A gay British journalist in her late 30s decides to become pregnant, moving with her girlfriend to the United States for artificial insemination, fertility treatments, and, ultimately, a new home.
If you learn nothing else about Brockes from this book, you will learn that she does not like having decisions taken out of her hands. I’m not sure what she would be called in her native Great Britain, but here in the United States we might call her a control freak—a personality quirk that just adds to the pleasure of this splendid and fascinating book ... She is cool, methodical and, at times, insanely funny, with a great eye for the ironies and amusements of life ... And in the end, there is no doubt that her decision—at least for us readers—was an excellent one indeed.
Brockes...is so smart and tartly charming (think Fleabag meets Helen Fielding) that it doesn’t much matter that you sense an obligation to make a word count as she vacillates about some aspects of her story, particularly her relationship with her sort-of-partner, L ... (Could someone please make a TV show about these women?) ... Brockes creates dramatic tension by debating the virtues of using known sperm donors as opposed to strangers, and whether to rely on the British health care system—socialized but slow—or her adopted country’s for assisted reproduction ... Brockes gets at the undeniable but typically unspoken competitiveness among women when it comes to fertility ... An Excellent Choice isn’t purely a story about love ... [an account] from the front lines of reproduction, a place where there is no such thing as absolute fairness.
As a Brit, Brockes has great insights into the American health-care system, from fertility medicine to childbirth to postnatal care. Her narrative also incorporates her unconventional relationship, which is refreshing on many levels—she and her partner live apart, in separate apartments in the same building ... Informative, funny, and candid reading for anyone considering an unconventional approach to parenting.
