Review (5/5 Stars):
Tragedy at it's best. This is a beautifully crafted novel that demonstrates the powerful bond between twins. Conjoined twins may be physically separated at birth and then emotionally separated through the events of their separate lives but the mental connection, the connection that goes deeper than anything words can describe, is too powerful between twins to ever be severed. Although Cutting for Stone was as much about Africa (namely Ethiopia and Eritrea), it was the story of ShivaMarion that captured my heart. The events of their birth was written with so much detail, it was as if everyone was going in slow motion and as the reader, I was inside Operating Theatre 3 myself, watching everything happen. I sympathized with Stone, who in his shocked state helped to kill the one woman he loved. I applauded the strength and intelligence of Hema, who helped to deliver her own sons from another woman's body. Eventually, I fell in love with the two brothers, so different, but together in every way. My heart broke as I understood the subtle hints of their drifting apart. Shiva's dancing, the puppies, Shiva using his own voice instead of relying on his brother Marion to speak for them all foreshadowed the physical and emotional separation of ShivaMarion. I felt angry with the betrayal Marion faced and finally, I cried when the end came and all was forgiven and the brothers were joined again. Absolutely beautiful Abraham Verghese!
Synopsis (SPOILERS):
Tragedy at it's best. This is a beautifully crafted novel that demonstrates the powerful bond between twins. Conjoined twins may be physically separated at birth and then emotionally separated through the events of their separate lives but the mental connection, the connection that goes deeper than anything words can describe, is too powerful between twins to ever be severed. Although Cutting for Stone was as much about Africa (namely Ethiopia and Eritrea), it was the story of ShivaMarion that captured my heart. The events of their birth was written with so much detail, it was as if everyone was going in slow motion and as the reader, I was inside Operating Theatre 3 myself, watching everything happen. I sympathized with Stone, who in his shocked state helped to kill the one woman he loved. I applauded the strength and intelligence of Hema, who helped to deliver her own sons from another woman's body. Eventually, I fell in love with the two brothers, so different, but together in every way. My heart broke as I understood the subtle hints of their drifting apart. Shiva's dancing, the puppies, Shiva using his own voice instead of relying on his brother Marion to speak for them all foreshadowed the physical and emotional separation of ShivaMarion. I felt angry with the betrayal Marion faced and finally, I cried when the end came and all was forgiven and the brothers were joined again. Absolutely beautiful Abraham Verghese!
Synopsis (SPOILERS):
Their mother was Sister Mary Joseph Praise, an Indian nun who was trained as a nurse and sent to Africa to spread God's and India's love to the Africans. During her journey over by sea, the other nurse / nun she was with became ill. The only doctor on board was so seasick, he could barely survive the trip himself much less help anyone. Sister Mary Joseph Praise nursed him back to health, with that, he took care of everyone else on the ship. Unfortunately, the other nun ended up dying and Sister Mary Joseph Praise was left to complete their mission in Africa alone. After getting off the ship and turning down Dr. Stone's offer of going with him to be a nurse at his hospital, she was devastated to find that the nun she was supposed to go learn from just died of old age. Eventually, Sister Mary Joseph Praise showed up at the exact hospital that Dr. Stone worked at (of course, she didn't know this at the time) weak and about to collapse. The Matron took her in and she became a nurse at Missing Hospital. Verghese then deliberately told the readers that everything that nobody knows what happened to Sister Mary Joseph Praise in between the untimely death of her mentor and her showing up at missing hospital.
Anyway, her arrival at the hospital began a 7 year partnership between herself and Dr. Thomas Stone. She was his most trusted and compatible assistant, from almost reading his mind in the operating theatre to helping him write and illustrate his book. She was there beside him for everything. In fact, the reader can already tell pretty early on in the book that Sister Mary Joseph Praise has developed feelings for Thomas Stone that went beyond their professional relationship. One day, Sister Mary Joseph Praise was not at Stone's side during his operation, furious he went to her room to find her in labour. With their head obstetrician on vacation and the only surgeon too stunned seeing the woman he loves in pain, there was no one there to help. After hours of nothing, Hema (the obstetrician) returns to find Stone ready to crush the skull of the baby to get it out of Sister's system. To Stone, this thing inside of Sister is killing her and all he can think of is getting it out at any cost. Under Hema's instructions, they were able to do a c-section and brought two baby boys into the world. The boys arrived conjoined by an imbelical cord like tube connecting their heads and not breathing. Eventually they were able to revive the boys but Sister was lost. Stone, upset that these two "things" killed his beloved Sister, didn't even take one look at his sons before running off and disappearing.
Thus beginning Hema's sudden journey into motherhood. At the point in the novel, we meet another key character, Ghosh. Ghosh is somewhat of a player as he frequents the bars and the bedrooms of the barmaids as his one true love (Hema) would not give him the time of day. The truth is, Hema is also in love with Ghosh but neither of them realized that their flirting and rejection was taken in the wrong way by the other person. Through an incident where they discovered that Shiva sometimes forgets to breath because of the trauma his biological father subjected him through during delivery, the two of them discover their love for one another and end up raising the boys together.
In the middle of the boys teenage years, a series of events started that would further divide the twins to the point where they were familiar strangers to one another. Basically, Shiva deflowered the girl of Marion's dreams, the girl that he's been saving himself for, the girl he wanted to marry. Genet's mother killed herself as a result of this first act and Genet withdrew into a world of her own. Years later when Ghosh dies (of a blood disease), he makes Marion promise him two things: go to America and find his father, Thomas Stone and help heal him; and forgive Shiva for whatever it is he did. Marion had no intentions of doing such and continued to finish his medical degree until one day Hema called him back home. It turns out that Genet joined a rebel group and Marion's name has been associated with her so he has to flee the country or else he'd most likely end up dead or in jail. His final moments with his family was bitter sweet as Shiva, who's usually emotionally awkward, shows his love to his brother by giving him his beloved possession and Marion, who finally understands the impact of the events that led them to this rift. But even as Marion leaves, he finds that although he loves his brother and will never stop, he still has not been able for forgive him for what he's done to him and indirectly, to the family.
Off Marion goes to America, where he basically has to start all over in order to become a surgeon in a second class hospital. He studies under a Dr. Deepak Jesudass and one day, while Deepak was completing a rather complicated surgery involving a blood vessel behind the liver, a doctor from another hospital walks in and compliments the team (namely Deepak) on their work. This was none other than Dr. Thomas Stone himself. Throughout the span of years, father and son would only deal with one another professionally (other than one outrageous outbreak on Marion's part which lead to a very awkward dinner). Out of the blue one day Genet walked back into Marion's life and walked out 2 days later leaving him dying with Hepatitis B. Thomas then contacts Hema and along with Shiva, she comes to the States to see her baby boy. The most heartbreaking moments of the novel are within these few chapters when you see the bond between the two. When Shiva first sees his twin, in a comatose state at the hospital, he gets into bed beside him and touches Marion's head with his own as if that were the most natural thing ever (in a sense it is as that's how they came into this world). Then Shiva decides that he will give up half his liver to save his brother. This never been done before operation will be performed by none other than their father, Thomas Stone. The operation is successful and the moment that both brothers are conscious and Marion realizes Shiva just saved his life was beautiful. So the book ends happily ever after right? WRONG. Irony and tragedy strikes when Shiva takes some blood thinners as a result of the operation and a clump in his brain that's no one clarifies but I believe is an extension of the cord connecting Shiva and Marion's heads at birth bleeds into his brain and he dies. Marion was about to give up in life lying next to the corpse of his dead twin but eventually realizes that ShivaMarion are finally back as one and so he returns to Ethiopia to take the place of his brother and both his fathers (Ghosh and Stone) at Missing Hospital.
Off Marion goes to America, where he basically has to start all over in order to become a surgeon in a second class hospital. He studies under a Dr. Deepak Jesudass and one day, while Deepak was completing a rather complicated surgery involving a blood vessel behind the liver, a doctor from another hospital walks in and compliments the team (namely Deepak) on their work. This was none other than Dr. Thomas Stone himself. Throughout the span of years, father and son would only deal with one another professionally (other than one outrageous outbreak on Marion's part which lead to a very awkward dinner). Out of the blue one day Genet walked back into Marion's life and walked out 2 days later leaving him dying with Hepatitis B. Thomas then contacts Hema and along with Shiva, she comes to the States to see her baby boy. The most heartbreaking moments of the novel are within these few chapters when you see the bond between the two. When Shiva first sees his twin, in a comatose state at the hospital, he gets into bed beside him and touches Marion's head with his own as if that were the most natural thing ever (in a sense it is as that's how they came into this world). Then Shiva decides that he will give up half his liver to save his brother. This never been done before operation will be performed by none other than their father, Thomas Stone. The operation is successful and the moment that both brothers are conscious and Marion realizes Shiva just saved his life was beautiful. So the book ends happily ever after right? WRONG. Irony and tragedy strikes when Shiva takes some blood thinners as a result of the operation and a clump in his brain that's no one clarifies but I believe is an extension of the cord connecting Shiva and Marion's heads at birth bleeds into his brain and he dies. Marion was about to give up in life lying next to the corpse of his dead twin but eventually realizes that ShivaMarion are finally back as one and so he returns to Ethiopia to take the place of his brother and both his fathers (Ghosh and Stone) at Missing Hospital.
Cutting for Stone is full of riches--wonderfully human characters, an engaging plot with compelling conflicts, beautifully detailed settings, and classic themes about survival, compassion and forgiveness. The narrator, Marion Stone, is one of conjoined twins, separated at birth. Marion is both a first person and an omniscient narrator. He begins his tale years before his own birth, telling the history of how he and his twin Shiva come to be born in Ethiopia and shaping Hema and Ghosh, the adults who will later help him shape his own life. Even Marion's newborn impressions of the world and his mystical communication with his twin at the moment of their birth seem honest and real. And that's what ultimately made this novel great--its honesty.
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