Published by

Ken Powell

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting novel from an author I’ve not heard of before. I’m not sure how much I enjoyed it. It took me until I was over a third of the way through the book to warm to the characters and feel any empathy towards them. But once I did I found I liked their company and looked forward to each opportunity to sit down and be with them.

Part of me wonders if I didn’t feel so at home initially because most of the book is set in Ethiopia – a country of which I have no real knowledge or heart for. Part of me wonders if I warmed to some of the characters because they were Indian – for exactly the opposite reasons.

What I can say, for certain, is that I didn’t enjoy the ending. I know it is in vogue now not to bring plots to nice (and so, trite) endings but even so, Verghese does bring closure of sorts, and at times manages to be quite predictable with it, but it is not a closure fitting the nature of the book. I came away dissatisfied and feeling a little cheated.

That said, I didn’t feel as though my time had been wasted. This book made me ask the right questions, to ponder what it means to be alive, the nature of love, of loyalty, of what it means to lose and what true devotion might look like. Good books make you ask these sorts of questions; so this is undoubtedly one of those.

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8 responses to “Book Review: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese”

Dr. Y.

January 8, 2016

Thanks for the short review. So does that mean you have to be from the same country as book’s characters to warm up to them? Would you have warmed up sooner had the characters been Indian from the get-go? Or is this a flaw in the book itself?

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1. D K Powell
  
  January 9, 2016
  
  Good questions. No definitely you don’t have to be from the same country. I’m British but have many years experience in Bangladesh and India – so books set there particularly appeal. But so did Memoirs of A Geisha, Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God, Bill Brysons’ books on America, Marc Levy’s Et Si C’etait Vrai and countless other books set in countries I don’t know or don’t know well.
  
  So I would say it was something about the book itself in this case rather than an inability to connect with characters from a country unknown to me.
  
  Thanks for the interesting questions!
  
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Book Review: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – Write Out Loud

May 26, 2017

[…] vested interest in either the culture or the history and the book does nothing to change my mind. ‘Cutting for Stone’ for Abraham Verghese is a good example of this for […]

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Book Review: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Write Out Loud

September 18, 2017

[…] witness’ form the story of the revolution in Nigeria during the 1960s. I recall reading ‘Cutting for Stone’ by Abraham Verghese and how unmoved I was about Ethiopia in doing so. I expected to be deeply touched and to learn a […]

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shail

March 15, 2025

I warmed up to the book from the word go. I didn’t want to put it down (I had to considering the number of pages and my other commitments!) and would have loved to finish it at one go. But yeah, I was a tad disappointed too with the way things played out towards the end.

Does this mean you haven’t read the Covenant of Water by the same author? That was my first book and I loved it. I actually listened to it on Audible in the author’s voice. That book led me to this one.

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1. Ken Powell
  
  March 17, 2025
  
  I haven’t read it, no! Is it better than Cutting for Stone? Presumably so if it led you to another book by the author!
  
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  1. shail
    
    March 17, 2025
    
    Some of my friends said this one was even better. I can’t say. I like them both. Covenant of Water is mostly set in Kerala and that was an added attraction.
    
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shail

March 15, 2025

I warmed up to the book from the word go. In fact I didn’t not want to put it down (but I had to considering the number of pages and my other commitments). But yes, I agree the ending was a tad disappointing for me too. ‘Why, why, why?’ was my response to it. So I know what you mean.

Does this mean you haven’t read the Covenant of Water by the same author? That was my first book and I loved it. I actually listened to it on Audible in the author’s voice. That book led me to this one.

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Hello, I’m Ken.

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