Abraham Verghese, a physician, professor and writer, authored Cutting for Stone. Prior to this novel, Verghese wrote two other critically acclaimed books: The Tennis Partner and My Own Country. These autobiographies detailed his experiences as an Indian physician in the United States. Verghese was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but was forced to flee during the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie. He found refuge in Madras, India—a setting he includes in Cutting for Stone. After completing his medical studies in India, Verghese sought a career in the United States. Verghese’s experiences in Ethiopia, India and later America contributed to his immense passion for medicine. Now a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine,
…show more content…
Throughout the novel, he constructs elegant sentences to emphasize main ideas. One such sentence, on page 44, describes Dr. Thomas Stone’s love for Sister Mary Joseph Praise: “Love so strong, without ebb and flow or crests and troughs, indeed lacking any sort of motion so that it had become invisible to him these seven years, part of the order of things outside his head which he had taken for granted” (44). Though long, this sentence highlights the immense love the doctor harbors for the nun and the starkness of this recent realization. The reference to waves— using the words “flow”, “crests”, “troughs”—portrays this love as intense yet capricious, as it did not become fully evident until this moment. Another effective sentence, on page 277, reflects the fragility of health in Addis: “I knew better than most children how little separated the world of health from that of disease, living flesh from the icy touch of the dead, the solid ground from treacherous bog” (277). In this sentence, the protagonist, Marion Stone emphasizes the minute gap between health and disease by providing interesting analogies. As living flesh is met by death, and ground is met by bog, so temporary health is challenged by numerous …show more content…
While Wagner praises the novel’s detail and the author’s unique writing style, she criticizes the novel’s title, tone and plot. She claims the title Cutting For Stone is ambiguous, “[trying] to do too many jobs at once” (Wagner 1). Drawn from a line in the Hippocratic Oath, the phrase “Cutting for Stone” discourages doctors from partaking in lethal surgical procedures in which they lack experience. I disagree with this criticism, as the purpose of the title is evident: to evoke a medicine-focused tone that weaves into the story’s plot. Later in the article, Wagner acknowledges Verghese’s accomplishments as a doctor, but argues that his past experiences as a physician played a trivial role in the novel’s development, prompting both its “making and unmaking” (Wagner 1). I also disagree with this criticism; Verghese’s experiences not only inspired him to author such a unique novel, but also influenced his vivid descriptions of surgical procedures. Yes, he may have dwelled on certain procedures for longer than was warranted, including intense jargon, but this helped achieve his purpose of conveying the intricacies of surgery—and the world of medicine in general. To end the review, Wagner comments on the weakened plot in the latter half of the novel: Verghese’s descriptions of the pasts of Thomas Stone and Genet. I agree with Wagner’s criticism, as the placement of these descriptions
Throughout the novel, he constructs elegant sentences to emphasize main ideas. One such sentence, on page 44, describes Dr. Thomas Stone’s love for Sister Mary Joseph Praise: “Love so strong, without ebb and flow or crests and troughs, indeed lacking any sort of motion so that it had become invisible to him these seven years, part of the order of things outside his head which he had taken for granted” (44). Though long, this sentence highlights the immense love the doctor harbors for the nun and the starkness of this recent realization. The reference to waves— using the words “flow”, “crests”, “troughs”—portrays this love as intense yet capricious, as it did not become fully evident until this moment. Another effective sentence, on page 277, reflects the fragility of health in Addis: “I knew better than most children how little separated the world of health from that of disease, living flesh from the icy touch of the dead, the solid ground from treacherous bog” (277). In this sentence, the protagonist, Marion Stone emphasizes the minute gap between health and disease by providing interesting analogies. As living flesh is met by death, and ground is met by bog, so temporary health is challenged by numerous …show more content…
While Wagner praises the novel’s detail and the author’s unique writing style, she criticizes the novel’s title, tone and plot. She claims the title Cutting For Stone is ambiguous, “[trying] to do too many jobs at once” (Wagner 1). Drawn from a line in the Hippocratic Oath, the phrase “Cutting for Stone” discourages doctors from partaking in lethal surgical procedures in which they lack experience. I disagree with this criticism, as the purpose of the title is evident: to evoke a medicine-focused tone that weaves into the story’s plot. Later in the article, Wagner acknowledges Verghese’s accomplishments as a doctor, but argues that his past experiences as a physician played a trivial role in the novel’s development, prompting both its “making and unmaking” (Wagner 1). I also disagree with this criticism; Verghese’s experiences not only inspired him to author such a unique novel, but also influenced his vivid descriptions of surgical procedures. Yes, he may have dwelled on certain procedures for longer than was warranted, including intense jargon, but this helped achieve his purpose of conveying the intricacies of surgery—and the world of medicine in general. To end the review, Wagner comments on the weakened plot in the latter half of the novel: Verghese’s descriptions of the pasts of Thomas Stone and Genet. I agree with Wagner’s criticism, as the placement of these descriptions