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Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic (平装)
by Martha Beck
| Category:
Teens, Autobiography, Inspirational |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Wickedly funny and wrenchingly sad memoirs of a young mother awaiting the birth of a Down syndrome baby while simultaneously pursuing a doctorate at Harvard. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 12 items |
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Kirsten (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-27 00:00>
Because this was an account of something significant, namely one person's journey to finding greater meaning and purpose in life, I thought it was worth reading. Beck shares wisdom and insight that seem to exclusively accompany times of deeply personal, painful struggle - in her case, coming to terms with the diagnosis that her unborn baby had Down's Syndrome. She articulates some thought provoking concepts, such as the paradox of feeling thankful for the growth one derives from trials while at the same time fervently hoping never to encounter such pain again. One particular theme, that much of our energy is spent confusing happiness with "power, wealth, prestige, and influence," resonated with me. I wished Beck would have further shared the lessons she has learned watching Adam "damn the detours" and go straight for happiness itself.
If there was something that detracted from her story, it was Beck's tendency to dramatically stereotype certain elements of her experience. For example, I found it hard to believe the Harvard crowd could really be such monstrously uncaring bad guys. As a member of the LDS church, I am sure her depiction of Mormons as frighteningly self righteous (the duck story), unevolved (the invoking divine intervention to squeeze a fat woman through the door story) fanatics is way off base. This device of trivializing something as complex as a major university or religion seemed a suspiciously convenient and self serving means to telling her story. That Beck frequently stresses her extensive training in research makes these over-simplifications all the more incongruous.
Still, you have to respect that it would take courage to lay such a personal story out on the table. Perhaps the thing I most appreciated was the sense of "natsukashii" (read the book) this story brought me, while ultimately encouraging me that life's real beauty is deeply imbedded and only grows more radiant as you discover it.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-27 00:00>
I'm puzzled by this book still, several days after putting it down. Can it be true? Is it possible for someone to have the incredible good luck that Martha and John had during Martha's pregnancy? Or is the story the product of a mind half-crazy from dehydration, overwork, stress, and the knowledge that her baby will be born with Down syndrome? It's a credit to Beck's book that we're not quite sure!
Martha Beck is a very smart woman married to a very smart guy. They have swallowed the Harvard message that work comes first hook, line and sinker. Nevertheless, Martha and John manage to get into serious trouble through a sort-of-unplanned second pregnancy. Martha has an unspecified auto-immune disease which results in 9 long months of debilitating nausea. Her husband takes on an assignment which requires him to spend 2 weeks of every month in Asia while still trying to finish a thesis. She herself has a punishing schedule, also working on her PhD. They already have an 18 month old daughter to whom not a whole lot of attention is paid.
This would be enough to unhinge anyone, but then odd things begin to happen. Martha and John become convinced that they "know" their unborn son; Martha senses there's "something wrong," and when they discover the baby has Down syndrome, they make the improbable--at least for Harvard--decision to continue the pregnancy. At the same time some very good things happen--a generous friend takes Martha under her wing and probably prevents her from spending most of her pregnancy in the hospital, Martha miraculously gets her child into the toughest child care center around, and she somehow finds a way to communicate with John even when he's half a world away.
But some things happen that are hard to believe. Could she have been saved from the burning building by someone unknown? I'm not sure, and I had to wonder why an intelligent, pregnant woman would deliberately start down 10 flights of smoke-filled stairs with an 18 month old child in her arms. Could a life-threatening hemmorage mysteriously stop after Martha passes out form loss of blood? Not sure, and again I had to wonder why with her last ounce of strength Martha didn't call one of the faithful friends she had to bail her out. Can unexpected, wonderful things happen in life? Yes. Do people get saved from life-threatening situations they get into partly through their own fault, again and again? Not so sure.
If, however, you can suspend disbelief for awhile the book is very good in parts. I loved Martha's description of her son, and I wondered for the first time about the automatic assumption that every woman over a certain age will have amnio and abort if something is wrong. Surely Adam must have had problems, which Beck doesn't share with us, but the good times are truly lovely. I also thought her description of life at Harvard quite brutal but mostly accurate. I'm not sure that giving birth wouldn't have been a good excuse for late homework even back then, but Beck accurately portrays the way Harvard professors can completely terrify highly intelligent adults - I know from experience. And Beck makes a very convincing case that there's an alternate reality out there, even if you cen't believe everything she tells us.
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1 2 Total 2 pages 12 items |
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