| Description |
1 online resource (272 pages) |
| Access |
Access limited to subscribing institutions. |
| Summary |
One woman's true story of raising a child born three months premature -- "propulsive, startling, and vivid, like motherhood itself" (Meg Wolitzer, New York Times -bestselling author of The Female Persuasion ). Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing only one pound each, at twenty-three weeks' gestation. During the delivery she begged the doctors to "let her babies go" -- knowing all too well that at their early stage of development they would likely die and, if they survived, would have a high risk of permanent disabilities. However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter died just four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiply disabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube. This Lovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of the Forman family after the birth of the twins -- the harrowing medical interventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity of life and death. In the end, the long-delayed first steps of a five-year-old child will seem like the fist-pumping stuff of a triumph narrative. Forman's intelligent voice gives a sensitive, nuanced rendering of her guilt, her anger, and her eventual acceptance in this portrait of a mother's fierce love for her children. "Intimate, compelling, and hopeful -- an absolutely important book." -- Rachel Simon, author of Riding the Bus with My Sister. |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Subject |
Forman, Vicki.
|
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Mothers -- United States -- Biography.
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Premature infants -- Care.
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Premature infants -- Development.
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Forman, Vicki. This lovely life. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 9780547232751 (DLC)2008053285 |
| ISBN |
9780547394404 (epub) |
| Standard No. |
9780547394404 |
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