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One Good Egg: An Illustrated Memoir (2013)

by Suzy Becker(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1608192768 (ISBN13: 9781608192762)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: I am a single, straight woman, who has never wanted to have a baby. But I bought this book because I'm a Suzy Becker fan, having read her book about brain surgery (an experience I do share). By page 10 I knew I was reading one of the best love stories ever told. One need not be a mom to enjoy and learn from this memoir. It's light in tone; it's funny; it's also honest and beautiful. And the illustrations will make you gasp and laugh out loud.
review 2: Suzy Becker wanted to have a baby...she was pretty sure. But as she reached her late 30's and is single, she isn't sure exactly how she's going to go about it. Just as she falls in love with her best (female) friend, she finds a willing donor, her old friend Steve...who's in Australia. With this unique set of... more circumstances, Becker chronicles her efforts to get pregnant, with many ups and downs. While much of the details here are medical and scientific, Becker is never esoteric. She breaks down what's happening and what she was feeling and her drawings add levity, from Ziggy the Zygote to a quite apt conversation with her donor, where there's an elephant in the room (drawn sitting at the table with them). She's hopeful yet practical, and to me the main event here is less her eventual pregnancy as her coming to terms with the fact that it might not happen; when she's faced with the phrase "achieving pregnancy" she counters with a handwritten note that "I am not an underachiever--it happens or it doesn't." These are the small outbursts of emotion that are woven into the fabric of this memoir that make it so touching. Clearly, Becker wants to be a mother, but there's an evenhanded approach here, even when she's reluctantly trying meditation. She also offers little tidbits of information about the conception process, both facts and conventional (and sometimes not so conventional) wisdom. Even though this is Becker's very personal story, her forthrightness about her fears and uncertainties and eventual success in having a baby are counter to all the dire scary warnings bandied about often in the media. She doesn't sugarcoat (see "A Bad Chapter"), but adds humor that is greatly enhanced by her drawings. less

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