Customer Reviews: Read 536 more reviews...
 Yawn and yawn again! October 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The first Bohjalian book I read was "Double Bind" and both my husband and other family members thoroughly enjoyed it. It held our interest from page one and maintained a keen level of suspense with a truly WOW ending. So when I was lent "Midwives" I thought it might be an interesting story and probably a quick read considering its size. WRONG! This book reminded me of all those women who must tell you every detail of their deliveries whether you care to know or not. I had no trouble envisioning all those weepy-eyed souls who groove on this smaltz. Don't waste your time on this book but DO make the effort to read "Double Bind" which is Chris Bohjalian's redeeming novel.
 gripping September 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Once you get past the first 65 pages with i found boring as hell, too descriptive, and seems to get of track by describing every miniscule thing, i didnt know if i could go on any longer, but at page 66 it all changes and gets good from then on i couldnt put it down.
 Entrancing! May 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Surprised by how much I enjoyed this book...couldn't put it down. Very suspenseful, enlightening, thought-provoking...VERY well-written.
Classic May 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It gives great insight into what can happen to an average person with the POWERS that be! No more should be said before it is read.
EXQUISITELY WRITTEN...A NOVEL TO REMEMBER... March 31, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This beautifully crafted novel is set in 1981 when a midwife, leading an otherwise uncomplicated and simple life with her husband and daughter in rural Vermont, is thrust into a legal, moral, political, and ethical nightmare. It evolves around a split second decision made in a life and death situation and the aftermath of that decision.
An experienced and respected midwife, Sibyl Danforth, attends a woman during a home birth. When she realizes that dangerous complications have set in, she tries to call for help in vain, as a severe ice storm has knocked out the phone lines. An attempt to drive the expectant mother to a hospital only results in the car being wedged into an icy snow bank, as travel conditions were impossible.
Trapped in this isolated home with a physically fragile, expectant mother in the throes of a labor that will not bear fruit, Sybil struggles to do the best that she can. Unfortunately, her best is just not good enough, given the complications that had set in, and the expectant mother appears to succumb to the ravages of a laborious childbirth.
Under the belief that the expectant mother had died, Sibyl performs an emergency caesarean section in an effort to save the unborn child. She successfully does so, presenting the stricken husband with an infant son. Yet, the next day, her assistant, Anne, who had been present throughout the ordeal, denounces Sibyl to the authorities, claiming that the expectant mother had, in fact, been alive, when Sibyl had commenced the caesarean. Consequently, Sibyl is charged with manslaughter, and the political winds blown by the traditional medical establishment, as well as that of the legal system, threaten to tear asunder all that she holds dear.
The story of this event, its aftermath, and the impact it had on many lives, is told through the eyes of Sibyl's daughter who had been a young teenager at the time of the incident, and through the pages of Sibyl's journal. The book takes the reader through a number of moral dilemmas for Sibyl, as well as for her daughter who is forced to come of age during this time of trial and tribulation for her family. Absorbing and often surprising, this sensitively wrought novel is a well nuanced literary gem from a gifted writer.
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