Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Book Review: Babyland

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Babyland

Author: Holly Chamberlin

Author's web page: http://www.hollychamberlin.com/

Publisher: Kensington

Date: 2005


Length: 385 pages

Quote: “Life, as you know, is deliciously uncertain.”

Anna Traulsen is 38 years old, has never been married, has apparently never tried abstinence, and is engaged to the perfect yuppie demographic match for her when, despite having been “on the pill for years,” she tests positive for pregnancy.

The next 380 pages consist of mostly gynecological humor, as Anna realizes how unfit for fatherhood her fiance would be, finds another fiance, and also discards one of her friends. It's not what could be called an erotic novel, although Anna's not about to start practicing abstinence. It is bluntly, in-your-face, about all the steps people take when they make babies, from flirting to shopping to disgusting medical procedures. There's a stage in a girl's adolescence when reading this novel might be a wholesome part of her education, but before recommending Babyland I'd recommend that adults know the book and their daughters very well.

Is it funny? Well...I didn't laugh. If, however, you don't merely think but feel that if novelists show young women sleeping around like young men they might as well show what happens when members of these demographics sleep together, then Babyland might offer you some of the comic wisdom you've been missing for so long. 

Although, at the moment of writing, I'm using a computer that will open her web page, I'm not able to use the "Contact" page. It doesn't display an e-mail address; it tries to drag you into its own e-mail system. So it's not possible to notify Holly Chamberlin that Babyland is available here as a Fair Trade Book. When you send $5 per copy + $5 per package to either of the addresses in the box at the very bottom of the screen, we'll send Chamberlin or a charity of her choice $1. (Yes, you could send $15 for two books, and Chamberlin or her charity would get $2.)

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