Starred review from February 22, 2016
Early one wintry morning, Lore, an elementary school speech therapist who is nine-months pregnant, enters a
New York City hospital alone. Her contractions have started, and though she isn't terribly far along, her assigned nurse, Franckline, quickly sets her up in the maternity ward, where the duo ride out the long process of Lore's labor together.
As the hours pass, the women sit in Lore's room and walk the hospital halls, and snippets of their histories come to lightâincluding Franckline's time as a midwife's helper in
her native Haiti and Lore's difficult childhood, as well as
the complicated love triangle that resulted in her solo trip
to the hospital. In addition, it isn't long before Franckline's own early pregnancy is revealed. After several miscarriages, however, Franckline is afraid to tell her husband of her condition until she is certain her baby will survive. Written with incredible clarity, this third novel from Erens (The Virgins) is a wonder, shifting between two protagonists with ease to tell a deeply personal narrative of childbirth, complete with tension, horror, and deep, mature emotion. This novel does not sentimentalize the delivery of a child but rather examines the surpriseâmental and physicalâthat accompanies it. Labor stories are as old as time, but Erens's novel feels incredibly fresh and vivid. An outstanding accomplishment.
Starred review from September 1, 2016
In a Manhattan hospital, two women are each pregnant--one obviously, the other not yet visibly. Lore arrives with no partner, no friends, and no support, but she is armed with a several-page birth plan with which she expects to control the impossible. The main nurse who attends her is Franckline, an immigrant from one "of the French-speaking islands, Haiti, maybe, or Guadeloupe," who is also pregnant, although still unable to feel secure about the not-yet-baby within. While Lore labors, Franckline will work hard to calm, soothe, coach, and care for her, even as she worries about her own impending motherhood. As they wait and work, both women find themselves remembering, regretting, and reconsidering the respective pasts that brought them each to this point--pregnant, nervous, uncertain. Beautiful and brutal, Erens's (The Virgins) third novel is a revelatory meditation on relationships--between adults, lovers, friends, parents, and children of all ages. Veteran narrator Cassandra Campbell employs her usual arsenal of accents and intonations to enhance Erens's impeccable prose with both urgency and grace. VERDICT A quick, intense, and viscerally electrifying story that leaves behind vestiges of fear, panic, and hope; libraries should order immediately.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.