Monday, September 12, 2005

Book Recommendation

If you have not already read Into the Forest, by Jean Hegland, I cannot urge you enough to do so. Because I find one's enjoyment of the arts is usually inversely related to one's expectations, I hesitate to give more than a tepid recommendation. Yet I so enjoyed it -- and it is so in line with themes of this blog (not to mention this writer's life) -- I have to tell you that if you can't find it at your local library (indeed the only copy in town was buried deep in the stacks of the university library), you can order it used through Amazon for a mere $2.80.

What is it about? I'll leave that to you, wise reader, to determine. Let's just say it's a bit of The Red Tent meets The Boxcar Children (less Henry, Benny and most of humankind) crossed with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, all coated with a helping of the Bible's Revelations.

Let me just say it is a reminder that if prostitution is the world's oldest profession, midwifery must be the second oldest. And if society collapses in the future (a thought to which doulicia devotes a not-necessarily-healthy amount of speculation), people will still need (i.e. will give you eggs and firewood in return for) the services of someone who can help them through a home birth. A career beckons...

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

By David Wallace-Wells
The latest chatter in cyberspace. 9/11/05 By David Wallace-Wells Posted Monday, Sept.
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9:14 PM  
Blogger Milliner's Dream, a woman of many "hats"... said...

OH, NO! Another book I must read before the 21st of Sept. when school begins?!

Sounds amazing. I loved the Red Tent. I read it twice in a row, I am almost embarrassed to say.

Hh

10:44 AM  
Blogger Julie said...

Can I borrow your copy?

1:23 PM  
Blogger Milliner's Dream, a woman of many "hats"... said...

I ordered the book and it's on the way...I hope I can finish it right after I finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and before I begin school on the 21st...and I have to finish the 18 chapters of my school text before then, too. Hmmmm...Can she do it?

Hh :)

9:39 AM  
Blogger doulicia said...

Yes she can!

10:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I loved The Red Tent too. In fact it sits on my shelf of all-time favorite books.

I didn't like Into the Forest so much, I think because it was really just too dark and gritty and sad for me. I did very much like her book The Life Within, it was really the only birth-related book I looked at my last pregnancy (having exhaustively read everything else my other three times.)

1:23 PM  
Blogger doulicia said...

Linda, it's good to know The Life Within is good. I always worry that someone whose book I've read and loved has only one good book in them. I'll check it out.

I'd be curious to hear what Hannah and Julie think of the book (if they read it). Yes, it was gritty, and parts of it were sad, but I found it very affirming and positive in the end.

8:38 PM  

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