I like biographies and memoirs. This was one I had never heard of, but it was recommended by my dad, so I picked it up. It's the story of a woman in India who studied to be a doctor in the late 40s/early 50s; during her residency, she was in a car accident that almost killed her, but the biography focuses on her entire life and not just the darkest period of it. The accident left her a paraplegic, and as a doctor, she didn't know how she would be able to continue in her profession. Because of a new surgery that applied principles of polio treatment to leprosy patients, Dr. Verghese (Mary) was able to work from her wheelchair, doing hand surgeries that gave her patients the chance to work again. I found the information about the hand surgeries and the work with leprosy patients, as well as the details of Mary's experience getting used to her new limitations, fascinating and inspiring. Mary's Christian faith and the support of friends and family really made a difference in her being able to overcome one obstacle after another. The book was a strong reminder to me of how much it means to people to be visited when they're sick or in the hospital. As obvious as that should be, it was still a good thing for me to think about.

So why not more stars? Well, the writing style was rather flowery, and I could only take it in small doses. That's how I usually take my nonfiction anyway, a chapter or two in the morning to start my day, but it was true for more than just the reason of time constraints with this one. A continuous annoyance was having the word "family" in all caps to emphasize how important her family was to Mary. Grrr. Got old. Another periodic bother was the suggestion that when you're suffering, keeping your complaints to yourself is some kind of heroism. I'm not criticizing the people who feel they can't complain as much as I'm criticizing the people who praise them for not complaining. I hate the idea of people keeping their worries, their pain, their experience to themselves so that they don't bother their friends and family. Friends and family should be botherable. And it sounds like Mary had some outstanding people as support. Anyway, that's just a personal beehive of mine that got shaken a few times during the course of the book.

Overall, it was worth the read because Mary had an incredible story, and it was interesting to read about medical practices during that time and the great strides already being made to help paraplegics and quadriplegics toward independent living. I also liked this quote that I read toward the end of the book, from a speech delivered at the Eighth World Congress of the International Society for the Welfare of Cripples (the wording was changed to "rehabilitation of the disabled" that year):

"Once you have justice, peace will come. Peace is like friendship; it cannot be sold or bought; it must be earned. If we could first have world justice, then we would have world peace." ( )

This was one of my favourite books growing up. I miss it. ( )