Helpful Score: 2
** spoiler alert **
I feel like I've just completed a year of medical school; I dedicated and spent a lot of time on something long and arduous and my head is full of technical, medical jargon. Bodily fluids also seem to be swimming behind my eyes. (There is way too much of that in this novel). Unfortunately, I also feel as if anyone on the street could be trained to perform any given surgery.
This is a book with polarizing characters, most of whom I disliked. I didn't care for either of the twins, Dr. Stone, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, or Genet. The two I loved were Hema and Ghosh, the mother and father of the twins. The individual and collective depth of the couple astounded me. I gasped when Ghosh was taken away and nearly cried when illness claimed his life. These two were the best parents for the twins. Marion and Shiva would not have turned out so well had they been raised by their biological parents.
As for Marion and Shivawell, I don't believe anyone could connect with Shiva as a character. Let me be clear that all of these characters, likable or not, were very much well-developed. Shiva was simply not relatable; he was strange and distant and attacked things in his life systematically, according to some internal plan, of which the reader never knows. I just didn't like Marion. He was unrealistic and overly-romantic and because of this, ended up contracting Hepatitis, nearly dying, and causing the death of his twin. I think he was stupid and had he just gone with a prostitute like Shiva did, he could have avoided all that trouble. Instead, he holds out for Genet, an unstable and murderous girl, irresponsible as a parent and lacking any long-term idea of her own life.
The end was a green writer's cop-out of altruism and self-sacrifice (See King, Stephen). However, the book was well-written, obviously well-researched, and magnificently structured in pace, setting, and scope.
I feel like I've just completed a year of medical school; I dedicated and spent a lot of time on something long and arduous and my head is full of technical, medical jargon. Bodily fluids also seem to be swimming behind my eyes. (There is way too much of that in this novel). Unfortunately, I also feel as if anyone on the street could be trained to perform any given surgery.
This is a book with polarizing characters, most of whom I disliked. I didn't care for either of the twins, Dr. Stone, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, or Genet. The two I loved were Hema and Ghosh, the mother and father of the twins. The individual and collective depth of the couple astounded me. I gasped when Ghosh was taken away and nearly cried when illness claimed his life. These two were the best parents for the twins. Marion and Shiva would not have turned out so well had they been raised by their biological parents.
As for Marion and Shivawell, I don't believe anyone could connect with Shiva as a character. Let me be clear that all of these characters, likable or not, were very much well-developed. Shiva was simply not relatable; he was strange and distant and attacked things in his life systematically, according to some internal plan, of which the reader never knows. I just didn't like Marion. He was unrealistic and overly-romantic and because of this, ended up contracting Hepatitis, nearly dying, and causing the death of his twin. I think he was stupid and had he just gone with a prostitute like Shiva did, he could have avoided all that trouble. Instead, he holds out for Genet, an unstable and murderous girl, irresponsible as a parent and lacking any long-term idea of her own life.
The end was a green writer's cop-out of altruism and self-sacrifice (See King, Stephen). However, the book was well-written, obviously well-researched, and magnificently structured in pace, setting, and scope.
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