Month: February 2011

A fascinating autobiography of one of the greatest statesman of the 20th century. Churchill speaks of his very early childhood and his youth, much before his days of parliament and becoming PM, etc.

I didn’t think I’d be so interested, but I’m very taken by the style and accounting of his early influences, and especially his days in the British cantonements in India toward the end of the nineteenth century (late 1800s), and his accounts in the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century– in which many an Indian served as part of the British army. My own ancestors were known to have served in this war, I am told, which makes it even more interesting for me on a personal front.

It is interesting how on more than one occasion, Churchill laments his lack of a formal higher (academic) education owing to his enlisting in the Army at a young age. Those deficiencies, if any, notwithstanding, he builds a reputation as a brilliant war correspondent well before he even enters politics.

The Old Man and the Sea is a magnificent novella, beautiful in its simplicity of the story of an old man and a big fish.

It is about one last chance to prove oneself. It is a story about human friendship that is not a respector of age and station. It is a story about the indomitable human spirit to conquer nature. It is about the beauty and fury of Nature itself, and all that it holds within its power, both humans and fish alike. It is about taking pride in the work of your hands. And about the great circle of life.It is also about loss, and the value of bearing it well. It is about exercising restraint in telling a tall tale– a fish-tale, if you will!

Amazing how a small story can speak to so many things about the human condition. Thank you, Mr. Hemingway!

Things never go as planned– which is why there is always a story. As well as a back-story. And the back-story of each of the characters in this masterpiece of a novel is a fascinating one. A surgeon by profession and a writer on the side, Abraham Verghese–a man of Indian origin–offers up a brilliant first novel.

This is an epic tale about love, loss, betrayal, redemption, and everything else in between. Cutting for Stone cuts you to the quick with its three-dimensional characters spread out over continents. And if you have any interest in the field of medicine, you will thrill to the details that come in waves throughout the book. On this note, here’s something to think about: Thomas Stone asks his students, “What is the one treatment administered through the ear during a medical emergency?” I trust you will read the story to find the answer.

This novel is undoubtedly destined for success. Incidentally, I learned that in his early professional career, Verghese’s spent many years in Johnson City, Tennessee, the town next to the one that I lived in while in college!