How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
She pulled him in, welcomed him—colleague, fellow physician, stranger, friend, and lover. She gasped in regret for all the evenings they'd sat across from each other, baiting each other and throwing barbs (though, now that she thought about it, she did most of the baiting and throwing) when they could have been engaged in this astonishing congress. (2.16.82)
Finally! Hema and Ghosh get together, and we have the one positive sex scene in the entire book. Seriously. So it seems that Cutting for Stone only advocates for sex between old friends, and all others will end in unwanted pregnancies, which in turn end in death, or in disease. Be warned.
Quote #8
What I felt with the probationer, I never wanted to feel with anyone but Genet. There were too many temptations out there, great forces ready to shake me free of my avowed intent. I wanted to succumb to temptation. But with just one woman, and that was Genet. (3.31.59)
The probationer awakens Marion's sexual feelings when he's hit puberty, but he doesn't feel like exploring them with her. He's in love with Genet and wants sex and love to be all part of the same thing. Unlike Shiva, he is unable to separate sex from love, and so he only wants sex with the woman he loves.
Quote #9
"You want proof? Is that it?" she yelled. "She reached to her waist and drew something out and flung it at me. A pair of women's panties. "Her blood… and your seed." I picked the garment off my face. In the dark I could see nothing. But I could smell blood, the scent of Genet… and I could smell semen. It was mine. I recognized my starchy scent. No one else shared that odor. No one but my twin brother. (3.34.67-68)
Poor Marion. Even though he would like to have been the one to sleep with Genet for the first time, Shiva got there first—and Marion is blamed for it, anyway. The fact that his twin brother would sleep with the girl he loves is a major betrayal at first glance, but maybe it happens because Shiva doesn't really see himself as separate from Marion.