Author: Abraham Verghese
Grade: B
Recommended To: Everyone who thinks a book is great even with a mediocre ending.
Cutting for Stone was out of this world incredible until I got to about the last 50 pages or so. The book is about twins who are born to a nun who dies in child birth and who are fathered by a very accomplished surgeon.
The twins are born in Ethiopia and are adopted by the resident gynecologist at the hospital where the twins are born. To be honest, I wasn't sure in the first 100 pages or so where the story was going and the book seemed to take a very long time for the actual story to start. The first 100 pages are consumed with the birth of the twins, and Verghese spends a lot of time on the background of each and every character. It gets tedious.
The middle of the book is by far the best. The book is full of amazing imagery - and beautifully crafted language. Unlike the Sweet Valley Confidential book, I never had to re-read a sentence to figure out what was going on. The book just flowed. The chapter breaks didn't even feel like breaks because of how well crafted the story and sentence structure was. I appreciate books like this.
The end of the book was much too quick for the amount of time spent leading up to the end. I won't give anything away, but the end is a bit shocking - and in my opinion, the book was wrapped up too quickly. It turns out that the story is about Marion's (one of the twins) entire life. It was a lot to fit into 660 pages. And seriously, 660 is a LONG book.
I mostly gave this book a B because of the beginning and the end. This is a must read for someone looking for beautifully crafted story. The book is long, but it doesn't feel long. You will like this book if you pick it up, I nearly guarantee it.
Happy Reading!!
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