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Part memoir, part journalism, part history, part downright strange and hilarious, American Parent takes readers on a unique tour of the world of new mothers and fathers. As Sam Apple embarks on his own journey into parenthood, he decides to put his background in journalism to good use by talking to a wide range of experts. Along the way, Apple visits with the mohel who circumcised him, enters a trance with a childbirth hypnotist, goes on a stakeout with a nanny spy, and attends a lecture on Botox for new mothers. Apple is full of questions, and none is left unexplored: Is the Lamaze method a Stalinist plot? (Yes.) Are newborns really fetuses that are born too soon? (Sort of.) Is there a universal theory that can explain the origins of circumcision in many diverse cultures? (Maybe.) Does it sting when you pour baby shampoo into your own eyes? (Big-time!)
And yet for all the unusual twists in this story–at one point Apple fantasizes about a father losing his mind and refusing to remove his BabyBjörn–the strangest twist of all might be that at its core American Parent is a deeply serious and personal book about the way emotionally vulnerable and confused new parents can get lost in the increasingly complex labyrinth of baby products, classes, and fads.
Parenthood is the oldest subject of all. In American Parent, Sam Apple makes it feel entirely new.
Apple mixes memoir with journalism and historical research. And he is best in the memoir, describing attempts to get his son to stop crying (the hair dryer works, for a time) and the inevitable falling in love with the newborn, despite the colic. But those observations are fleeting, and too often he shies away from real revelation.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Rob Lachance
reviewed American Parent: My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland on January 05, 2012 American Parent
I *loved* this book, and I feel very thankful to be able to interview the author, Sam Apple, for my Maternity Ward blog next week! I'll share our conversation on Tuesday, February 7, at
"American Parent" features a mix of thoughtful memoir and well-researched journalism. In addition, it offers a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Sam Apple is a very talented, engaging and witty writer.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"I don't think I could already have been in love, but I've since thought that we really only listen, in the deepest sense of listening, to the people we are in love with" (p. xi).
"Revenue from the sale of baby products has almost tripled since the mid-1990s, and the average American child now receives seventy new toys a year" (p. 3).
"But many of the strollers looked nothing like the strollers of my imagination … They had shiny metal frames and wheels so tall and thick that immigrants who spot them for the first time probably assume that American parents engage in competitive off-road baby racing" (p. 7).
"There are lots of things for a new father to panic about, and I was on top of all of them" (p. 19).
"In 1962, the publication of a book of names was still novel enough to warrant a brief article in The New York Times. Now more than twenty baby name books are published in a typical year" (p. 24).
"I still can't explain it, but perhaps more than any other parenting trend, our longing for unique names seems to speak to a larger shift in the American parental psyche. A few generations ago, American parents aspired for their children to fit in. Now we aspire for them to stand out" (p. 29).
"And when I thought I had AIDS'a surprisingly regular occurrence for someone in a monogamous relationship who had already tested negative'Jennifer would return the favor and tell me to get a grip" (p. 36).
"If Dick-Read and many of the other natural birth pioneers often got their science wrong, just as often they got the larger human story exactly right" (p. 101).
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