Synopses & Reviews
First published as an essay in The New Yorker, Baby B is a fascinating story of technology, babies, and unconditional loveI have been telling my friends that what I am injecting into my wife, Doreen, this week is crushed, powdered Chinese hamster ovaries. This is not quite the truth. I am injecting her with cells from Chinese hamster ovaries subjected to recombinant-DNA technology, genetically engineered to become a human follicle-stimulating hormone that will help produce multiple eggs . . .
Baby B is an embryo-one of four that have been implanted into Michael Ryan's wife, Doreen. Their story is told from the rarely voiced perspective of the hoping-to-be father. As they face the prospect of failure one day and of quadruplets another, the couple must endure an emotional roller coaster of fear, exhaustion, and self-doubt.
With candor and humor, Ryan chronicles an adventure and a love story: a strange and awe-inspiring medical process that, if everything goes just right, results in human life.
About the Author
Michael Ryan is the author of three award-winning collections of poems and a highly praised autobiography,
Secret Life. He is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of California, Irvine.