Thoughts on...The Paternity Test

A fiction book that read like truth.

I feel a little like a voyeur. Having a child to save a marriage can be fraught with minefields then add in needing a surrogate? Yikes! The thoughts and feeling expressed in The Paternity Test felt too private. The flip side is that I feel privileged to have been invited into the process. The search within and the search for a surrogate.

Plus, there's that whole gay thing. Yup, the marriage needed saving is a gay one. Would a woman really be willing to have a child for a gay couple?

If you are absolutely opposed to anything gay, do not read this book. (or blog for that matter, I review/read gay books all the time). The wonderful thing is that so far, the couple being gay doesn't seem to be the story. The aching for a child, needing medical help to do so, the infidelity. These things are not exclusively gay, they are human.

I've read thru five cycles and am looking forward to finishing the book.

back to reading...

Pat? What are you doing!

I feel betrayal coming and need to put it aside for a bit...




Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of this book without any obligation to write a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are mine and may differ from yours. Book information courtesy of BN.com and amazon.com.

The Paternity Test
by Michael Lowenthal

University of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299290009
Publication date: September 2012
Hardcover (also ebook)
Contemporary Fiction/Gay
18+ (maybe 16)
277 pages~my copy

Grade:


Product Description:

Having a baby to save a marriage—it’s the oldest of clichés. But what if the marriage at risk is a gay one, and having a baby involves a surrogate mother?

Pat Faunce is a faltering romantic, a former poetry major who now writes textbooks. A decade into his relationship with Stu, an airline pilot from a fraught Jewish family, he fears he’s losing Stu to other men—and losing himself in their “no rules” arrangement. Yearning for a baby and a deeper commitment, he pressures Stu to move from Manhattan to Cape Cod, to the cottage where Pat spent boyhood summers.

As they struggle to adjust to their new life, they enlist a surrogate: Debora, a charismatic Brazilian immigrant, married to Danny, an American carpenter. Gradually, Pat and Debora bond, drawn together by the logistics of getting pregnant and away from their spouses. Pat gets caught between loyalties—to Stu and his family, to Debora, to his own potent desires—and wonders: is he fit to be a father?

copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2012