23. CUTTING for STONE

Abraham Verghese 2009

One of the best books I have read this year. It is an all-encompassing saga of Marion and Shiva, twin brothers born to an Indian nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise and a British surgeon Thomas Stone. It has history, culture, tragedy, forgiveness, coming of age, betrayals, sacrifice and love between lovers, brothers, friends, children and parents. And refreshingly, it is also a very compassionate depiction of physicians and surgeons.

"After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother's womb, my brother, Shiva and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths at an elevation of eight thousand feet in the thin air of Addis Abab, capital city of Ethiopia."

"Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?"

"My father, for whose skills as a surgeon I have the deepest respect, says, "The operation with the best outcome is the one you decide not to do." Knowing when not to operate, knowing when I am in over my head, knowing when to call for the assistance of a surgeon of my father's caliber--that kind of talent, that kind of "brilliance," goes unheralded."

"When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious."

"Sound Nursing Sense is more important that knowledge, though knowledge only enhances it. Sound Nursing Sense is a quality that cannot be defined, yet it is invaluable when present and noticeable when absent."

"Impending death had a way of unexpectedly unearthing the past so that it came together with the present in an unholy coupling."

"Almaz's sure hands chop onions, tomatoes, and fresh corianders, making hillocks that dwarf the tiny mounds of ginger and garlic. She keeps a palette of spices nearby: curry leaves, turmeric, dry coriander, cloves, cinnamon, mustard seed, chili powder, all in tiny stainless-steel bowls within a large mother platter."

"After lunch, Shiva and I fall asleep, arms around each other, breath on each other's face, heads touching."

"The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny."

"Life is full of signs. The trick is to know how to read them. Ghosh called this heuristics, a method for solving a problem for which no formula exists."

"I believe in black holes. I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain."

""Tell us please, what treatment in an emergency is administered by ear?"....I met his gaze and I did not blink. "Words of comfort," I said to my father."