Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on their Difficult But Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age [Hardcover]

Jill Bialosky (Editor), Helen Schulman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

The first book of its kind, "Wanting a Child" is a collection of personal essays written by literary authors about their difficult, sometimes heartbreaking but ultimately mostly successful quests for parenthood.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This unique anthology features stories about an appetite as raw as any for sex or chocolate. It's about the sharp biological and emotional hunger for children: "A craving," writes contributor Rita Gabis, "hammered out of the bones of things, of winter, frozen groundwater, the sudden naked appearance of spring." In essays and short stories commissioned and republished from magazines such as Harper's and The New Yorker, authors including Kevin Canty and Lisa Shea write eloquently of the quest for children, of its derailments and its delights. Surprisingly often they tell of the pain endured in the search for a child of one's own. Lynn Lauber offers a heartbreaking piece on giving a daughter up for adoption at age 16, and finding her again as an adult. Bob Shacochis describes a grueling trip through the world of fertility treatments. "Between I'm not dead and I'm alive, the lesson to learn is fearless love," writes Jenifer Levin. "It isn't easy."

If there is one weakness in this collection, it is that it tells almost exclusively the stories of middle-class, middle-aged America--stories of remarkable privilege in which getting a child can involve months away from work, international travel, and expensive medical consultation. Nevertheless, Wanting a Child offers some dazzling writing and an often remarkable, openhearted honesty about parenthood that make it well worth reading. "Never have I felt such triumphs and inadequacies, such pleasure or such sorrow," writes Shea of her leap into single motherhood. "...And never have I relished so thoroughly the existence of another person in my life." --Maria Dolan

From Publishers Weekly

This hauntingly written and heartfelt collection assembled by Bialosky (The End of Desire) and Schulman (The Revisionist), who are also contributors, details the experiences of men and women who have wanted to have children but, for various reasons, found the road to parenthood paved with difficulties. Several of the essays deal with responses to infertility and miscarriage, such as Agnes Rossi's "In Vitro." Phillip Lopate's haunting "The Lake of Suffering" describes how he and his wife coped with the serious illness of their newborn daughter, and in "The Boys," Sophie Cabot Black discusses the method she and her female partner used to decide on the right male donor for their child. In one of the several selections on adoption, Tama Janowitz remembers the highs and lows of traveling to China with her husband to bring home their daughter. The short stories, including Marly Swick's fictional account of a surrogate mother ("The Summer Before the Summer of Love"), strengthen this unusual anthology.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 274 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T); 1st edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374286345
• ISBN-13: 978-0374286347
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,949,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't read this if you're pregnant!!, July 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on their Difficult But Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age (Hardcover)

I am 4 months pregnant and got this book as a gift. I'm not sure if the person who bought it for me realized what it was about. As an expectant mom reading stories of the troubles people had conceiving and carrying children, it made me depressed and anxious - what if my child has Down's syndrome, what if it's stillborn, etc. So, if you have had trouble conceiving, by all means, this book is great support. I believe people need to "bond" with others who share similar trials and tribulations. But if you are not, and are easily spooked, I'd suggest picking up something more light-hearted and happy.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational., January 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on their Difficult But Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age (Hardcover)

I found this to be an excellent book. My husband and I are coping with secondary infertility. The real-life trials and tribulations of the people in this book gave me some new found hope to continue my journey. The writers of each of the individual cases did an excellent job of depicting their quest for parenthood.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We're not alone!, January 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wanting a Child: Twenty-Two Writers on their Difficult But Mostly Successful Quests for Parenthood in a High-Tech Age (Hardcover)

So often during the seven+ months that my husband and I have been actively trying to have a baby, we have felt very alone. Like the rest of the world has not a trouble in the world getting pregnant, and we're the oddballs who can't manage it with him looking at me cross-eyed.

But this book was so wonderful, if only because it reminded us that we are NOT alone. There are MANY people in the world who are in our situation, or in more dire situations than ours. Sometimes it helps just knowing that we're not the only ones.