Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Birth House


For months I have looked forward to reading The Birth House by Ami McKay. The blurbs on the dust jacket made the story sound so delightful and warm. I was looking for a book that celebrated love, marriage, family, and childbirth, friendships among women, and enjoyment of domestic life and the role of wife and mother. Instead I read a tale that wallowed in the nasty side of life - most of the male characters were cruel, selfish, and violent. The women were conniving, miserable, and angry. The children were beaten and abused. The "birth house" of the title and the midwives did deliver a few babies, but more often they helped the wives of the area abort their babies.

The main theme of this book is that women, down-trodden and ill-used for centuries, finally turned their destinies around and fought the established order in the early part of the twentieth century, thus securing better lives for all women. (But those "better lives" look pretty tawdry and thin.)

Lovely book cover - sordid content. I do not recommend it and am sorry I put it on my reading list for this year.

Labels: ,

5 Comments:

Blogger Donna Boucher said...

That is a shame.

You slept with books all over the bed???

How unusual...and bumpy.

9:47 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

Yes, because I read before going to sleep, and if I woke in the night I'd read more. And I would have many books going at once. Kinda creepy, isn't it? Good thing Steve married me and helped to rub away some of my idiosyncrasies!

9:59 AM  
Blogger Tracy Batchelder said...

I'm reading a book right now that's not really what I expected from the cover. Probably my fault that I read into the blurb a positive quality, because it doesn't really say one way or the other. I'm waiting for the story to redeem itself in the end...maybe a happy ending?...but I doubt it will.

7:33 AM  
Blogger Framed said...

I agree, the cover doesn't give a hint to anything so dark and sordid. I'm glad I read your review before I was tempted by its appearance.

11:11 PM  
Blogger Carrie said...

OH wow! Yours is the second review I've read of this book. The first made me put it on my TBR list. Yours made me take it off! I'm very glad for the insight and a glance behind the cover. Thanks! I would have been mad were I to have spent time on it.

12:32 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home