Book Menage Day 3: The Birth of Love
25 May 2011
And welcome to Day 3 of our Menage, in which we'll discuss Joanna Kavenna's 2010 novel The Birth of Love.
Again, in case you haven't read it, I can provide a quick synopsis. Kavenna tells four interrelated stories of childbirth, medicine, and personal choices: that of nineteenth-century doctor Ignasz Semmelweis and his sojourn in a mental asylum; that of a modern-day author publishing a novel about Semmelweis; that of a modern-day woman laboring to give birth to her second child; and that of a woman being questioned for her role in helping a laboring mother escape the oppression of the dystopian society of the year 2153.
These are the main questions I've got for you on this one:
1. Which part of the narrative did you find most interesting, and why?
2. Where did the section headings of "The Moon," "The Empress," "The Hermit," and "The Tower" come from, or what do they mean?
3. There's already been some talk about the title of this one. Do you think it was a good title? If not, what would you have titled it instead?
As always, please feel free to ask your own questions in the comments; if there are any we can cover them tomorrow.