While I was reading this tragedy that is soaked in love, my wife and I watched a three part documentary about Ernest Hemingway. Intertwined with photographs, home movies, and news clips were insights from writers and journalists whose craft and style had been influenced by Hemingway. Among them was Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone. Seeing him explain Hemingway and his own debt to the famous writer shed new light on the action and themes within this novel. Death but also, sometimes violent as well as unrequited, yet costly even when realized, love wind through the book. The complex relationship between two twins born as their mother died and their father flees shapes the narrative. Both parents and later both sons are medical doctors. The last name of the father, and the sons, is Stone, and the father and one son are surgeons, hence one aspect of cutting for Stone. Literary allusions and historical events instill elegance and points of reference. The final seventy pages were the most powerful; they moved me to tears.
Families sometimes conceal secrets that make lives much more difficult for subsequent generations. Fear of social acceptability or of responsibility rend relationships before they have a chance to form. Family secrets maim communication, they stunt the possibility of knowing fully. In my own family, in one line, secrets tied apparently to social acceptance coupled with a courthouse fire have made it difficult to trace the genealogy beyond a certain person and her partner. Were they married? What ethnicity (ethnicities) were they? We don't know, although there has been speculation. In the novel, feelings about the father who had fled influence the development of the sons and of course of the narrative. As in the story, often in real families there are narratives, habits, and tendencies that appear again and again. Knowing the story of one's own family may not always bring joy, but can produce understanding and the potential for forgiveness. Verghese's story of the Stone family is complex and sometimes tragic, but also demonstrates how desire to help others and innate skills can help overcome obstacles, even while emotions and fear create new hurdles to clear. My prayer is that we can navigate the complexity of our backgrounds to learn how to love one another and to forgive those who have hurt us, or through their decisions, handicapped us. Ask questions about events or relationships you do not understand. Realize that what embarrasses me or you may be helpful information for future generations. Speak truth to each other, but do so with love and compassion.
