Books |
What I Thought I Knew
Alice Eve Cohen
By
Published: Apr 20, 2010
Category:
Memoir
For many readers the attraction of memoir is the chance to lose yourself in the life of another person — to identify with her struggles, feel her pain, share her triumphs.
Not this time, honey.
The attraction of Alice Eve Cohen’s slim (190 pages), fast-paced memoir, What I Thought I Knew, [for the Kindle version, click here] is precisely that this isn’t a life you can easily connect to your own. It’s got too many twists and turns, and they come too fast — Alice Cohen might as well be living on another planet.
Consider: As the book begins, Alice Cohen is a New York playwright and performer who’s charmed half a million people with her monologues and folktales. She’s survived an unhappy marriage and retained custody of her three-year-old adopted daughter. At 44, she’s engaged to a musician who’s 34. Her performance schedule is booked a season ahead.
Life’s good.
Then she wakes up with an upset stomach. The nausea continues. Insomnia, mood swings, sore breasts and low energy follow. She calls her gynecologist. Who explains that these are symptoms of the lower dose of estrogen she’s taking — for Alice, who is infertile, is clearly undergoing menopause.
Infertile? When Alice was in her early 30s, the doctor voted Best Fertility Specialist by New York Magazine delivered the sad news. And there was, he said, no point in pumping her full of fertility drugs. Alice’s mother took DES during her pregnancy; if Alice did conceive, it was unlikely she could carry a baby to term.
Symptoms mount. Alice is tested. And tested. Finally, someone gets it right: “Mrs. Cohen, we found a baby in you.”
Alice is six months pregnant.
She calls Oxford, her health insurer, for the name of a high-risk obstetrician. She recites her symptoms, including the ultimate — she’s been told she can’t sustain a pregnancy beyond six months, which was two weeks ago. Oxford’s response: “According to our codes, none of these qualify you for high-risk obstetric care.” (Fun fact, not in the book: That year, Oxford’s CEO made $9,530,000 in salary, bonus and stock options.)
Late-term abortion? Putting the baby up for adoption? It all gets considered, argued, resolved. Unforseen problems? Brace yourself — life throws Alice Cohen one curveball after another.
Surprise! This is a funny book, for Alice Cohen has a way with black humor. And a profound one — in the end, wisdom is discovered, tears flow. Tears of happiness, that is. Because whatever is Martian about her life, Alice Eve Cohen can tell a story.
