Babies by Emily Toder

A wonderfully thoughtful book written with the poignancy and wispy light touch of Lewis Carroll and Roz Chast. Emily Toder is very funny, but her paradoxes are deceptively simple and, if we let ourselves laugh, it’s because we don’t want to know that without babies there is no meaning on Planet Earth. It’s that simple and that cruel. Without babies, in her words, we’re lost.

—André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name

Just as it is said most toys are imitations of something adults use, a poem that toys with celebrated repetition and celebrates imitation of what passes for reasoning is intrinsically funny. Babies says it is written for a general adult audience and approved for mature audiences. It tells us as much as it can about baby adults, adult babies, nice babies, mean adults, up-to-date adults, recent adults, only children, toddlers, teenagers and in-betweeners. It admits it is all about the essence of life. Around the middle of the book a kind of rush of the love of trying to know about and write about babies reaches a crescendo of delightful whirling dervishness in love with all things brought about by babies. It is a good idea if you can do it to read this book without stopping, no breaks, no bookmarks, no dog-earing; start at the top and don’t stop until it stops. It’s possible. I couldn’t stop and I’m happy I didn’t. Just as every baby is, Emily Toder’s book is a rare, original, one of a kind.

—Dara Barrois/Dixon, author of Reverse Rapture

As an OB-GYN, one of the most rewarding aspects of my work is being a sounding board for my patients, helping them make decisions about crucial aspects of their lives – their fertility, control over their reproductive health, sexuality, and childbirth. Emily Toder’s work reminds me of these complex and infinitely important conversations – articulated in a poetic form. At times playful, at times unsettling, always poignant, and thought-provoking, Babies is a beautiful way to reflect on the evolution of a human being and a baby in each of us, no matter what our age.

—Alexander Shifrin, M.D., doctorshifrin.com

Emily Toder is the author of Waste (BlazeVOX Books, 2019), Beachy Head (Coconut Books, 2014), and Science (Coconut Books, 2012), as well as the chapbooks It’s Not Over Yet (If A Leaf Falls Press, 2018), No Land (Brave Men Press, 2014), and Brushes With (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2010). A graduate of the MFA Program at UMass Amherst, she also holds degrees in Library Science and Literary Translation. She lives in New York.

Book Information:

· Paperback: 156 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-393-5

$18

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