Customer Reviews

Baby Proof

5 star:		(177)
4 star:		(71)
3 star:		(49)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Throughout her life, Claudia Parr, the heroine of Emily Giffin's excellent new novel, has sworn up and down to potential boyfriends, inquiring friends, concerned family and anyone else that she absolutely DOES NOT want children EVER. She doesn't have a maternal instinct that she's aware of, and she's perfectly content not to find it. Claudia was never interested in playing house as a girl, and, now that she's in her 30s, she's determined not to concern herself solely with the secondhand on her biological clock. She enjoys her job, her Manhattan life and her freedom. And Ben, her husband and soulmate, is more than happy to remain childless alongside her, their lives not governed by school plays, soccer games, SUVs and Happy Meals.

But when Claudia and Ben's closest friends announce that they're expecting, Ben starts to wonder if maybe a baby wouldn't be that bad, maybe a baby will bring more meaning to their lives. Claudia, though, doesn't have a change-of-heart. She emphatically refuses to even consider a rugrat. So, even though they had a pre-nuptial "deal" to remain childless, Ben and Claudia are suddenly at an impasse in their marriage with a problem that's not at all easy to resolve.

With SOMETHING BORROWED and SOMETHING BLUE, Giffin addressed the complicated nature of female friendships, while also providing fun characters, outlandish situations, hot guys, cocktails, Jimmy Choos and a good story.

With BABY PROOF, Giffin brings all the fun but addresses an even more difficult topic. Through Claudia's predicament, Giffin dares to ask tough questions, like "Is a marriage enriched - or is life necessarily more meaningful - if you have kids?" or "Is it OK to not want kids?"

I love Claudia in this book. Giffin writes her as tough, stubborn, intelligent, flawed, funny, sexy, opinionated and interesting. And, because she refuses to let Claudia fold or become a simple convert to "mommyhood," Giffin proves herself, once again, to be a brave, uncompromising writer who manages, at the same time, to keep things light and fun. She gives voice to strong female characters whom you can still cheer on, even when you disagree with their stances, choices and actions. It's a difficult thing to do, and Giffin pulls it off in spades.

If you loved SOMETHING BORROWED and SOMETHING BLUE, take heart. Giffin's new book is just as strong. Claudia stumbles down many of the same paths that the previous books' heroines did. Claudia's friends are just as beautiful and fabulous. Her family is just as complicated. And her problems are just as touching.

If this is the first Giffin novel you've read, BABY PROOF will make you a fan.

This story had a lot of potential. The moment I heard of the plot - a woman looking for a child-free marriage - I was immediately interested. It's true that women are expected to have children, and anyone who doesn't is believed to be incapable. The idea that a woman may not want children at all just doesn't seem to come to mind. I have always favored this stance myself, and seeing this book I thought it to be an intelligent, somewhat comical view of the subject. Claudia's narrative throughout the book was light and sarcastic, though she frequently brought up subjects that made me think. However, by the middle of the book I was so disappointed and irritated that I ended up just skimming through until I reached the ending.

-SPOILER-
Claudia Parr, who maintains her stance throughout the book - to the point of dissolving her marriage to the man she considers her soulmate - suddenly decides that, "Hey, I might not want kids, but if it will get my husband back then I'll have one." I find this to be not only vastly disappointing, but completely irrational and downright selfish. A woman doesn't want children, but will have one to keep a man? It goes against the strong personality Claudia previously displayed, and also is one of the most self centered things I've ever heard of. Making a decision like that is bound to create resentment towards the husband and the baby, which won't make her hoped for fairy tale marriage any better off. Emily Giffin had a very good novel in the making here, but she ruined it with poor execution.

If only I had any idea about the witty charms of this eggy colored novel, I would have read it a long time ago. Baby Proof caught me completely off guard with non stop excitement of Claudia and Ben's relationship, her family and her decision not to have a baby that led to trouble in paradise. The characters were simply darling, fleshed out to perfection and they made my heart ache when setbacks and divorce appeared on the horizon. This is definitely a girl's book, and not even comparable to chick lit, something that sounds empty and airy to me, but a rich goulash of love, romance, betrayal, insanely addictive humor and life's lessons learned right before my eyes.

In a nutshell, the story is about Claudia and Ben, who married and has been enjoying their sweet life together in Manhattan, only to meet up with friends who just had a baby. Prior to getting married they have both agreed that they don't want kids, but as Ben gets involved in their friends exciting pregnancy he starts to change. Claudia is thrown off her cozy life, she finds herself unhappy and sees that her husband is no longer the man she though she knew. The tale starts off with many mishaps, her sister having baby issues, her best friend sleeping with a married man, her coworker trying to get a date with her, various scandals and tribulations flowing in and out, weaving out some true patterns that are a part of the quilt of life. Being in a great relationship I could relate to many parts of the book, but most of the time I was really happy that Claudia's turmoil was not my own. Knock on wood, but that only made the story more interesting as the reader gets to know her and falls in love with her personality and only wants the best for her. When things go from bad to worse and Ben has a new female friend Claudia must either move on or try and win him back. The question is whether she wants to have his baby since he's her soul mate or whether she needs to find her own path and not stray back into his life.

I have to say that the ending had me in tears, but I cry at happy endings too, so no spoilers here. That came as a big surprise to me, I rarely cry reading books, but this one yanked at my heart and I had to get up to get some tissues three times while reading the last pages! I have even got my own boss sucked into this book, the second she read the first pages as I waved my latest read in front of her, she dashed to get her own copy, and it's a real pleasure discussing it with her, and I am perhaps a bit jealous that I have all ready read and the end of this journey has been reached. Baby Proof is fictional yet very real, I can see many women relate to it and it reads beautifully as the author has natural talent in story telling.

- Kasia S.

Baby Proof is a fake childfree book written by a parent trying to impersonate the childfree voice, and she gets it all wrong.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Claudia, the main character, is like a background player in her own novel. I kept wondering why, in a book about a nominally childfree-by-choice woman, so much time was given to X, Y, or Z mommy or mommy-wannabe of the protagonist's acquaintance. She had no interests of her own besides her job; most of the time it felt like she was sitting around waiting for the phone to ring so she could listen to the mommies go on and on about themselves. All Claudia ever did was work and serve as a sounding board, babysitter, and supporter for the mommies she knew. When she finally hooks up with the hot childfree guy and goes on a fantastic vacation with him, she can't enjoy it because "something is missing." Gee, could the missing thing be...A BABY??!1?! Subtle, Giffin ain't.

And Ben, Claudia's husband, comes off as so shallow, naive, and selfish that I couldn't stand him, and couldn't comprehend why Claudia wanted him back. When she left him, I thought GOOD RIDDANCE! He came off like a whiny, pouting, manipulative child himself. I couldn't imagine how any woman would want HIM around, let alone want to have his baby.

Then towards the end, Claudia finally gets lonely and beaten-down enough to try to get back together with her husband by offering to have his baby, and at that point I wanted to throw the book across the room. It stopped being chick lit and became, for me, a very subtle horror story about how loneliness and relentless, soul-deadening social pressure force unmaternal women into having unwanted children just to get along in a world that treats non-mothers like second-class citizens. Yet Giffin depicts this slow erosion of her protagonist's true self as PROGRESS. Gee, glad to know that even women who are 100% sure they don't want children really-truly always want one deep down. Biology always IS destiny then, no matter what that woman's pesky CONSCIOUS MIND wants. Good to know.

A very insidious book. Perhaps for an encore, Giffin can write a novel about a gay woman who gets pressured into a heterosexual marriage because everyone in her life wants to pretend she's straight. Or maybe she can give us the story of Ben and Claudia's 16-year-old daughter, who grows up knowing that her mother Claudia never really wanted her and only had her because her father Ben demanded it.

I noticed that several reviewers seem to think that making this decision is "selfish," "ridiculous," "unbelievable," etc. I would argue that, given the fact that society "expects" women to want (and have) children, the decision not to takes a lot of thought, a lot of courage, and a lot of self-evaluation. We respect people's decisions to have children. Those who choose not to deserve the same respect--and perhaps they have actually earned it.

Anyway--I appreciate the fact that someone has tried to approach this issue with intelligence--even if, in the end, the message is not truly what it started out to be.

I found this book on the discount shelf at a local store, and I am grateful I did not pay full price for it. I will start by saying that I have two kids, I always wanted them, and I am thrilled I have them. That said, I hardly feel that this is something everyone should want, and I am horrified that this book would push that.

The book opens with two people in a thoughtful, committed relationship who have agreed early on in courtship that they do not want children. Several years into it, sitting in a room with a couple who are expecting a child, the male half inexplicably changes his mind. Instead of bringing it up in a thoughtful manner, acknowledging that they had a deal that he has reneged on, asking her if she might be willing to explore the issue with him, he announces in a series of one-liners that he wants kids and that it's pretty much non-negotiable.

Then, instead of being aghast that he has changed his mind on something so fundamental, all of her friends and family are troubled that she won't just give in on this. Because, after all, having kids is something all married couples do, and what is the point of being married if you're not going to have kids?

The rest of the book is about her subtly being worn down and realizing she can't live without him and will have a baby with him. Except that it is portrayed as her gradually becoming more self-aware.

The ending of the book felt to me completely unresolved, although I think I was supposed to feel a nice sense of closure. Overall, this book was completely unsatisfying.

Baby Proof is a novel about the dissolution of a marriage. Thirty-four year old Claudia Parr is a happily married publishing industry professional whose life is turned upside down by her husband's decision to break their pre-marriage promises. Claudia and Ben had clicked, had worked as a couple, because they wanted to live child-free. They were non-conformists who relished their freedom and agreed that their family would always consist of just the two of them. Well, at least for the blissful two years before Ben revealed that his position on children had changed. He wanted them after all.

At this point, as a reader, I jumped to some snap judgments about this pale yellow book with sparkly diamond baby booties on the cover. Was this going to be just another piece of poor-me-single-thirtysomething-in-NY-searching-for-a-male trash? Fortunately, no! Booksellers, don't shelve this one with all the hot pink chick lit titles. Baby Proof is a novel which explores all aspects of marriage, divorce, relationships at work, adultery, and parenting styles. The break-up is not just a plot device to launch yet another tale of single life in NY. The divorce drives the entire novel, as Claudia compares her situation to that of an infertile sister, a happily married sister, a spunky best friend dating a married man, and her own divorced parents. Toss in a breathtaking post-divorce fling with a co-worker, and you've got some great material. Griffin also delivers some subtle but unexpected plot twists.

Warning - spoilers - I'm going to tell you how the book ends.

After reading the book flap, I was very prepared to love this book. I, too, am a young woman who never wants to have children, and I, too, get really tired of being told that I "will change my mind," "don't know what I'm missing," or "it will be different when you have your own." So I was really looking forward to a book where the main character, Claudia, had the same ideals.

UNFORTUNATELY, halfway through the book Claudia decides that she soo very loves her now ex-husband, that she will give up her hopes and dreams for her life and have a baby just to get him back. Now, there is a positive message for the chick lit audience!! I know that at the very end Claudia says she's still not sure what she's going to do and Ben says he wants her back no matter what, but the very fact that she was willing to do so was incredibly disappointing. And, seriously, is society a better place if women who don't want children have them just to keep their husbands? Are the children better off? I was really hoping for a book that made the choice not to have children seem less like the pariahs we are. This book did not do that. In fact, it fed into that whole societal belief that a woman is only complete if she has a child.

If the book hadn't been so well written and the characters so engaging, I would've stopped reading halfway through. Which, I think, says quite a lot about Ms. Giffin's skill as a writer. I didn't stop reading (in part because I hoped Claudia would come to her senses) because I did like the characters. I wanted to know what happened with Claudia's two sisters and with Jess (a whole other mess of bad messages for young woman - get pregnant so your married lover will leave his wife - although in the end that didn't work and Jess did find love).

So, this is a very mixed review. I'm looking forward to reading Something Borrowed & Something Blue because I enjoyed Ms. Giffin's writing. But, Baby Proof, as far as its overall "message" is awful.

I should have been rooting for Claudia, and at the beginning of the book I was. I felt outraged on her behalf. She'd made it clear that she never wanted children, and her husband Ben was sure he felt the same way. Then Ben suddenly changed his mind and decided that there should be children in their marriage. I agreed with Claudia when she said that Ben was breaking their deal. I hated that he was pressuring her so much when getting pregnant and having a baby was something she obviously didn't want.

Then I saw where the book was going, and I grew more and more disgusted. How could Claudia consider changing her strongest conviction just because she missed some guy? How could she not resent him for forcing her into motherhood when I resented him so much just reading about it?

I suppose most people want to read about their characters having a happy ending. However, I didn't consider it a happy ending when I thought about Claudia being willing to give up the core of herself to get back into a marriage in which her husband obviously didn't value her most important belief.

This book is well-written, there's no denying that. Emily Giffin has a talent with words, and even when I'm not in love with the plot, I have a hard time putting down her work.

Baby Proof is good but not great. The plot is fairly thin - Claudia does not want children, so when her husband suddenly decides that he does, they divorce and she tries to move on with her life. There are, of course, a number of women out there who have no desire for children, so this story certainly must resonate with many women because of that, but I didn't feel like issues were covered thoroughly enough.

It seems like Claudia's decision to file for divorce is almost a knee-jerk reaction to her husband's decision that he wants children. The two have no real discussions about the issue, only stating that they, respectively do and do not want them. Suddenly single, Claudia now tries to navigate the dating scene and her new life while trying to stop missing the man she left behind.

Despite Ms. Giffin's beautiful prose, this is fairly standard chick lit and not worth buying like her first two novels were. I was expecting a more enlightening child-free novel, but reading the tale makes it quite apparent that the author herself has children, since the arguments for not wanting kids are rather flimsy and Claudia wonder if she loves Ben enough to have his children.

It's worth checking this book out from the library for a read, but it's not great enough to buy, read, and reread time and time again.