Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (#19, Fiction)

For someone who doesn't usually check the number of pages in a book, this one felt really, really long.  Eddie commented at least four times, "you're still reading that book?!?"

I liked so much about this book, but somewhere in the middle it stalled and just started dragging.  It picked back up again at the end when everything started coming together, but I think the damage had been done.  A review I saw seemed to suggest a similar sentiment that Verghese loved his characters so much he wanted to tell their whole story in great detail.  But, still I felt some of the main characters lacking, specifically the Genet, Marion, Shiva triangle. Marion's obsession with Genet started off feeling realistic as a young love/crush, which we've all felt, but to have that linger for years into his adult life I could not believe.

3 out of 5