17 October 2014

Review #15: Dear Thing by Julie Cohen




My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cheryl Rae Tiegs, an American model, actress, designer, author, and entrepreneur, has once said,
"But when I would see the surrogate, my first instinct, my first reaction would be jealousy, because she was doing what I wanted to do."

Dear Thing by Julie Cohen, is a tale about a mother who no longer wants to be a mother and another mother who is desperately trying to be a 'mother' for the first time. Their paths cross when one becomes the surrogate of the other, owing to the fact that, they both loved the same man.

An enticing tale about love, trust, motherhood, and the very less discussed topics of these times- surrogacy! When couples, who are trying to be parents for the first time, fail in IVF methods and they don't want to go through all those hectic and long procedures of adoption, then they opt the surrogacy option, i.e. taking the help of another women's womb to reproduce your own flesh and blood and with the help of artificial insemination, the sperms and eggs of the wanna-be parents couples, are planted on that other woman's womb.

Julie Cohen, the author, has given us a thorough insight into the world of surrogate mothers, and how they try to not to get attached with the baby and in order of not getting way too attached with the baby, they sometimes start addressing the baby as 'Thing' and how strongly they balance their own emotions with that of the baby's parents.



Synopsis:
Romily, a biologist doctorate, who offered to be a surrogate mother to her long time university best-friend, Ben and his wife Claire. Romily's seven year old daughter, Poise, is a bright and very intelligent girl, who loved weaving tales about her imaginary worlds and knew each and every secrets of the grown-up worlds. And Poise love Ben and Claire like her own parents.

Claire, a primary-school, music teacher, has been trying to become a mother for a very long time. But due to her faulty eggs, even IVF is also not working on her body, thereby making her more and more miserable and lonely. Claire had been married to her one true love, Ben, and they were the epitome of a perfect loving couple, but unfortunately, they failed to become parents.

Romily was in love with Ben for eleven long years and she never breathed an air about it to any soul. When Ben and Claire, failed to become pregnant, she offered to become their baby's surrogate mother, thereby opening her floodgates of feelings about Ben and the baby that she conceived. Claire, on the other hand, has devoted her almost whole life to become a mother and when she sees Romily becoming the surrogate, her emotions are haunted by jealously and loneliness. Natural, all through these 9 months, Romily and Claire, couldn't stand each other, whereas, as suggested by Claire, Romily stared to write letters to the baby, a.k.a, 'The Thing'. Things get complicated and Claire and Ben's marriage gets threatened when Claire gets holds of Romily's letters and gets aware of her feelings.

This is a brilliantly woven tale of love and motherhood with sharpness and eloquence. The characters developed by the authors are at its best, everyone from Ben to Poise, goes through an emotional turmoil on the arrival of a new human being amongst them. But my favorite character was Poise, who lights up whole book like a firework, her dialogues and comments were like having a sundae on a gloomy day. I fell in love with her almost immediately. Poise remains so nonchalant to the fact when her father, Jarvis comes to meet her after 7 long years; I loved her confidence and intelligence. Romily, on the other hand, was a shy woman, who always felt timid about her own feelings. Claire was a brave teacher and one incident with her favorite student, Max, will make you idolize her as a teacher- losing her job, to make Max pursue his dreams of becoming a pianist.

The plot is very well-developed and skillfully penned down by the author. At times it feels your heart with hatred against Romily for breaking Claire and Ben's marriage, next moment your eyes will well up reading about how Romily never held the baby when the baby was taken out of her womb. The emotions are rich and deep and are told strikingly.

Verdict: So, wrap yourself up in this enthralling tale about being a mother for the first time and mostly being a mother to the baby who can never be yours!

Courtesy: Thanks to Tessa Henderson, of Transworld Publishers, for providing me with a copy of this book.
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Author Info:
Julie Cohen grew up in the small town of Rumford, Maine, just up the hill from the local library. She spent most of her time reading and at age 11 she wrote her first novel.
As she matured, her stories got more original. In high school, her best friend Kathy and she spent all of their study halls and most of their chemistry lessons scribbling stories about themselves and various celebrities. Her oeuvre was rapidly expanded to include The Beatles Book, The Monkees Book, and The Gorgeous Neighbour Possessed By The Devil Book. Read More

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