Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

 

Characters
Missing Hospital, Ethiopia	Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, New York	Others
Sister Mary Joseph Praise Thomas Stone Marion Shiva ShivaMarion   Matron   Dr. K. Hemlatha (Hema) Dr. Ghosh   Rosina Genet Zemui (Genet’s father)   Almaz (Ghosh’s servant) Gebrew   Nurse/Staff Probationer – Naeema – became a surgeon   Ed Harris – from sponsoring church in U.S.   Tsige – waited to take baby to hospital and he died	Deepak Jesudass – Chief Resident   Thomas Stone   Tsige – “Queen of Sheba” restaurant   Genet   Hema Shiva	Sister Anjali – died on ship   Thomas Stone’s parents: Justifus Stone – syphilis and alcoholism Hilda Stone   George Ross – Thomas’ guardian after parent’s illness and death

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1. Discuss Matron’s deception of the supporting churches regarding how their money was spent.  Do you think this was justified?
2. Discuss the Nurse Probationer.  She was proficient at book knowledge, but did not have “Sound Nursing Sense.”   What do you think is the balance between book knowledge and instinct in professional success or any other situation such as motherhood?
3. Discuss the minor sub-plot of the Nurse/Staff Probationer.  How was she able to come into her own?  Were you surprised she became first a surgeon’s assistant for Shiva and then a surgeon (page 652)?
4. Discuss the parable of the slippers on pages 350 & 351.  Ghosh told Hema and the boys that “The slippers in the story mean that everything you see and do and touch, every seed you sow, or don’t sow, becomes part of your destiny” (page 350).  How does this story explain life?
5. In chapter 26, when a soldier tried to take Zemui’s motorcycle, he had an accident riding away, caused by Marion and Genet giving him wrong directions about how to start it.  After he crashed, Marion tried to help by removing the gun pressing into his ribs and, in the process, shot and killed him.  Was Marion guilty of murder?
6. Did you like the inclusion of the detailed medical information along with the story?  Did this add or detract from your enjoyment of the novel?
7. How do you think the early illness and death of Thomas Stone’s mother shaped his adult life?  How did his own illness and abandonment of his father affect his life?
8. In the operating room, Thomas always advocated “words of comfort” in the care of a patient.  Does his behavior regarding his sons contradict this feeling for the individual?
1. Could you understand why Stone left his twins behind when they were born?   Did he make the best decision for them?  What would have happened to Stone, the boys, Hema and Ghosh if Stone had stayed in Ethiopia?
9. Think about all of the events that were a result of Shiva having sex with Genet.  What do you think would have happened if this initiating event had not happened?  Do you think Marion was right not to tell anyone?
1. Why would Shiva betray his brother this way?
10. Discuss Marion’s reaction to the Shiva Stone Institute for Fistula Surgery and Shiva being featured in an article in the New York Times.  Marion thought, “Shiva had taken the first and only girl I loved…Now, he was making headlines in my own backyard, in my newspaper.  I had followed all the rules, and tried to do the right think while he ignored all the rules, and here we were” (page 575).
11. Marion stated that he and Shiva “…had an unfair advantage on the rest of the world” because of their bond.  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?  (page 301)
12. At the end, Marion felt that he and Shiva were reunited into ShivaMarion and that Shiva lived in him (page 640).  Do you find this an interesting way for him to continue with his life?
13. Were you surprised that Marion went back to Ethiopia?
14. Discuss the ending.  Was it ethical that the doctors let Shiva donate part of his liver to Marion when it was still experimental?  Were you surprised his death was not related to the transplant?
15. If you read this book for the second time, was the second reading different than the first because you had a general idea of the storyline?

Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett

 

Characters
Cousins Family	Keating Family
Albert “Bert” – Deputy DA Teresa – first wife Holly Cal – died from bee sting Jeannette Albert “Albie”   (Bert and Beverly married and live in Virginia with Caroline and Franny.)   (Teresa lives in California with Holly, Cal, Jeannette and Albie.)   (Fix lives in California)	Francis “Fix” – policeman Beverly – first wife Caroline Frances “Franny”   Bonnie – Beverly’s sister Father Joe Mike – priest, married Bonnie   Leon Poser – author, wrote Commonwealth   Marjorie – Fix’s second wife   Jack Dine – Beverly’s third husband
Twenty years later:   Teresa – sick, died in hospital   Holly – Zen center in Switzerland   Jeannette - married Fode, one baby son Bintou – babysitter   Albie – married, one daughter	Twenty years later:   Fix – 93, cancer, married to Marjorie   Franny – married Kumar, two stepsons   Caroline – lawyer, married Wharton, one son

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Discuss the four parents: Fix, Beverly, Teresa and Bert.  Why didn’t Beverly pay more attention to all of the children?  Were you surprised that Bert suddenly had to work more when his four children came to visit while Fix took vacation time when Caroline and Franny came back to California?  What did you think of Teresa sending the four kids to Virginia with no luggage?

2.       Why did the Cousins children’s visits to Virginia end after Cal died?  Were you surprised at this?

3.       Why did Albie set fires?    Should the adults have known and been able to prevent this? 

4.       How did you think Cal died before you got to page 255 and read about the bee sting?

5.       Would the children’s situation have been different if there was more adult supervision?  Should someone have known that the older children were drugging Albie with the Benadryl?

6.       Franny told Beverly and Bert that Fix was going to law school at night and was very proud that he was going to school at the same time he was working.   Caroline was mad she told them and hit her.  Beverly did not reprimand her because she “was afraid of her older daughter and she didn’t step in unless there was blood” (page 126).  What did you think of the relationship among Beverly, Caroline and Franny?

7.       Discuss Fix relationship with his daughters.  He “had favored Caroline even before he started law school…It was because Caroline’s hatred for Bert burned like a clean white flame, and because she went out of her way to make her mother’s life miserable and then report the whole thing back to her father” (pages 127-128).  Was it fair to everyone to encourage this?

8.       Regarding Caroline and Franny, the author wrote that “the real difference between Caroline and Franny was that Caroline cared. She cared about the law and tennis and her grades in classes…what her father said about their mother…Franny just wanted to go back to the car and read Agatha Christie” (page 128).  How does this difference explain what happened to Caroline and Franny later in life?

9.       When Leon and Franny spent the summer in Amagansett, were you surprised that everyone took advantage of Franny and saw nothing wrong with her waiting on them the entire time?   What would you have done in this circumstance?

10.   Did Caroline and Franny have a choice about helping Teresa at end of novel when she was sick?  Was it fair for Albie to ask?

11.   What did you think about Fix asking Franny to help with suicide?

12.   Was it fair for Leon to write a book about Franny’s family?  Aside from historical fiction, do you think this happens often with fiction writers?

13.   Would you have gone to see the movie?