The Book: Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, by Ayelet Waldman

The Story: Emilia lives in an amazing apartment with her amazing lawyer husband who was a married man when they met and fell in love.  He chose her and they are pretty much living the dream.  With just a couple of exceptions.  Emilia doesn’t like her husband’s son from his first marriage, William.  He’s five years old and too smart for his own good.

Emilia really loses it when William starts asking tough questions about the infant daughter that recently died from SIDS.  While the book flap makes it seem like it’s this funny little book about being a better stepmother, most of the book revolves around Emilia dealing with her grief over this baby.

What I Thought: As you may have gathered from the pile of pregnancy books I’ve reviewed recently, I’m pregnant.  If I had known that this book was about baby death, I maybe would have shelved it for a different time.  It literally made my stomach turn.

I thought that the plot, while heartwarming, was fairly predictable.  It was like a chic flick written down.  This is not to say that it’s chic lit. I think that it was better written and explored deeper issues than chic lit, but as far as plot progression and knowing right out of the gate how this was going to turn out…. chic flick all the way.

I usually get into books by trying to relate to the characters, and I think that this is what kept me from enjoying this book very much. I didn’t want to relate to her. I didn’t want to think about how horrible it’d be to give birth and then, two days later, wake up to a dead baby. I cannot even think about it.  I purposely  distanced myself from the narrator, and I think that that really effected my enjoyment of the story.

Conclusion: Probably a pretty good book. Not for pregnant mothers or people who have dealt with miscarriage or loss. It is gut wrenching.