The Borning Room

     I've just finished The Borning Room by Paul Fleischman.  It's a story of a Georgina Lott born in Ohio during the 1850s.  The story is told through the happenings in the borning room, a room set aside for delivering children and death.  As her story is told, Fleischman weaves in issues happening at that time.  Runaway slaves and emancipation, news of the civil war, doctors taking over the role of midwives and their use of chloroform, electricity, sewing machines, and in her later life the Great War.  

What I liked:

• The midwife speaks in a German/English mix.  A mild reminder that we never did speak only one language in the U.S.  
• The Lott family discusses what is right vs. what is law.  Should they harbor a run away slave?  Should women have the right to vote?  Should you have to fight if you are drafted into the war?  It shows that things change bottom up and that we don't have to wait for the top.
• The grandfather and an aunt live in the house, as does Georgina and her husband after their marriage.  Maybe I like my family too much, but I like the idea of a multi-generational household.  It takes a village and it's great that they chose their own village.
• You always learn a little something from historical fiction.

What I didn't like:

• The Lott family is always on the side of right.  I don't know anybody that enlightened. 
• The chapters are long and the dialogue is, well, boring.
• As the grandfather lies in the borning room dying, he is visited by various ministers who are working to get him to repent of his pagan ways so he can go to Heaven.  It was an uncomfortable scene.
• Mr. Fleischman writes a scene where Georgina labors through a birth in the borning room.  I just couldn't swallow how he, a man, had written the birth.  He describes it vaguely, but as very painful.  It's very negative. 

What I'm not sure if I liked or not:

     During the mother's last pregnancy her husband convinces her to switch from the care of the experienced midwife to the care of a doctor, fresh from med school.  The doctor uses chloroform and of course has no idea what he's doing, and it ends terribly.  I like that it's the traditional lay midwife with the knowledge and experience and common sense who is vindicated.  I hated that the father is so impressed by a medical degree.  It reminds me too much of how things are today.  Say 'midwife' out loud and men pounce on you for being dangerous and haphazard.