Review: What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen
Reviewed by Vera (Luxury Reading)
When Alice Cohen tried to conceive with her then husband, doctor after doctor told her that she was infertile. The couple adopted a child and Alice embarked on a regimen of estrogen supplements. At age 44, Alice was engaged to an amazing man, happily raising her daughter and enjoying her career as a writer and theater artist.
Out of nowhere, Alice began experiencing a strange array of symptoms that her doctors could not explain. One told her that her bloated abdomen was due to a middle-age loss of muscle, another suggested she was menopausal. Six months later when she was desperate for any diagnosis including cancer, Alice found out that she was actually pregnant.
What I Thought I Knew is Alice Cohen’s brutally honest, no holds barred account of her experience with an unexpected high-risk pregnancy. Alice represented a huge liability for any obstetrician and her first obstacle was finding one that would accept her as a patient. In a span of a few weeks, she went through considering a late-term abortion, and then adoption before finally coming to terms with her pregnancy and the potential birth defects her child would have.
A slim book that can (and was) finished in one sitting, What I Thought I Knew had me alternating between laughter and horror at the graphic descriptions of Alice’s labor. Keep in mind, I’ve never gone through labor myself! I loved the feeling of intimacy that Alice created for me as a reader and the fact that she spared no details, even if those details cast her in a less than flattering light.
Review copy was provided free of any obligation by BookSparks PR. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Memoirs, Nonfiction
I really want to read this book. One of my mother’s neighbors were unable to have a baby so they adopted and then she promptly was pregnant. A much happier story than this one. This experience must have been so horrible to live through much less than to write about. I hope that she is still cancer free.
Carol Wong
Carol Wong
Wow … Talk about a ‘surprise’! I can’t imagine being in her place. When people (I hesistate to use “authors”, because *people* is just a better fit here) are brave enough to share such intensely personal stories … It amazes me. Astounds me. Renews my faith in the human spirit. And challenges me – I have a story too. We all have stories. What’s stopping me from sharing mine? This sounds like one of those good-challenges
And also is rather intriguing – several of my friends have had high-risk pregnancies recently, and the semi-scientific part of my brain would like to know more 
I…want…this….book…so…bad! It sounds just so poignant and I love that she seems to find humor in an otherwise humorless experience. Even if your pregnancy is textbook perfect there is worry and stress involved. My son was born premature at 32 weeks and the week before he was born I went in for my normal doctor’s visit and was told…”Oh no, your bag of waters is showing!” I was told I had an incompetent cervix (nice name, huh?) and that I was going to have to lay up in the hospital, being pumped full of stuff to help strengthen my babies lungs, etc, until the baby was ready to be born. That was the most horrific and emotional experience I have ever been through, and I cannot imagine being able to write it all down to share with the world. It took me a long enough time to talk about some of the emotional outcome of that with even my family. My son is happy and completely healthy now (thank God) but the experience will never be forgotten. I cannot wait to see how this author shares her experience!
That must have been such a scary experience for you. So glad that he is healthy now.
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I just bookmarked this book, looks like a good read. My list from you is huge now, not sure when I will get through them all. Thanks for the great looking reads!
Megan
http://1funkywoman.blogspot.com
Oh this book sounds really good! Thanks for the great review. Sounds like a good one for the Read-a-thon!
wall-to-wall books-wendy recently posted..First post since the blog divorce!