lives of medical heroes in Addis Ababa and New York, the operating room narratives are fascinating and skillfully written, yet always focusing on empathy rather than expertise. I have never cared so much about fistulas and liver transplants until now!

"Everything you see and do and touch, every seed you sow, or don't sow, becomes part of your destiny."

I loved the elegance of the frame narrative, and how Verghese's use of the smallest and most trivial anecdote would reveal a greater significance later on. This novel gives new meaning to the term "full circle," and I am in awe of how masterfully all the threads came together at the end to form a beautiful tale that makes one believe in a Master of the universe at work, in the pain and joy of family, and of course, in the beauty of two bodies sharing one soul: the miracle of twinship.

"You know what's given me the greatest pleasure in my life? It's been our bungalow, the normalcy of it, the ordinariness of my waking... my work, my classes, my rounds..."

" 'Another day in paradise' was his inevitable pronouncement when he settled his head on his pillow. Now I understood what that meant: the uneventful day was a precious gift."

Dr. Verghese has written a classic. I hear it has been optioned for a movie and I just can't wait to see it onscreen!

And I know it's selfish to want him to write more when he is busy teaching and saving lives, but he has written one of my new all-time favorite books and the world needs more of his writings!

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