In the chaos of a maternity ward, memories of tragedy and grief come flooding back for an anxious mother-to-be as she struggles to balance her child's needs with her own healing.
Rushed into an emergency caesarean section, a woman finds herself in the same hospital where her suicidal mother died. She's buried the trauma of her mother's last hours-and also the dread that she might be just as vulnerable to breaking. As the new mother relives one crisis in the midst of another, prize-winning author Julie Orringer turns the joyous event of birth into a harrowing, poignant short story.
Julie Orringer's Can You Feel This? is part of Inheritance, a collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single setting. By yourself, behind closed doors, or shared with someone you trust.
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[Blood. Just as the doctor said there would be]***
(Amazon Original Stories, 19 December 2019, 32 pages, ebook, borrowed from @AmazonKindle #PrimeReading)
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I'd never heard of the author before so had no expectations for this story. I found it haunting, almost heart-breaking. I loved the way the author explores the complicated relationship between the woman and her mother who killed herself. The woman's fear in the present of losing her much longed-for baby is intercepted with memories of her mother's suicide and other trauma's she experienced as her daughter. The woman lives in terror of breaking like her mother and this painful to read at times especially the final, shocking revelation. This is a powerful story and I may need to seek out the author full length work.
