Midwives (Oprah’s Book Club)
February 25, 2008
In the pastoral community of Reddington, Vermont, during the harsh winter of 1981, Sibyl Danforth makes a life-or-death decision based on fifteen years of experience as a respected midwife — a decision intended to save a child, a decision that will change her life forever.
Customer Review: Contemptuous and one-sided
Apparently writing about a subject such as birth from the point of view of a fourteen year old girl is too much of a stretch for this male author. It seems like he started from the point of view that home birth is an incredibly stupid idea, tried to play devils advocate, and failed to create an even remotely sympathetic cast of characters.
He portrays women who decide to have home births as uneducated, hippie, misinformed women instead of the truth that many educated and compassionate women choose to have home births. His statistics and information are inaccurate (for example, that only lay midwives perform home births today, which simply isn’t true in many states).
His unimaginative writing style is also lacking. He doesn’t trust his reader to remember an event that happened twenty pages prior, like restating the fact that the trial was difficult for the family, which is obvious. All in all, disappointing and irritating.
Customer Review: hmmmm
Just unbelievable!
I don’t think the main character would do this. The characters are interesting but very conventional in their description. Dunno. Not so hot all round Buy from here…
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