After several failed attempts to weave the discussion points into a meaningful narrative, I’ll simply list them all below. Not unsurprisingly, this list contains the collective recollections of Maren and myself, but we invite — and indeed encourage — all of you to share your comments as well. Overall, it was easy to maintain a healthy discussion, but at the end we sort of wished there had been more disagreement to get our blood flowing !
- It was a story of forgiveness — both Ghosh’s forgiveness of Stone, as well as Marion’s forgiveness of, well, Shiva, Genet and indeed Stone.
- The language was much appreciated by all. Example from the scene where Shiva helps the fistula victim and her father to find Hema: “In the way children understand their own, we knew her to be innocent of her terrible, overpowering odor. It was of her, but it wasn’t hers."
- Unanimous crush on Ghosh — what a fabulous guy! Also a lot of appreciation for the other characters in the book, particularly Matron, Tsige and Gebrew. While there were comments about the lengthy details of the characters, one book review noted/implied that “ he loved his characters too much”. The group was divided on whether all the detail was necessary. (i.e., did we need all the background on Sister Mary Praise’s journey?) No one denied, however, that the characters were very well described – we knew who they were.
- We discussed the differences between Marion and Shiva — and how Shiva was completely detached from people’s emotions and the cause and effect of one’s actions. Did he have a mild form of what some refer to as Asberger’s Syndrome? In today’s world, he probably would fall into this category.
- Genet was an interesting character who we felt was well-developed, but perhaps she belongs on the list of topics we could have discussed in more depth? Could the same thing be said of Hema?
- And speaking of Hema…what was the point of the airplane scene? Most thought it was a way to show her character and her metamorphosis which allowed her to be determined to see Marion and Shiva as a timely gift in her life. She had a revelation that children were symbols of hope.
- Most of us agreed that the history of Ethiopia was not a familiar subject, and therefore the crash course offered in the novel was much appreciated. Interestingly, despite us being an eclectic/well-travelled group, it was noted that none of us had been there and all the “personal” anecdotes shared at the meeting were about friends-of-friends or distant cousins, rather than about anyone physically around the table.
- That said, we did discuss the religious aspects of the culture, with interesting comments on the patterns of immigration from India, as well as the differences between the Western/Eastern Orthodox Christian religions.
- We could not precisely agree what the current political situation is like in Ethiopia. We don’t hear of many problems so it is perhaps stable, or do we only perceive its relative stability because of its location amongst so many unstable countries? For anyone interested in more information, including how the restaurant apparently got its name, here’s a good wiki site. Long as hell but well-indexed to facilitate choosing your area of interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ethiopia
- Perhaps the greatest area of disagreement was the amount of detail given in the book, particularly the medical details. Some of us thought the book should have been better edited, while others among us felt the details were interesting and generated a level of suspense. None of us disagreed that the book was long, not all of us minded. (Some found it too long and others loved every minute of reading it.)
- The sad commentary about wealthy hospitals vs neighborhoods in poor neighborhoods could not escape notice, and sadly, none of us sees this problem capable of being solved.
- Lots of questionable coincidences in the book (running into Tsige in Boston…who connects him to Genet; Needing the life-saving procedure for which his father happens to be an expert) but we all did love the ending when Marion and Hema had an unanticipated moment in front of the St Theresa statue. (NB: the irony of the evening goes to the fact that the very person wearing the Virgin Mary medal was commenting on the unambiguous eroticism of this statue in Rome, and encouraging all to see it !)
- In the end, the way Marion was living in NY and his reluctance to get close to people and lack of true friends, led us to conclude that ultimately he turned out to be a lot like Stone.
Cynthia
