This had the potential to be amazing, a sweeping epic history of Ethiopia ala The Poisonwood Bible, but for all of Verghese's description, he failed to paint a powerful picture of Ethiopia. I expected so much more from him. He wastes 20% of the book describing the first day, but most of it I found pointless to the novel. I would much rather all that description give me something of the setting, of the characters, something powerful and enduring. Either that or cut it by a good 200 pages. But I wouldn't cut the medical procedures. They gave me the setting Ethiopia did not. They also painted a picture of the characters. The coldness of Thomas Stone, the dedication of Sister Mary Joseph Praise, the drive for Hema, the heart of Ghosh, the genius of Shiva, and the preciseness of Marion. All of it can be described by the medical fields they practiced.

I think Ghosh was my favorite character. I can picture his hearty laugh now. I enjoyed Marion's relationship with Shiva and in the end that's what's fundamental to the book, their love, their distance, their painful understanding of each other. I liked Marion as a protagonist. I connected with his methodical and inactive responses. Genet was the character I struggled with the most. Of all the characters, she was the least fleshed out for so long, and yet, the most important to Marion, our protagonist. I struggled with the scene of her getting all hot and bothered by Shiva talking about sex. Only a man would write that and I didn't believe it. A lot of what she did was a little too convenient to maximum Marion's story and she didn't feel organic to me. Every time she showed up in the book, I knew something tragic was going to happen that didn't feel right for the story.

In the end, I liked the book. Somewhere around 400 pages I didn't want to put the book down. But it shouldn't have taken me 400 pages to get there. I should have been drawn in by the first 50, or the very least the first 100. The characters should have been stronger, the setting, the fake history (I would much rather real events had been intertwined with the story). None of it was as strong as the medicine.