Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Knopf, 2009)
This absorbing first novel by a brilliant Stanford medical professor is a coming-of-age story about twin brothers who grow up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and is told in retrospect from the point of view of the elder brother and main character, Marion Stone. When the boys’ Indian mother dies in childbirth and their British father flees, the children are raised by two very loving doctors at the local Missing Hospital, among a tightly–knit hospital community. The novel is quick-reading, rooted in exotic landscapes and utilizes modern Ethiopian politics and culture as vital background. Verghese’s writing is clear and profound in its singular and edifying approach to covering wide topics in (particularly surgical) medicine. But the soul of the book is the message that enduring family relationships can sustain the most divergent paths and can heal the deepest rifts (9.5/10).
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: Freedome: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
Freedom: Novel by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010)
“There had always been something not quite right about The Berglunds,” explains the omniscient narrator of Franzen’s latest psychological drama. The narrative is broken into chapters that represent the points of view of Walter, the “fatuously earnest” husband/father; the best friend Richard, who becomes a famous rock star; and the son Joey, who is in constant pursuit of sex in WomanLand. Primarily though, the narrative centers on Patty, the self-pitying wife/mother, who, through her confessional “autobiographical” segments, relives her years as an NCAA star basketball star at the University of Minnesota where she meets geeky Walter with whom she raises two children, moves around the country and hits mid-life crises. While the novel is quick-reading and compelling in its fascinating web of human dynamics, it is sidetracked by descriptions of superfluous neighbors and by Franzen’s own fascination with birdlife and world causes. The simple title of the novel – FREEDOM – is its core theme: You have the freedom to pick your lover, your mate and your friends, but you don’t pick your family. You have the freedom to make choices in your life, but all choices return consequences. That said, the novel, in the end, is a love story between two people who meet and marry young, grow up together and slowly learn the thresholds of wanting to be together vs. not wanting to lose each other (8.5/10).
“There had always been something not quite right about The Berglunds,” explains the omniscient narrator of Franzen’s latest psychological drama. The narrative is broken into chapters that represent the points of view of Walter, the “fatuously earnest” husband/father; the best friend Richard, who becomes a famous rock star; and the son Joey, who is in constant pursuit of sex in WomanLand. Primarily though, the narrative centers on Patty, the self-pitying wife/mother, who, through her confessional “autobiographical” segments, relives her years as an NCAA star basketball star at the University of Minnesota where she meets geeky Walter with whom she raises two children, moves around the country and hits mid-life crises. While the novel is quick-reading and compelling in its fascinating web of human dynamics, it is sidetracked by descriptions of superfluous neighbors and by Franzen’s own fascination with birdlife and world causes. The simple title of the novel – FREEDOM – is its core theme: You have the freedom to pick your lover, your mate and your friends, but you don’t pick your family. You have the freedom to make choices in your life, but all choices return consequences. That said, the novel, in the end, is a love story between two people who meet and marry young, grow up together and slowly learn the thresholds of wanting to be together vs. not wanting to lose each other (8.5/10).