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Apr. 12th, 2010 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsA while back, my dad lent me My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, Abraham Verghese's memoir about treating AIDS patients in rural Tennessee. Both of us thought the book was very poweful and worth reading, so when Verghese subsequently wrote a novel, Cutting for Stone, my dad bought it and then lent it to me.
The novel was . . . different! Certainly it was that.
For the first hundred pages or so, I was loving this book unabashedly. It was amazingly ridiculous. When we met the surgeon who was in love with his nurse, who was a NUN, who was pregnant with CONJOINED TWINS, I was like, "this is awesome." When the OB-GYN couldn't get there in time because she was busy threatening to castrate the corrupt pilot who had just fake-crashed her plane, I was like, "this is awesome." When the doctor wildly cut open the dead nun's chest so that he could hold her no-longer-beating-heart in his had, because he had caused her death through incompetent gynecology, because of a TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE with a PREGNANT CADAVER in his youth, I was like "Kaori Yuki needs to turn this into a manga RIGHT NOW."
And then we got to the next section, and all of a sudden I stopped laughing and started wanting to throw the book across the room.
The main character of the book is Marion, one of the nun's twin sons; the other twin is Shiva, who is somewhere on the Aspergers' spectrum. The boys are being raised by Hema and Ghosh, Indian doctors working at the Ethiopian hospital where all the pregnant-nun drama took place (Hema was the OB-GYN who didn't get there in time); the household also includes Rosalie, an Ethiopian woman who works for Hema and Ghosh, and her daughter Genet. The middle section of the book focuses largely on the political struggles in Ethiopia at the time, which would be fine - Verghese did live through these and presents a pretty nuanced view of them most of the time - if it wasn't largely focused through Marion's issues with Genet. And OH MY GOD, the Genet plotline made me want to stab Marion MANY TIMES OVER.
There are SO MANY problems with what Verghese does with Genet I don't even know where to begin.
1: Teenaged Marion has a crush on Genet, is saving himself for her, and wants to marry her. Genet does not fall in line with Marion's Plans For Their Future, and sleeps with Shiva instead. This is presented as a HUGE BETRAYAL despite the fact that Genet never agreed to Marion's plans and was not in fact even dating Marion; the text never subverts this.
2: Genet's mom is so upset by this that she gets Genet to agree to female circumcision. Then she hangs herself. This is the first point where I would have thrown the book across the room if I hadn't been in a park with lots of people at the time. I believe that there are subtle, nuanced ways to deal with the issue of female circumcision. This isn't it. The worst part is the undertones of "if she hadn't been such a slut, she wouldn't have ruined her life! And everyone's!"
3: After Genet's father is killed in a failed coup, Genet gets in touch with her Eritrean roots and joins the Eritrean revolutionaries. Obviously, this is ALL ABOUT MARION and how Genet ruined Marion's life AGAIN by bringing him under suspicion from the government.
At this point I was still willing to tolerate the book and see it through; I thought, 'at least that's over!' and settled into the final section. There were a lot of good things about it, including some really interesting discussions about race and the American hospital system; also including more backstory melodrama of the hilarious-Victorian-novel variety.
And then the Genet plotline came back. AND GOT WORSE.
4: Eventually, Genet ends up on Marion's doorstep, after having been in jail. Here I have the lovely experience of realizing that my definition of what counts as rape and Verghese's definition do not align; according to my definition, Marion rapes Genet.
5: Marion gets both tuberculosis AND hepatitis from Genet and nearly dies. This is presented as very tragic and, once again, all Genet's fault. I say, OH MY GOD, SERVES YOU RIGHT.
(5a: Everyone on the goodreads discussion about this book talks about how much of a spoiled brat Genet was and how she ruined Marion's life. I wish to kill everyone on the goodreads discussion board.)
Verghese can write, and write well; he can especially write well about medicine. Some parts of this book may be worth it for some people, but for me, despite the hilarity of the first section, it wasn't worth the bad taste it left in my mouth.
The novel was . . . different! Certainly it was that.
For the first hundred pages or so, I was loving this book unabashedly. It was amazingly ridiculous. When we met the surgeon who was in love with his nurse, who was a NUN, who was pregnant with CONJOINED TWINS, I was like, "this is awesome." When the OB-GYN couldn't get there in time because she was busy threatening to castrate the corrupt pilot who had just fake-crashed her plane, I was like, "this is awesome." When the doctor wildly cut open the dead nun's chest so that he could hold her no-longer-beating-heart in his had, because he had caused her death through incompetent gynecology, because of a TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE with a PREGNANT CADAVER in his youth, I was like "Kaori Yuki needs to turn this into a manga RIGHT NOW."
And then we got to the next section, and all of a sudden I stopped laughing and started wanting to throw the book across the room.
The main character of the book is Marion, one of the nun's twin sons; the other twin is Shiva, who is somewhere on the Aspergers' spectrum. The boys are being raised by Hema and Ghosh, Indian doctors working at the Ethiopian hospital where all the pregnant-nun drama took place (Hema was the OB-GYN who didn't get there in time); the household also includes Rosalie, an Ethiopian woman who works for Hema and Ghosh, and her daughter Genet. The middle section of the book focuses largely on the political struggles in Ethiopia at the time, which would be fine - Verghese did live through these and presents a pretty nuanced view of them most of the time - if it wasn't largely focused through Marion's issues with Genet. And OH MY GOD, the Genet plotline made me want to stab Marion MANY TIMES OVER.
There are SO MANY problems with what Verghese does with Genet I don't even know where to begin.
1: Teenaged Marion has a crush on Genet, is saving himself for her, and wants to marry her. Genet does not fall in line with Marion's Plans For Their Future, and sleeps with Shiva instead. This is presented as a HUGE BETRAYAL despite the fact that Genet never agreed to Marion's plans and was not in fact even dating Marion; the text never subverts this.
2: Genet's mom is so upset by this that she gets Genet to agree to female circumcision. Then she hangs herself. This is the first point where I would have thrown the book across the room if I hadn't been in a park with lots of people at the time. I believe that there are subtle, nuanced ways to deal with the issue of female circumcision. This isn't it. The worst part is the undertones of "if she hadn't been such a slut, she wouldn't have ruined her life! And everyone's!"
3: After Genet's father is killed in a failed coup, Genet gets in touch with her Eritrean roots and joins the Eritrean revolutionaries. Obviously, this is ALL ABOUT MARION and how Genet ruined Marion's life AGAIN by bringing him under suspicion from the government.
At this point I was still willing to tolerate the book and see it through; I thought, 'at least that's over!' and settled into the final section. There were a lot of good things about it, including some really interesting discussions about race and the American hospital system; also including more backstory melodrama of the hilarious-Victorian-novel variety.
And then the Genet plotline came back. AND GOT WORSE.
4: Eventually, Genet ends up on Marion's doorstep, after having been in jail. Here I have the lovely experience of realizing that my definition of what counts as rape and Verghese's definition do not align; according to my definition, Marion rapes Genet.
5: Marion gets both tuberculosis AND hepatitis from Genet and nearly dies. This is presented as very tragic and, once again, all Genet's fault. I say, OH MY GOD, SERVES YOU RIGHT.
(5a: Everyone on the goodreads discussion about this book talks about how much of a spoiled brat Genet was and how she ruined Marion's life. I wish to kill everyone on the goodreads discussion board.)
Verghese can write, and write well; he can especially write well about medicine. Some parts of this book may be worth it for some people, but for me, despite the hilarity of the first section, it wasn't worth the bad taste it left in my mouth.
