When my brother Bill urged me to read this book last spring, I did what I always do when someone recommends a book — I ran to the bookstore to buy it. (Hence, my still humongous pile of books…) Besides being recommended, it fulfilled my usual requirements: rave reviews, beautiful cover, and a nice hefty book (657 pages in paperback). But when I read the back blurb summary, it did not really interest me. I did the unthinkable, and left without purchasing the book. Fast forward two months, and there my brother is again, urging me to read it. I ask him the question even though I already know the answer, “Is it because it’s about twins?” (My brother is an identical twin). “Well, yeah, that’s part of it.” Aha! I felt so smart. He promised me that, even though he never cried during E.T., (my sister and I will never forgive him for that) he cried reading this book. So, of course, I had to buy it.
It took me longer than a week, just long enough to lapse into the new month. But it was so dense, not a quick read at all, and I did not feel so smart anymore. I really liked the characters. What’s not to love with a story that starts with the birth of conjoined twins, whose father is the surgeon who flees his small Ethiopian hospital when they are born, and the mother is his assistant, Sister Mary Praise, who dies while giving birth? Yes, conjoined twins, a doctor and a nun; sounds like the start of a great joke, right? It was not surprising to read in the acknowledgements that John Irving is an influence for Verghese – it sounds like a plot that Irving could really get into. Of course, there would be a wildebeest or at least a goat involved if he wrote it.
Anyway, I digress. I did love the story. The fact that everyone mentions the conjoined part is a little deceptive, since this is a problem corrected at their birth. The more interesting thing is that Shiva and Marion are mirror-image twins, which is a bit rarer to hear about. (My brothers are also mirror-image twins, one lefty, one righty, etc.) Their lives are the basis for the story, but there are so many characters orbiting around them that I could not possibly summarize the story in this space. Plus, I try not to do that – you can read a summary anywhere; especially good ones are on the Times or Amazon websites.
Verghese is an accomplished doctor as well as a writer, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. But this book has a lot more doctor than writer in it, and it is not for anyone with a weak stomach. Vaginal fistula, female circumcision, aortic aneurism, anyone? They’re all here. I really love something I just read in the NY Times review, “One would, I suppose, be ill advised to use this novel as a textbook for liver transplantation or bowel surgery, but it might almost be possible.”
Anyway, if you can get through the graphic surgery parts, there is a moving story underneath. The settings, mostly in Ethiopia, but also in New York and Boston, were vividly described (ok, the hospitals) and the historical context was enlightening. There were characters I really cared about. I discovered many interpretations of the title, and I felt like I got a small medical education for the inexpensive price of a paperback, so really, what’s not to love?
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