The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

This sweeping, 700+ page story is beautifully and descriptively written. Set mainly in rural India, we also get a taste of urban Madras. I had a little trouble keeping track of the earlier generations when I got to the later ones, so if I read this again, I would take notes. Multiple families and places and people combine to give you the feeling you know what it would be like to live in India during the time periods of the story: 1900 to 1977. 

In the beginning, the twelve year old girl who is being sent to wed her forty-something year old husband is full of fear and trepidation. As a reader, I feared for her welfare, but as the story unfolds, she is treated with great kindness and patience and eventually becomes the matriarch of a powerful rural family. Also in the beginning, I thought this "condition" of some of her family members, this fear of water, this inability to swim, was kind of a mythical or magical myth that afflicted them. Gradually the story unfolds of the exact medical malady it is and how it can be treated. Parts of the story also deal with leprosy and its consequences. Because the author is a doctor, many of the medical conditions, including child birth, are descriptively and minutely described. Sometimes it's hard to take!

Veghese is a wonderful writer with a huge heart for humanity. Some in this story are Christians, and they are described longingly by those who want to have their kind of faith. I can't tell if he is a believer or not...that will be an interesting question for our Monterey book club. I believe Michelle Salmonson is the one who recommended this book; it will be interesting to hear her thoughts on this. She's kind of a black and white thinker, so I'm curious about her thoughts...

I had to search out my highlighter several times to note some of the beautiful passages about life and suffering. The caste system in India plays out very powerfully in this story; as does the struggle for India's independence. I realized I understood very little about British dominance throughout history. The beauty of the Indian people as they struggled is enlightening to read about.

Philipose is the son of Big Ammachi and spends a large part of his life addicted to opium. His addiction and its consequences are harrowing to read about. So is the story of Elsie's developing leprosy, which was a shocking development in the story. I wanted to see her sculptures! I wanted to see the ancestral home and plantation and river the family inhabited. It would be a long and intricate movie, and not an altogether pleasant one. So much pain and suffering! And yet also so much beauty--both in the characters and in the land. There were many absolutely selfless characters who devoted their lives to others...both in the family, and in their devotion to the community.

One particularly poignant and funny part is when a white Christian preacher comes to the rural community and Uplift Master is his translator. The preacher goes on, and Uplift Master begins to go rogue and calls for the Christians to build a hospital, and powerfully calls for donations that start the whole process, and ends up being successful. He does it chunk by chunk, and you just have to laugh as his translation goes on, and the preacher has no idea his preaching has taken a big detour!

There are many Indian or possibly sanskrit words that are used, and some are translated and some are not. Same with the food and drink...it gives the story an authentic feel, and if I weren't lazy, I would have looked some of them up. Instead, I let the story flow.

Here are some excerpts I marked:

When Philipose returns to Parambil after failing out of medical school in Madras, he describes his feelings: Even before his brain digests these sights, his body--skin, nerve endings, lungs, heart--recognizes the geography of his birth. He never understood how much it mattered. Every bit of this lush landscape is hit; its every atom contains him. On this blessed strip of coast where Malayalam is spoken, the flesh and bones of his ancestors have leached into the soil, made their way into the trees, into the iridescent plumage of the parrots on swaying branches, and dispersed themselvves into the breeze...and his is one with avery atom of it. I'm the seedling in your hand, he thinks...Whatever is next for me, whatever the story of my life, the roots that must nourish it are here.  (Pages 330-331)

Page 402: In a life, it is the in betweens that are fatal; indecisiveness killed his son.

Pages 486-489 - Describes Joppan explaining racism or is it caste-ism? to Philipose in a most powerful way. Stunningly, and it applies universally. Joppan descibes perfectly our "superior" and 'helpful" ways to help the less-thans, and often in so doing, we do greater harm. For example:

Their kindness, their generosity compared to cruel slave owners, made them blind to the unfairness of a system of slavery that they created, they maintained, and that favored them. It's like the British bragging about the railways, the colleges, the hospitals they left us--their "kindness"! As though that justified robbing us of the right to self-rule for two centuries! 

Such things only happen when one group thinks the other is inferior by birth, by skin color, by history. Inferior, and therefore deserving less. My father was no slae. He was beloved here. But he was never your equal so he wasn't rewarded as one...

The sophistication of Joppan's argument surprised Philipose. But even to think of Joppan's argument as "sophisticated" was exactly the kind of blindness Joppan was talking about. "Sophisticated" implied that people like Joppan or Shamuel were not entitled to use history and reason and their intellect. 

I love that Philipose listened. It took courage for Joppan to make his case, and it took courage for Philipose to listen and to change. This was so inspiring! And so applicable to me...as I think about the enslaved in our world. 

A couple of other nuggets: (Page 507):

Fear comes from not knowing. If you know what it is your are seeing, if you know what to do, then you won't be afraid. 

If one imagines what God is saying, is that the same as God actually speaking? 

(Page 511): What is worry but fear of what the future holds? Baby Mol lives completely in the present and is spared all worry. 

I have a few more marked... also his descriptions of deep love are just lyrical. 

Another amazing and beautiful thing that Veghese does is weave a vast and disparate story with complicated and interesting characters that intersect in amazing ways in the future. These intersections come somewhat surprisingly and yet also seem fated. Like the baby Lenin, whose fist breaks out through his mother's womb, is pushed back in by a doctor, who later helps save his life when he has become a revolutionary. These connections happen seamlessly and authentically. Amazing!

While there is much beauty in this epic story, there is a lot that is heavy. Maybe it's good to read heavy sometimes? I'm not sure I will take this on again, but maybe I will. It will sit on my bookshelf next to Cutting for Stone, and when the time is right, I might take one or the other or both on again. In the meantime, I'm ready for something lighter!

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

 This is an incredible book that I almost didn't read! I could barely face another prison book, or another World War 2 book, or another book focused on starvation and cruelty. However, I gave it a go, because I wanted to be able to talk about it at our Stonebridge Ward book club meeting in September. It was available in the library, so I checked it out.

This author is Polish and is story is amazing! It was told to another person, who wrote it down. The author's sincerity and integrity comes through very strongly. He is wrongly accused of being a spy, is sent to Siberia for 25 years, and most of the story is his journey with some of his fellow-prisoners after they escape. Their brotherhood and their ingenuity in facing all the obstacles is incredible. It also showed what one is willing to do when they have nothing to lose!

My favorite part of the story is when their group makes it to the safety of Mongolia and enjoy the hospitality of the incredible people there. They live simply and share all that they have! It was fascinating to me, too, to learn about how much recovery time they needed in the hospital after they had traveled for the year. They found a man living in a cave with his dog and sheep. They saw creatures that sound like the abominable snowman! They ate snakes in the Gobi Desert to survive. They made moccasins about of sheep's hide. They starved and they thirsted for days at a time. They found a young woman and she joined their little band so bravely and fought the obstacles as long as she could. The slow death of Kristina and the other one, as their legs swelled and they stumbled in the desert was heart-breaking. So many memorable moments in this book. 

As I lay in my air-conditioned comfort, fully fed and wanting nothing, it makes me wonder how long I would have been able to survive this incredible challenge. I kept referring to the map in the beginning of the book to see the geography and miles they covered. I'm not familiar with that part of the world, but it all sounded incredible, in its own way. I came away grateful for my comforts and inspired by the human spirit of survival and love of freedom. Just an incredible story!

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm by Carolyn Keene

 I had just flown in to Rapid City Regional for another grandkid fix, and Sierra picked me up. After lunch with Mike, she had a couple of boxes of books to drop off at the used bookstore. I helped her carry them in, and happened to flip mine open to see what she was giving away. BIG MISTAKE! There, in all their dark blue glory, were my Nancy Drew mysteries! Oh, no! How could I part with them again. Sierra said, "Don't look!!!" But it was too late. The deed was done. I thought, "She's right. I don't need these. But then I saw my very first one, and it was this one. I flipped open the cover, and there, in Grandma Ellerson's distinctive handwriting was my name, and 1955, and Grandpa and Grandma. I was five years old; how could I have read this then? And the copyright was also 1955, so it was a brand new book when I got it! That was a huge purchase for them back then. I had to keep this one. And even though it's not the first book in the series, it's the first one I read.

So, I didn't even look at the others, nor open the other boxes. I just took this one. I took it over to Melissa's the next day, and she said, "I would have liked those!!" Who knew? So, I read it every night while I was there, and finished it, and left it in her guest room.

It was a huge step into another time and place. Talk about nostalgic!!! Nancy and her boyfriend Ned, who invited her to a fraternity weekend at Emerson College... Nancy, whose best friends, Bess and George are cousins. George, a "very boyish girl" -- and the ivory charm is the center of the story that includes a little "Hindu boy" and "Indian boy" and various other racial and ethnic names. It's just amazing to see how differentl;y cultural differences are depicted in this era! And it wss disappointing how little nuance or mystery was woven into the story. Nancy is the heroine and can do no wrong. Her father lets her lead the way in the investigation and it's an idyllic little world. I guess that was attractive to me when I was younger? No character developmebt at all...Just trite conversations and predictable conversations. It was disappointing. I wasn't particularly curious about how it would even turn out. It was 200 pages long, but I lost interest way before that. What kept me going was the cultural issues. I also kept hoping that maybe some of it would ring familiar to me. None of it did. 

One thing that probably attracted me back then was Nancy's relationship with her father. He had endless faith in her and her abilities; he financed everything; he had influential friends who could help her, and he treated her like an adult. One subtle thing that came through that I"m not sure I noticed back in the day was how limiting and jealous her boyfriend Ned was. And it was kind of fun to be back in a world devoid of computers and cell phones and any sort of technology...where letters were written and circuses came to town. It was a nice visit, but I don't want to live there!

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

My sister Alice Jane has recommended some wonderful books to me over the years. She prefers nonfiction, usually, so my ears perked up when she mentioned a novel she really enjoyed. I went to the library and was a little daunted by the heft of this book, but decided it was worth a try. After all, it's winter in South Dakota; isn't that the best time to sit by the fire and read?

This story is amazing. It follows the incredible journey of how a young doctor and an Indian nun, working in Ethiopia, produced a set of twin boys. They were raised by two other doctors and their story reveals aspects of a fascinating African culture. The story also moves to New York City and uncovers sad aspects health care disparities.

The author's training and practice as a doctor permeates the story. In fact, at times, it was too much for me. The blood and suffering are great and intimately described. There are painfully horrific scenes that are haunting. There are also lovely scenes and altruistic characters who are heroic in their efforts to ease suffering. I found the descriptions of how the twins communicated and complemented each other's strengths and weaknesses fascinating.

I was positively amazed at the level of detail and description of food, people, medicine, travel, etc. that are included along the way. This is an epic panorama of a fascinating place, people, and time.

October 27, 2025

I just reread this epic story and was totally captivated again, especially by the last two hundred pages where the characters come full circle and karma is revealed. We got home from the temple yesterday about 4 PM, I napped briefly, then walked, than dug back into this novel. I couldn't stop! I read all evening and finally finished around midnight. It was so satisfying. I felt so grateful I could read to my heart's content and enjoy the winding up of the lives of these fascinating characters.

This is the book we will discuss at my Monterey book club and these women really do dig in and talk about what we read in some depth. When we met last month, I was the only one who had already read it, and they asked me what it was about. All I could remember was that it was long, hard to witness the suffering, and was set in Egypt!!! This shows how fickle my memory is!

One of the main "characters" is Ethiopia, and it is revealed in all of its complexity by an author who clearly loves this country and its food and its people and all of its flaws and challenges. 

Another aspect of this novel is the theme of Marion's acute sense of smell! It is amazing what he smells and how he makes sense of it. Sometimes the medical details, especially near the end where complicated surgeries are explained, got to be beyond my understanding. Still, it was impressive to think that a doctor with this level of knowledge was also such a gifted writer. This is an intriguing book with completely fascinating characters. The twins' parents, especially, made me feel like a person who gives too little to the world. Hema and Ghosh are such passionate, altruistic, and unselfish people that it's humbling to witness their lives in story form. And Marion and Shiva's complexities are interesting because of Marion's self-reflection and his impressions of Shiva. 

I'm motivated now to read Verghese's next novel, but will take a break before I take it on. I need a little rest from the heaviness of these lives...but maybe not. Maybe it's good for me to be challenged by my easy way of life?

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This is an amazing story! It started off a little slowly and without my immediate strong engagement. But it slowly grew on me, and then suddenly, I was hooked! The voice of the main character, Pi, is so endearing and intelligent; so like many young Indian people I have known, that I was totally charmed. The humor is delightful and clever. His foray into religion resonated with my own experience in many ways, and that was fun. The conversation between the Christian, Hindi, and Muslim as they discover Pi's divided devotion, is CLASSIC! Quite enjoyable and deeply truthful... And Pi's story of survival is so very engaging. Using his wits as he floats across the Pacific with his tiger is fascinating. There are so many subtleties that I'm sure I missed that I'm going to read it again.
It's an incredibly creative and original story, too. I marveled at the way the story unfolded and the way things connected and reconnected. It was also amazing to read about how Pi's survival ordeal brought him to a deeper understanding of being human...and what people will do to survive. As he surprises himself with his reactions, it's so enlightening. I could easily believe and understand how people could do the unthinkable; his reflections help us see the possibilities in us all.
There are some poetic descriptions of the universe and his state of mind as he's floating...the descriptions of the sky, sun, and wind are breathtaking.There's also a lot of biology here and zoology included. I wonder how accurate it is? That will be my next little Google task...to see how authentic these are. They felt very authentic, but the tree growing around human teeth did cause me to question whether this was imagination or possibility!