Scan barcode
A review by megatsunami
Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic by Martha N. Beck
4.0
3.5 stars. This book is about a couple who learns their unborn child is going to have Down Syndrome, so I assumed it would be a tear-jerker. While I certainly did get teary at times, it also was side-splittingly funny and the funny parts are what makes me want to recommend it to people. I especially enjoyed:
- The author's wickedly funny (or should that be "wicked funny"?) descriptions of life and work at Harvard in the 80's. Don't know if they are accurate but definitely represent some "types" of academia.
- The author's descriptions of her and her husband's different family cultures were very funny but also a great illustration of how misunderstandings can arise out of our different backgrounds.
- The author wrestling with her feelings about her unborn child's disability. She was very real about the different feelings she had - her fear and revulsion about the disability, and her certainty that she loved the baby and wanted to keep it - yet without putting a political agenda on it or saying that everyone else should make the same choice she did.
My biggest problem with the book was that the author spends a lot of time describing her spiritual experiences: having unseen hands comfort her and heal her placental bleeding (!), a mysterious figure usher her out of danger, a mystical dream give her psychic foreknowledge, and so on. For me, reading about someone else's spiritual experiences is kind of like reading about someone else's delicious meal - it might make me wish I were eating at that restaurant, but it leaves me unsatisfied. Also, I didn't mind so much when she stuck to description but when she got to interpretation, things got a little weird. Early on she had a more open, complex interpretation, but later on in the book it really seemed that she believed she was personally singled out for a lot of divine/ magical intervention. Could be true, but I wasn't convinced. The most meaningful spiritual parts to me were about other people's kindness and generosity, and the healing and support she received from other actual people.
P.S. Reading some Goodreads reviews made me realize there is a lot the author left out of this book about her own life - for example, her history with the LDS church, or the fact that she and her husband have both recently come out as gay (they had previously co-written a book for Mormons on how to stop being gay). That makes me feel the book is a little incomplete as none of these things are even alluded to! Weird.
- The author's wickedly funny (or should that be "wicked funny"?) descriptions of life and work at Harvard in the 80's. Don't know if they are accurate but definitely represent some "types" of academia.
- The author's descriptions of her and her husband's different family cultures were very funny but also a great illustration of how misunderstandings can arise out of our different backgrounds.
- The author wrestling with her feelings about her unborn child's disability. She was very real about the different feelings she had - her fear and revulsion about the disability, and her certainty that she loved the baby and wanted to keep it - yet without putting a political agenda on it or saying that everyone else should make the same choice she did.
My biggest problem with the book was that the author spends a lot of time describing her spiritual experiences: having unseen hands comfort her and heal her placental bleeding (!), a mysterious figure usher her out of danger, a mystical dream give her psychic foreknowledge, and so on. For me, reading about someone else's spiritual experiences is kind of like reading about someone else's delicious meal - it might make me wish I were eating at that restaurant, but it leaves me unsatisfied. Also, I didn't mind so much when she stuck to description but when she got to interpretation, things got a little weird. Early on she had a more open, complex interpretation, but later on in the book it really seemed that she believed she was personally singled out for a lot of divine/ magical intervention. Could be true, but I wasn't convinced. The most meaningful spiritual parts to me were about other people's kindness and generosity, and the healing and support she received from other actual people.
P.S. Reading some Goodreads reviews made me realize there is a lot the author left out of this book about her own life - for example, her history with the LDS church, or the fact that she and her husband have both recently come out as gay (they had previously co-written a book for Mormons on how to stop being gay). That makes me feel the book is a little incomplete as none of these things are even alluded to! Weird.