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johnnymacaroni's review against another edition
5.0
It's hard to love such a sad story but Elizabeth's writing is so inviting...I felt like I was listening to an old friend's story...an important story. It's a difficult but rewarding read.
allthingscozy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
tracyk22's review against another edition
5.0
This is the story of Elizabeth McCracken and how she survived the stillbirth of her son. It is her story alone. Yet it is the story of every woman who has experienced this tragedy. Ms. McCracken has given a voice on a subject that has long been much too silent. I wish I had written this book. But I am better for having read it. I related to her attitude on grief and death, which is you don't want to wallow in it, but you don't want to shut it up in a closet either. It's just there. Sometimes people don't understand the loss of a child who never breathed on their own. This book will explain it. She writes, "He was a person. I missed him like a person."
lavoiture's review against another edition
5.0
Heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking, but beautiful and funny and sad. Highly recommended, but you will be weeping in public. And probably not a to-read if you're pregnant or trying to get pregnant or have recently had a child, given the subject matter. But maybe you're stronger than me!
Recommended to me by one of my favorite websites, The Hairpin.
Recommended to me by one of my favorite websites, The Hairpin.
smudpu's review against another edition
5.0
This was a beautifully written memoir about a horrible horrible loss.
lizaroo71's review against another edition
4.0
mccracken writes about the loss of her first child in the ninth month of his development. her candidness and heartbreaking honesty makes this book one that gives me the peace in knowing someone gets the magnitude of the grief from this type of loss. although i didn't lose babies in the ninth month, what she describes in the aftermath of such a loss sounds familiar. i will definitely recommend this book to anyone i know that has lost a child or miscarried a baby.
whichthreewords's review against another edition
5.0
"Perhaps it goes without saying that I believe in the geographic cure. Of course you can't out-travel sadness. You will find it has smuggled itself along in your suitcase. It coats the camera lens, it flavors the local cuisine. In that different sunlight, it stands out, awkward, yours, honking in the brash vowels of your native tongue in otherwise quiet restaurants. You may even feel proud of its stubbornness as it follows you up the bell towers and monuments, as it pants in your ear while you take in the view. I travel not to get away from my troubles but to see how they look in front of famous buildings or on deserted beaches. I take them for walks. Sometimes I get them drunk. Back at home we generally understand each other better."
My one regret about this excellent memoir of the author's stillborn son is the last chapter. Of course I'm very glad her second child did survive, but this is known throughout the entirety of the book and that last bit (I wonder if it was her choice or insisted upon by her publisher?) feels a bit pat.
My one regret about this excellent memoir of the author's stillborn son is the last chapter. Of course I'm very glad her second child did survive, but this is known throughout the entirety of the book and that last bit (I wonder if it was her choice or insisted upon by her publisher?) feels a bit pat.
macrosinthemitten's review against another edition
4.0
"This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending," writes author Elizabeth McCracken in her beautiful and moving memoir. Telling the story of meeting her husband and falling in love, long after she thought she would ever get married, McCracken takes the reader on a journey through that relationship, and then, while living in a remote village in France, finding out she's pregnant. As she and her husband prepare for their new baby, McCracken is writing a novel, and waiting excitedly for her son. When, in the ninth month of her pregnancy, she discovers her baby has died and she is now forced to deliver him. Through this powerful memoir, you learn about the unbearable heartbreak of losing a child, the ability to move forward in spite of horrific loss, and the desperate hope of having another child. I loved this book. As a woman, I could relate to certain elements and as a non-mother, there were other things I couldn't. I really appreciated the moving way she explains the grief and tragedy of losing a baby. A short but moving read.