An Excellent Choice
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
When British journalist, memoirist, and New York-transplant Emma Brockes decides to become pregnant, she quickly realises that, being single, 37, and in the early stages of a same-sex relationship, she's going to have to be untraditional about it. From the moment she decides to stop "futzing" around, have her eggs counted, and "get cracking"; through multiple trials of IUI, which she is intrigued to learn can be purchased in bulk packages, just like Costco; to the births of her twins, which her girlfriend gamely documents with her iPhone and selfie-stick, Brockes is never any less than bluntly honest about her extraordinary journey to motherhood.
She quizzes her friends on the pros and cons of personally knowing one's sperm donor, grapples with esoteric medical jargon and the existential brain-melt of flipping through donor catalogues and conjures with the politics of her Libertarian OB/GYN-all the while exploring the cultural circumstances and choices that have brought her to this point. Brockes writes with charming self-effacing humour about being a British woman undergoing fertility treatment in the US, poking fun at the starkly different attitude of Americans. Anxious that biological children might not be possible, she wonders, should she resent society for how it regards and treats women who try and fail to have children?
Brockes deftly uses her own story to examine how and why an increasing number of women are using fertility treatments in order to become parents-and are doing it solo. Bringing the reader every step of the way with mordant wit and remarkable candour, Brockes shares the frustrations, embarrassments, surprises, and, finally, joys of her momentous and excellent choice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British journalist Brockes's thoughtful memoir of becoming a single parent at the age of 39 focuses primarily on the hurdles faced on the path to motherhood rather than on life after delivering twins. Brockes (She Left Me the Gun) was preoccupied with her career during her 20s and 30s, though she had always known that one day she wanted to have kids. At age 37, she set out to get pregnant via a sperm donor and IVF treatment (her partner, a woman referred to as "L," already had a child of her own, and the couple opted to keep their Upper West Side households separate while remaining partners). Brockes takes readers on a fascinating and sometimes frustrating journey through fertility treatments, dashed hopes and delays, often accenting her tale with clever comparisons of the American and the British health care systems ("How on earth can one buy medical treatment the same way one buys three-for-two cans of beans at Costco?"). Along the way the fiercely independent Brockes realizes that while she can do almost anything she pleases alone, it's quite acceptable to ask for help: not only does she hire a baby nurse but she accepts her partner's advice to lease an apartment that's become available just below hers. This is an uplifting, well-told story, in which Brockes walks the fine line between surrendering to chance (i.e., not one but two babies) and taking charge to make tough but excellent choices.
