A very lovely piece of work, like a musical comedy on the art of ART.
From poet Ryan (Secret Life, 1995, etc.), a classy, nimble, week-by-week chronicle of getting pregnant the hard way—and then delivering the baby the hard way.
Ryan’s wife, Doreen, had a high level of follicle-stimulating hormone, which prevented her from getting pregnant, a condition they both dearly desired. Without irony, but with humor, Ryan reports on the measures they went through to get pregnant via Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): intra-uterine insemination (nine times), in vitro fertilization, Gonal-F injections. They settle on intracytoplasmic sperm injection, with the wonderful Dr. Werling: “He is definitely A Personality. The first time he called us, I picked up the phone and a loud voce said, ‘Hey, Mike. This is the Whirl.’ ‘Who?’ I asked (I thought it was a cranked-up telemarketer).” He guides them through the initial phase, getting a fertilized egg attached to Doreen's uterine wall, and makes sure there is a chorus of nurses to yodel “You're pregnant, Doreen!” when the first tests come in. Everything is very dicey as Ryan tells it: first there is one fetus, then three, then four, and though Ryan and Doreen are bricks, they worry about quadruplets. (Ryan light-handedly provides a lot of medical information, while reminding readers that “it's spectacular how much is not known.”) Three of the fetuses die, but Baby B holds fast. Enter Dr. Porto, who “could pass more easily for an Allman Brother than a professor of medicine.” He takes them onward to the delivery of Emily—truly, you will want to cheer—while Ryan gets a dose of humility that neatly bevels his wry-observer status. There are no small potatoes here: “We are the lucky people,” Ryan will say, encapsulating his dreams as he steps down off the tightrope.
A very lovely piece of work, like a musical comedy on the art of ART.Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-55597-398-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Graywolf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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