| Amazon.com From the moment Churchwell and his wife watch their home pregnancy test turn positive， Expecting : One Man's Uncensored Memoir of Pregnancy launches a rollicking journey into expectant fatherhood. "Well， what do you think? Aren't you happy?" his wife asks when she sees the test results. Churchwell responds， "I'm thinking: 'Isn't that what Marie Curie said to her husband when she discovered radioactivity?'" Expecting combines the scientific and the personal into a dead-on funny and often provocative narrative. Once the reader is welcomed into the intimate circle， a miscarriage occurs， opening the door to all the typical doubts and fears of a mid-life crisis， compounded by the insecurities of novice parenthood. While his wife is suffering her final excruciating labor pushes at the "ring of fire，" Churchwell muses on the historical clash between doctors and midwives over the birth process， men's thoughts about sex， and the absence of ritual narratives for men--while livening things up with such descriptions as his wife's efforts at birth class "to build up her abdominals into a baby howitzer." As much as anything， Churchwell's story is one of change， of the bonding between parents. He asks the questions that count and then responds with his own theories about how men and women transform into parents and learn， from society and biology， the art of nurturing. --Byron Ricks From Publishers Weekly With this lively memoir， Churchwell presents two books in one (twins， if you like): a funny， honest account of a regular guy's response to his wife's first pregnancy and a serious investigation of this "weird juncture" in the history of the family， when some men are trying to find ways to participate more directly in child-rearing. A typical "expectant zombie-father，" Churchwell gestates into a man who asks challenging questions about why fathers are the "forgotten parent." He finds that "the typical American birthing experience for most of the 20th century is nothing to brag about" and that pregnancy， experienced as a crisis by so many men， can be "ground zero for many relationship problems." His inquiry into couvade (male "pregnancy") leads him to suggest that this crisis arises because men have "disappeared from the story of the family" and are not taken seriously as participants in a pregnancy. If they are not "invited early on into the process， is it any wonder that many men find it difficult to step into the sacred circle of parenting later on?" he asks. Myths and rituals that once helped us cope with what we could not control have been replaced by science， our "sole storyteller." One of this memoir's strengths is that Churchwell uses science to tell the story of "paternal response，" a psychological complement to the biological changes experienced by pregnant women that might enable both partners to "transcend the gender boundaries that confine pregnancy and parenting roles." Agent， Elaine Markson. 5-city author tour; 25-city radio tour. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews |
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