The Covenant of Water reviewed by Elma Schemenauer

The Apostle Thomas had a tough time believing in Christ's resurrection. But once he did, he took his faith and ran with it. Tradition says he went to India and shared it with people there. A number of them believed and "Saint Thomas Christians" (who also go by other names) eventually numbered in the millions. Some of those in Kerala State are main characters in Abraham Verghese's novel The Covenant of Water.

 

The novel follows three generations of a family from 1900 to 1977. I enjoyed their story for its human interest. Characters find love in unexpected places. They struggle to communicate. They rejoice in the births of children. Some are selfish, others breathtakingly unselfish. Some are Christ-followers. Others are Christians only because they were born into their particular ethnoreligious community.

 

At one point in the story, a physician named Mariamma sees a mural on a hospital wall. "It depicts gowned, masked surgeons bent over a patient, under the halo of the theatre lamp. In the shadows, figures observe the surgery. One of them is Jesus, his hand resting on the surgeon's shoulder." Mariamma doesn't have that kind of faith, but she wishes she did.

 

There's lots of medical content in the novel, not surprisingly since the author is a physician. I didn't understand nearly all the medical stuff, but I enjoyed it. Verghese makes it interesting. He sees medicine as a passionate pursuit, even a spiritual calling. His viewpoint comes through strongly.

 

Reading this novel made me think about my own ethnoreligious community. I'm a first-generation child of Mennonite immigrants from Russia to Canada. As I was growing up., I sank deep roots into the beliefs, stories, and traditions of my extended Mennonite family. They've inspired some of my writing, especially my novels Consider the Sunflowers and Song for Susie Epp.

 

Abraham Verghese was born in Ethiopia to Christian parents from Kerala, India. He's now a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. His novel The Covenant of Water has given me new insights on how to write fiction based on one's personal background and experiences. Now I plan to read his earlier novel Cutting for Stone.