A Little Pregnant: Our Memoir of Fertility, Infertility, and a Marriage

by Linda Carbone and Ed Decker

Book Overview

A Little Pregnant is a poignant and refreshingly honest account of a husband and wife struggling over the course of a decade to have a child. Linda Carbone and Ed Decker offer a moving appraisal of their wrenching, confusing, frustrating, and sometimes comic ordeal. She feels ambivalent about having children; he has an urgent need to have them, at all costs. In alternating chapters, husband and wife present their own powerful versions of their descent...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802137458
• ISBN13: 9780802137456
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A helpful step by step depiction of the emotional struggle

This is a touching book of the journey of one couple through the maze of infertility treatment until their dream is finally realized. The value of this book is the poignant honesty with which their tale is told. The chapters are alternately written by Linda and then by Ed. I use their first names because by the end of the book, I felt as if I should be on a first name basis with each of them - their sharing is so personal. This is the first infertility book I have read that has a candid description of the husband's journey as well as the wife. These two are very good writers and very open with the reader. Linda even goes into her sexual fantasies about her physician. And there is a very funny description of Ed's relationship with a bottle of artichoke hearts. The book describes clearly the stresses on a marriage brought about by the time and difficulty of infertility treatment. Any couple involved in the arduous process of infertility treatment will find some of their experience reflected in the process described by Linda and Ed. And thus feel some comfort. I recommend this book to the clients whom I coach.

This is an honest depiction of a marriage & infertility

A Little Pregnant is an honest depiction of one couples struggle to get pregnant. The many steps, the little successes and the many set backs that this couple go through provide a direct insight into what has become an all too common experience for many. What makes this book unique is that it looks at the struggle from both the perspective of the husband and the wife. It vividly describes the stress the process put on their marriage, how they dealt with this stress and ultimatly how they prevailed. We would highly recommend this book to anyone going through the infertility battle or anyone interested in the inner workings of a real marriage and partnership. It provides real hope for those wanting children as well as those working through the changes in any relationship. Read it.

A vivid, frank, appealing story of a modern relationship

This husband and wife open their souls to tell a fascinating, at times funny, at times utterly tense story of their quest for a child. The book is bold in its emotion and full of memorable images of two people struggling to maintain their individual integrity and their deep affection for each other while being torn apart by forces within and beyond their control, such as their level of desire for a child and the medical system in this country. Falkneresque in its narrative style, the book challenged me to pay close attention--the authors demand to be seen as individuals. The book reminded me of An Unquiet Mind, by Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., in which she offers readers, in brutally blunt but often amusing detail, the story of her own life with manic-depressive illness to educate others about a universal story.

A poignant, absorbing, and compelling memoir.

This memoir is not just a valuable account of one couple's struggles to become fertile parents, but an unflinching and honest account of a marriage and relationship. The varying perspectives of wife and husband, told in alternating chapters, provide a compelling flow to the story. From the opening page I was hooked and could not put the book down, marveling at the absorbing writing, and the poignant, wrenching, and sometimes even humorous narrative of their experiences. Beautifully written; highly recommended.

An absorbing, beautifully written love story

This book is spectacular. I was bowled over by the execution and moved by the content. It reads like a beautifully written novel, with perfect rhythm and pacing. The structure appears effortless yet it's incredibly complex, as the authors weave threads of time back and forth and shift perspectives from one to another. Beyond the sheer artfulness of the writing, perhaps what is most impressive is the gutsiness of this book. The authors took a huge gamble and it paid off. The more open and courageous they were in telling this very harrowing saga, the more I found myself thinking, "God, these are two people I'd like to know. They are sensitive, smart, fascinating, and brave." I hope reviewers realize that what this book is, more than anything else really, is a not so simple love story. You don't have to be suffering from infertility to find it utterly compelling to read.