Wanting a Child by Bialosky, Jill (editor) ; Schulman, Helen (editor) - 1998

New York U. S. A.: Farrar Straus & Giroux. As New with no dust jacket 1998. First Edition. Hardcover. Marfree, acidfree Fine 1stEd perf-bound in 1/4 cream cloth, unclipped DJ; no names, not marked-in, underscored, clearance or discard. Mails from NYC usually within 12 hours. ; 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches; 274 pages; Online 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. .