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Since I recently made fun of over-the-top Indian epics I must admit that Cutting for Stone
features conjoined twins, political coups, a miraculously avoided plane crash, female circumcision, death by syphilis, death by typhoid, and that does not even include the pregnant nun from chapter 1. But Cutting for Stone works – at least for the first 400 pages or so, that is as long as the hero, Marion Stone and previously-conjoined twin, stays in Ethiopia. Once he moves to America and inexplicably meets up again with all the critical figures of his youth the unlikelihood quotient got too high for my taste. I still needed to read to the end but I could no longer lose myself in the tale.
As always the story is replete with medical drama — perfect if you like that kind of things (with lots of blood as befits a story about four surgeons, one obstetrician, and several hospitals.) I had very much enjoyed Verghese ’s earlier books, My Own Country
and The Tennis Partner
.
