Her fragmented prose chronicles the experience of becoming pregnant, of giving birth, of early motherhood ... We are given a telling of daughterhood and motherhood that doesn’t shy away from the jagged, the unfathomable. We are never spared the difficulty of the body or of the mind ... The book seems only to accrete meaning, never arriving at any single mode of thought, resisting our desire for culmination.
Frank and unflinching ... Refreshingly personal ... It’s that self-awareness that makes Zapata’s style uniquely engrossing ... In Vitro is a story in snapshots, marrying unsparing honesty with extraordinary tenderness, each word carefully selected, each section substantive, yet distilled.
The clinical language of a gynecological history... and the embryo transfer process contrasts with Zapata’s mystical thinking ... A resolute account of a personal metamorphosis, In Vitro alchemizes tender experiences into enchanting vignettes.
Lyrical ... Vignettes about caring for her sick dog and her relationship with her husband are peppered throughout, but the ruminations on Zapata’s mother are the most affecting ... With poetic prose, sensitively translated by Myers, Zapata’s sometimes surprising perspective offers a fresh take on the pregnancy memoir.
