Before reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, I had heard so many raves about it, sometimes from unexpected quarters. It would come up in, say, a random conversation at work and a colleague who had read it would just start gushing about how amazing it was. After reading it, I can safely say that it did live up to all of the hype. It's epic, engrossing, and vivid, and left me with a lot of ideas to talk about the next time my book club meets. Problem is, I've let a bit of time pass since I finished it, so now I'm left with a bunch of random, possibly disjointed thoughts that I can't seem to wrangle into a concise post. I've decided to embrace the disjointedness and just mention two of the things that struck me the most about the book.
1- Every single character is so well drawn, from the main characters all the way down to the most minor patient who passes through the clinic. Each seems to warrant his or her own separate novel.
2- You often hear about nonfiction that reads as fiction. I can't help but thinking that this is fiction that reads like the best kind of nonfiction. It includes meticulous details about Ethiopian culture and history, as well as intricately depicted, play by play scenes of various surgeries and medical procedures. So vivid, they were sometimes painful to read, though always fascinating.
I'm sure something will come to me later that I'll be sorry for not mentioning. It's one of those books that sticks with you, prompting new thoughts here and there well after the last page.
1- Every single character is so well drawn, from the main characters all the way down to the most minor patient who passes through the clinic. Each seems to warrant his or her own separate novel.2- You often hear about nonfiction that reads as fiction. I can't help but thinking that this is fiction that reads like the best kind of nonfiction. It includes meticulous details about Ethiopian culture and history, as well as intricately depicted, play by play scenes of various surgeries and medical procedures. So vivid, they were sometimes painful to read, though always fascinating.
I'm sure something will come to me later that I'll be sorry for not mentioning. It's one of those books that sticks with you, prompting new thoughts here and there well after the last page.
I've seen looking at this book at the bookstore for over a year now. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I think I'll give it a try!
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