This is one of those classic books that people who want to
go into medicine read. I honestly thought that I would hate it. But it is so
much more than simply a narrative demonstrating the power of medicine and
doctors and whatever. However, it has one tragic flaw, which I find difficult
to overlook. I’ll get to that eventually, since there is a lot about this book
that I really do love.
The book opens with the tale of a nun, Sister Mary Joseph
Praise. She’s travelling to Africa with another one of her fellow sisters when
she meets Dr. Thomas Stone. But where the plot actually thickens is when the
two of them are working together in a hospital. That is, until Sister Mary is
discovered pregnant with twins and dies in childbirth.
Stone is so astonished by this (by the way, no one has any
idea how she got pregnant, but they all assume that the father is Stone) that
he leaves and returns to America. The twins are cared for by Hema, the
hospital’s gynecologist, and Ghosh, its internal medicine jack-of-all-trades.
The twins are named Marion and Shiva, and they are born connected by a cord
attached to their heads. Even though this cord is severed, they insist on
sleeping with their heads touching for years, and even afterwards share a
special connection. They aren’t two people, they’re one ShivaMarion.
The story of their lives is interwoven with Ethiopia and its
political revolution, as well as with Genet, the girl who is raised in the same
household. Marion falls madly in love with her, despite numerous rebuffs, and
they end up nearly destroying each other. Because of her, Marion travels to New
York and there runs into many figures from his past. In the end he returns to
Ethiopia, but this time it is to stay.
Genet is where this story has its fatal flaw. She finds him
in New York, and the night that she spends there ends with Marion having rough
sex with her as she asks him to stop. Let me make one thing perfectly clear:
THIS IS RAPE. This is not acceptable. Excusing this as revenge because she ruined
his life or something is not okay and not allowed. Portraying everything as
being Genet’s fault and taking the blame off of Marion, the guy raping someone
because she didn’t wait for him as kids or something, is not something I can
condone or agree with. I can’t state this enough: this is RAPE and this is NOT
OKAY.
So it isn’t just a story about medicine. It’s also about
love, and what we owe each other as humans and as family. It’s about travelling
halfway around the world only to find what you grew up with. It’s about how
love saves, but also kills. WHY DOES IT NEED THAT RAPE SCENE THEN IT’S SO
UNNECESSARY.
Verghese is a masterful storyteller. All of his characters
are so well written and fleshed out, even the minor ones practically jump off
of the page. At the back of the book, within the “Acknowledgements” section, he
reveals where he got much of his inspiration from. Not many authors do that, I
kind of wish that they would now. I just really wish that he had the sense to
know what consent it, and how to go about that.
Sex isn’t revenge. Sex isn’t something that you owe someone.
Sex isn’t something that you can take, it is either given willingly or not at
all. Nothing excuses forcing someone to have sex with you if they aren’t
enthusiastically saying “yes! This is what I want.” Because of that one scene
the rest of the book is just a little ruined for me, which is really too bad
because I loved it other than that. We need books that demonstrate healthy
relationships and don’t excuse this bullshit anymore, there’s enough of that in
real life.
No comments:
Post a Comment