Boychik Lit

I found this link to try to find the meaning of th...

2012-01-23T16:14:42.816-08:00

I found this link to try to find the meaning of the title. I had a hard time getting into the book, but after about the middle, couldn't put it down.

Here from the Comment Challenge... I love your blo...

2012-01-15T14:35:54.941-08:00

Here from the Comment Challenge... I love your blog title!

It's a good time to read the first two books i...

2012-01-10T16:09:54.446-08:00

It's a good time to read the first two books in the Rollo Hemphill series. When the third, Farnsworth's Revenge comes out, you'll want to know the backstory.

I needed some suggested reads! Thanks for putting ...

2012-01-10T13:10:13.911-08:00

I needed some suggested reads! Thanks for putting that together.

I'd like to think Julian dropped by and posted...

2011-12-27T20:34:41.822-08:00

I'd like to think Julian dropped by and posted this, because it's just the kind of thing I'd expect him to say. Look at the punctuation of "Really, no?". That's British grammatical style, folks.

Tony is the father. Conception didn't happen ...

2011-12-27T19:52:52.973-08:00

Tony is the father. Conception didn't happen at Chislehurst, it happened the night Tony watch the Severn Bore - an experience he describes as "unsettling" and "quietly wrong". Initially he thinks he was there by himself, but later tries to convince Veronica that she was present (a fact she denies with a head shake). Tony says anxiously "Really, no?". Tony would like to believe that Veronica was present but this was the night of his sin against nature. Tony still doesn't "get it" and this will be his epitaph.

I just finished this book and I guess the word I w...

2011-12-05T21:02:16.216-08:00

I just finished this book and I guess the word I would use is "powerful". Such a wonderful insight into the political&cultural history of Ethiopia & India & a story to grab at your emotions. Thank you all for your explanations of the title. Karen

Really enjoyed this book. Sometimes, felt it a li...

2011-11-04T05:17:26.810-07:00

Really enjoyed this book. Sometimes, felt it a little heavy-going but there was always an uplifting segment to get past my literary understanding lacking. Did have to go further for the meaning of the title and to my thinking, does have a double meaning. After several attempts found an explanation of 'cutting for stone' that I could grasp. Thanks to the writer for the entertaining and informative read.

Thank you for your review and for an explanation o...

2011-10-04T11:09:44.691-07:00

Thank you for your review and for an explanation of the title. (I enjoyed reading the other comments to this post as well.) I just finished the book today and liked it a lot. Keep up the great work with your blog.

A point of clarification: Dr. Verghese, whom I kn...

2011-08-11T15:02:40.128-07:00

A point of clarification: Dr. Verghese, whom I know from his time in Johnson City, TN, is an Infectious Disease specialist and an Internist... he is not a surgeon. This makes the quality of his descriptions of surgeries and surgical assessments even more enjoyable for me.

The book was given to me by a very literate period...

2011-08-10T05:05:13.470-07:00

The book was given to me by a very literate periodontist and I have the advantage of his margin notes and underlinings of things that impressed him or he found lyrical, but I'm wondering about the title. I appreciate the various explanations, which are like petals folded back searching for the truth--like this book. Helen Barr

Yes, "even for patients in whom the disease...

2011-07-15T09:12:13.067-07:00

Yes, "even for patients in whom *the disease* is manifest" would seem to be a reference to a specific condition. I happily defer to this more insightful definition. It has been amazing to me how many interpretations of this reference there have been, and how much speculation about its meanings, not only in the Hippocratic oath, but as a metaphor in the book.

In an interview the author clarifies, "T...

2011-07-15T05:36:52.657-07:00

In an interview the author clarifies,

"There is a line in the Hippocratic Oath that says: ‘I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest.’ It stems from the days when bladder stones were epidemic, a cause of great suffering, probably from bad water and who knows what else. […] There were itinerant stonecutters—lithologists—who could cut either into the bladder or the perineum and get the stone out, but because they cleaned the knife by wiping it on their blood-stiffened surgical aprons, patients usually died of infection the next day. Hence the proscription ‘Thou shall not cut for stone.’ […] It isn’t just that the main characters have the surname Stone; I was hoping the phrase would resonate for the reader just as it does for me, and that it would have several levels of meaning in the context of the narrative." So this relates to 'do no harm' more than just surgery for money.

Thank you for the explanation. I just finished the...

2011-02-19T12:50:17.164-08:00

Thank you for the explanation. I just finished the book. I really thought it was the best book I've read in a while.

Thanks for your explanation; I have been pondering...

2010-08-19T09:18:39.140-07:00

Thanks for your explanation; I have been pondering "cutting for stone" without understanding. I agree, this is a wonderful book, one of the best I have ever read--it is so rich. I laughed and I cried, and I turned pages to find out what would happen next.

I LOVE this review! Not only did you "get&quo...

2010-07-13T01:24:04.690-07:00

I LOVE this review! Not only did you "get" the novel, but you made me laugh. Roch, a boychik? Never thought of it before, but how right you are.

My name is David Mcnair I was browsing internet an...

2010-05-12T22:37:58.605-07:00

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I just finished this wonderful book. I'm ethe...

2010-02-19T16:23:11.253-08:00

I just finished this wonderful book. I'm ethereally breathless.I

I, too, continued throughout the read to be perplexed by the title. The phrase was mentioned many times and still I couldn't quite understand. So thanks for your explanation.

Just logged on to google "Cutting for Stone&q...

2009-12-26T09:20:46.545-08:00

Just logged on to google "Cutting for Stone". Found your link so thanks for the explanation (expanded) of the title. This book is a wonderful, engrossing read.

Maggie I certainly don't disagree about price ...

2009-09-24T23:43:17.401-07:00

Maggie I certainly don't disagree about price point, especially when you consider that the typical royalty from a traditional publisher is about $1-2 to the author. Proprietary formats like Kindle could enable the platform maker to strike exclusive distribution deals with authors.

Thanks for stopping by! We missed you!

I personally think that ebooks ought to be much ch...

2009-09-24T23:11:46.442-07:00

I personally think that ebooks ought to be much cheaper than they are on Amazon($1.99 is about right). It's an entirely different market to hard copies (at least at this stage) and there's very little cost to the publisher - that benefit should be passed on and made use of to generate buzz and a larger audience. If a person likes an ebook, they'll often buy a hard copy for someone else as a gift (I do that often), so there's a good relationship between hard copies and ebooks (just ask Cory Doctorow). I can't see ebook readers that don't allow for multiple formats like txt and above all .pdf, and for multiple purchasing/download sources having much of a future once they become common and inexpensive enough for sales to be driven by desire rather than hype.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the pitch-black en...

2009-09-23T13:55:53.421-07:00

I have no doubt whatsoever that the pitch-black environment of Pod 5 was created to elicit narrative (and cinematic!) thrills. The flashlight question is the kind asked by annoying critics that Hitchcock called "The Plausibles." His attitude was, you just do the implausible thing and count on audience involvement to overlook it. I can think of several ploys to get around the issue, but Brown obviously felt the audience would go with him and perhaps that excusing the device would just get in the way of the action.

I appreciate your comment and particularly the resource on noetics, to which I'm a total newbie.

The lack of a flashlight bothered me, too, especia...

2009-09-23T12:14:36.515-07:00

The lack of a flashlight bothered me, too, especially when a guest was being escorted across the pod. On the other hand, a scene near the end of the novel wouldn't have been as interesting if anyone had had a flash light.

FWI: Here's a link to an article about the book written by a noetic scientist. I liked her take on it: http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/9548

I also liked Brown's book, though the info dumps and lame dialogue are tedious. Like you, though, I kept turning those pages.

Malcolm

Much as I'm into the science of it, I'm not a rabi...

2009-05-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Much as I'm into the science of it, I'm not a rabid sci-fi fan. Perversely, I go for spy thrillers and adult melodrama!

Cylons, anyone? :) (Shudder, and please don't te...

2009-05-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Cylons, anyone?

:)

(Shudder, and please don't tell me the end. I'm only up to the third season.)