Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I wasn’t going to read the next book for my book club but something made me go to the used bookstore and try to find a copy of Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone and when I found it – it was on. I had under a week to finish a 658 page paperback novel and after reading the first chapter, I knew I could do it.

To say that I liked this book is an understatement. I loved everything about it, especially the family saga in the unconventional setting of war torn Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It all starts with a lovely Hindu girl named Sister Mary Joseph Praise, that’s right, she’s a Catholic nun. And on top of that, she’s living in Africa and she’s pregnant – with twins.

The story is told from the perspective of Marion Stone, one of the twins. “Born in Africa, living in exile in America, then returning at last to Africa…proof that geography is destiny.” Marion and his brother Shiva are raised by the hospital where they were born but more specifically by Hema and Ghosh, doctors who worked with Sister Mary. Spoiler Alert: Sister Mary doesn’t survive the childbirth and the twins are left orphans from the first chapter of this book. But what about the father, you may ask? That’s too good to give out.

“I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.” From the Hippocratic Oath all physicians must swear to when entering into the field of practicing medicine. There is another oath or 11^th commandment that the doctors in this novel learn the hard way: “Thou shall not operate on the day of a patient’s death.” The art of medicine is one I doubt I could ever perform. The decisions needed to be made in order to save a person’s life or end it are some of the most difficult decisions the characters of Cutting for Stone must make. But what’s even more difficult for them are the complicated relationships they have when they are alive and healthy.

Not only are the dramas of these characters enthralling but so too is their landscape. Ethiopia plays an important part in this novel. The political conflicts that arise between Eritrea and Ethiopia are paralleled in the personal dramas of its people. How can people seem so different from each other when they are all so fundamentally alike? How can people hate each other so much when they forgot what they were fighting for to begin with? The endings in love and war are always unforgiving and unfair but apparently that’s the way it goes.

In the end, all things come full circle. We may lose things, places, each other but we can never escape our destiny. What that destiny is for Marion only he can figure out, but it’s deeply rooted in the soil of Africa.

Literature from Around the World

When I was a child, my parents would assign me intellectual projects for the summer. I remember one such summer I got a lot of research done on Cleopatra and delivered my findings on a long car ride. 

This summer I am assigning my own project and will attempt to read as many novels from around the world as possible. I may or may not be cheating by including authors my book club will be reading or books that I had planned to ready anyway, but I figure I'm reading something so it's all the same thing. 

Here are the first ten countries (I must apologize for clumping all the countries of Africa together in one massive mess). I need some recommendations and of course if you think the authors I have chosen just do not reflect their country well enough, by all means give me someone else to read. 

I start with Canada, because that is my home and native land. Michael Ondaatje fits perfectly because he's coming up in book club and I have never read The English Patient so that will be a first. 

Next up are those Americans to the south and though I have tried and failed on many occasions I think it is time for me to give Stephen King another chance. He is one of the best selling authors in the world. In terms of sales the options were hard to choose from but I have read one too many Danielle Steel's novels for my liking.

Now I need some help as I venture down the continental divide. I would love to read a good Mexican novel and maybe something from Colombia or Brazil? 

Moving across the sea I have chosen Sjón from Iceland. I'm really excited to dip into some Icelandic contemporary folk tales. 

Then I'm skipping over most of Europe and going home to my motherland of Poland. I'm going to re-read my favourite novel that I last read in high school. Written by Antoni Libera, Madame is "a novel about Poland during the grim years of Soviet-controlled mediocrity which nonetheless sparkles with light and warmth." 

Sweden lucked out and got included only because the next author for book club is Jonas Jonasson and his novel about The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared. 

I can't decide who to read from Africa. This is challenging as there are numerous countries, nationalities and untranslated authors to chose from. I was thinking of Wilbur Smith but I'm worried I may get a skewed look at Africa. 

And last but not least, as I skip over Russia, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, all of South East Asia I end my literary journey in Japan. Haruki Murakami will hopefully begin the next leg on my literary journey into the Asian countries and I can work backwards through all those countries I missed. 

Farm City by Novella Carpenter

I never thought I would read a book that literally sucked me in at the first sentence. But how can you not keep reading after Novella Carpenter tells you, “I have a farm on a dead-end street in the ghetto.” It turns out she wasn’t exaggerating.  

Although Oakland, California is known to be one of the most diverse major cities in the U.S. it also has a high crime rate and in 2007 approximately 17% of the general population were living below the poverty line. Gertrude Stein famously described her Oakland childhood home in these few but telling words: “There is no there there.” On the bright side, Oakland gets, on average, 260 sunny days per year and is ranked at No. 1 in the U.S. for using electricity from renewable resources.  It’s an interesting place to grow a farm, that’s for sure.

Farm City is divided into three chapters; Turkey, Rabbit, and Pig. But this book is so much more than its livestock. Carpenter takes the reader on a journey through the heart and soul of farming. And the gaggle of characters that help and inspire her are as rich as the writing. I was really drawn in by Carpenter’s tone and her no-bullshit attitude in telling her story. This is no cookie cutter, country farming. There are gun shots in the background, a homeless watchman, a highway zooming by overhead and the threat that the ‘farm’ which is on an abandoned lot might be sold at any moment to a condo developer. 

Recently I have been reading a lot of farming memoirs or back-to-the-land stories and while most of them are inspiring and generally well written they can be a little cliché at the same time. I understand that I’m probably jealous that all these authors got the chance to grow their own food and then write a book about it but if I have to read another book about how easy and soul-fulfilling it is I might be sick. Farming is hard, plain and simple. Whether you do it in the country on many acres of land or in the city on an abandoned lot. Animals die, plants suffer from disease or drought, predators can come and kill your crops and livestock in one night. And what a lot of these authors don’t write about is how hard and yet rewarding it is to keep going and find ways to bounce back. Carpenter is tough as nails and yet soulful in her own way. She makes the reader appreciate how hard it is to raise these animals, kill them, cure them and also how delicious it is to enjoy your hard work.

Carpenter is gutsy, wickedly funny and the bravest person in Oakland. While dumpster diving for her pigs she is caught and told ominously to talk to Christopher Lee.  When she comes back to speak with Chris, the owner and chef at a swanky Berkley restaurant she explains why she dumpster dives and grows her own food.  “I had all kinds of reasons. Because I’m an ecofreak, because of bacon, because I can’t bear to see food wasted. In a way, the answer was: because I could.” And why not? We so often tell ourselves we can’t do things because of all kinds of reasons but Carpenter shows us that its more than doable. With a little sweat, animal blood and some tears. 

French Milk and Relish by Lucy Knisley

Every time I say how much I love Lucy Knisley I feel a bit like a stalker. I should rephrase that and say how much I love her work. But it’s through her work (that is primarily autobiographical) that I feel like I know her so well. Check her out through her LiveJournal, tumblr, Twitter, and other internet stalking methods.

A few years ago when Graphic Novels (not just comic books) were becoming the thing to be seen reading I picked up Knisley’s French Milk and first fell in love. French Milk is a travel journal (or as the French say, Carnet de Voyage) from a trip Knisley took with her mother to Paris in January. It’s a glimpse into the touristy things we all would love to do with our mothers in Paris, if we had the kind of relationship that Knisley has with her mother. There are lots of sketches of baguettes and cheese. All the ‘je ne sais quai’ of Paris is rendered into full page panels with little notes of what was seen and experienced.

What I like most about Knisley’s writing is that she doesn’t shy away from telling it how it is. Amongst the beautiful sketches of cobblestone streets in Paris there are anecdotes of her momentary meltdowns over turning 22 and not being financially responsible. (Oh, if only I could be 22 again, I’d tell myself to relax more.) We see how not all travel moments can be magical, that it can rain and be freezing in the most magical of places on earth. French Milk is a personal and wonderful story of a young woman’s journey through adulthood. It may sound cheesy but the more stinky the cheese the better.

You can imagine my excitement when I saw that Knisley was coming out with a new book in the Spring of 2013. As a bookseller I am lucky enough to be surrounded by books everyday but the biggest perk of the job is getting to read those books that everyone is waiting for first. I asked for an advance reader’s copy not expecting anything but hey, it never hurts to ask. And when I got approved and got the first look at the beautiful, full colour illustrations I nearly lost my mind.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (Published by First Second) which comes out in April is so cool. Just imagine the super fan girl (that’s me) with wide eyes clutching this book as I tell you how cool it is. First of all it’s in colour. Not that I mind reading comic books and graphic novels in black and white but when you see the work that you love so much in Technicolor, well there’s no going back after that. Not only is this book in colour but it’s all about food.

Good food is such a wonderful thing. We as humans can have such visceral reactions to food. Just notice what happens to you when someone bakes you a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. Or how nice you feel, if even for a moment, when you’re sick and someone makes you chicken soup just the way you like it. Humans can be very emotional eaters it’s only one of the many reasons we’re having such problems with obesity in North America. There’s always a valid excuse for that bucket of ice cream. And who hasn’t celebrated a momentous occasion with a good meal?

In Relish we see Knisley’s life told through the food that has helped her become the person she is today. It doesn’t hurt that her parents were total foodies even before she came into this world. Her mother worked in a cheese shop while she was pregnant with Knisley and thinks that perhaps the cultured dairy had an effect on the unborn artist? In French Milk the readers got to see the complex relationship that isn’t always perfect between a young, not yet fully adult woman and her mother. Being in your early 20s is still an awkward time and even more so in the age of “you can be whatever you want to be”.  But in Relish we get to see how Knisley’s relationships were formed not only with her mother but with her father and extended family, friends, coworker by the food they enjoyed together.

Scattered throughout the book are visual recipes for some of the special dishes Knisley mentions. I love how each ingredient magically jumps into the bowl. I hope Knisley makes prints of these recipes. This book is one part cookbook and 2 parts memoir.

The only trepidation I have about these types of autobiographical and deeply personal graphic novels is that the artists can sometimes go off on tangents. There’s a fine line between telling the whole story and going overboard. Food is clearly a very important part of Knisley’s life but I sometimes felt that there was only so much to be said about one’s nutritional history. Nonetheless I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to eat and read comics. Or both at the same time!!