by Merryl Polak ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2012
An in-depth look at the nuances of infertility, helpful for couples facing similar circumstances.
Polak’s memoir details the trials and disappointment of being unable to conceive when Murphy, of Murphy’s Law, lives on your street.
Everything that can go wrong seems to go wrong for Emma and William in their attempts to have a child. Emma, a schoolteacher, endures rounds of in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination with no success. When she does miraculously get pregnant without medical intervention, Emma loses the baby just shy of 12 weeks and has to have a post-miscarriage D&C procedure, which is emotionally and physically devastating. Emma continues with fertility drugs, artificial insemination, IVF and even acupuncture, at a cost of thousands of dollars. During one round of IVF, Emma’s life is put at risk when the implantation of fertilized eggs results in a buildup of fluid in the abdomen. After another round of IVF doesn’t result in a pregnancy, Emma and William begin to consider using a donor’s eggs. As each attempt ends in failure, Emma and William confide less in their friends and family, hoping to keep the brunt of the disappointment to themselves. Unexpectedly, they get a call from an adoption agency—they have been chosen by a young couple having a baby girl. Cautiously optimistic, Emma and William exchange emails with the birth parents and prepare their home for the baby’s arrival. But Murphy’s Law strikes again, resulting in heartbreak for the couple. Polak goes into great detail describing every aspect of the medical procedures Emma endured, including the shots given, blood samples taken and drugs prescribed. The writing is self-conscious at times, especially when Polak draws attention to what she calls “unimportant” details or when she unnecessarily explains pop-culture references, like Seinfeld’s “close talker,” for instance. Nonetheless, this memoir serves as a source of information for similarly inflicted couples, providing a stark depiction of the emotional reality a woman faces when faced with the prospect of never having children. For Emma and William, eventually, the “why me” outlook subsides. After trying a third doctor, Emma says: “Suddenly, putting my life in danger did not seem to be an issue. My life was in danger as it was, because I was living without hope.”
An in-depth look at the nuances of infertility, helpful for couples facing similar circumstances.Pub Date: July 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615555638
Page Count: 226
Publisher: Merryl Polak
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Susan Count ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Katie Keridan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 2, 2018
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
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Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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