Peter Ho Davies is a writer I admire, but I did not like this book. As well written as it was, I found something lacking. This is a personal auto-fiction novel, which I am sure parents will relate to, about fatherhood and abortion, and you will enjoy it much more if parenthood is part of your world. I felt unattached, and although he makes good points on shame, grief and a way to look at the world, it did not draw me in the way a reader hopes.
There is the theme of chance running throughout, and the the 'Schrodinger's Cat' theory: there is a cat in a box. It could be alive, or it could have died - you won't know until you open it. Until then the cat is both alive and dead. Which do you choose it to be, and do you open the box to find out?
The couple expect a baby, but the tests are not positive. Some cells are damaged, or it could be ok. It could live, or it could not. The parents choose to be safe and end the pregnancy - a virtuous abortion. Later, after they try again and have a healthy baby boy, the man volunteers at an abortion clinic, helping women pass the protesters and 'prayer warriors' into the building. He wants to share the man's side of the event. Some women are there for abortions, some for birth control, some for parenting advice, he doesn't know. While helpful, he ultimately decides to stop.
We follow their boy up through middle school, as they experience many firsts. The baby sleeps, the baby makes eye contact. He enters school and they have him tested - he could be autistic, or he could be fine. The results show exactly that - he is twice exceptional (2e). Gifted, but also challenged. Which will it end up being?
There are lists throughout: a history of their birth control, things that wake the baby, parents secrets, places to have a child's party.
They move through the age of cheerios and toys all over the house, the age of crooked vases and art on the fridge, the age of board games, the age of Dr. Who and Star Trek.
That the mother, the father and the boy are only referred to as such did not create a connection for me to enter their lives. The events are told mostly from the outside. As personal and private the decision to have or raise a child is, society feels the right to judge how and what you do it. You may do well, or you may fail, we will find out.
I recommend this to parents, especially fathers, it might touch on a lot of issues.
For me, it was a non-event.
An interesting aside: I bought a new copy of this online, and began reading it the day it arrived. Halfway through pages 122 - 127 had been physically ripped out of my paperback! It was at the point where the father was meeting the anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic. Who would take such offence as to tear pages out of a new book? I ended up reading the missing pages from a library copy, but the whole thing was very odd.
2021 / Tradeback / 243 pages
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