Baby Love

This novel is about several young girls/women, around sixteen years old, with babies of their own. They are playing house of a sorts. These girls are juxtaposed with older women with very similar, yet very different problems, due to their childlessness. The book is a page-turner. It reminded me a bit of Fay Weldon. There's lots of sex, insanity and other hot items.

Images from this unsanitary little novel still reverberate in my memory like I lived this...I found a hardcover copy in a trash can on the corner of Houston and Bowery a few yrs ago and re-read it for the first time since 1983, and Baby Love is still twisted, still New Hampshire, still drinking Kahula to a stack of Dolly Parton LPs. Making a sexual prisoner out of the toll booth lady (while she's on the job). Being fat and shaking your baby. Joyce didn't hold back.

I read this when I was like 6 or 7. It stayed with me. Recently I found it in a used bookshop and, recognizing my old friend from the book spine alone, grabbed it with glee. It did not disappoint on second read -- nor did it on third or fourth. Maynard combines the seemingly mundane world of the family, home, and parenthood with a sense of doom. Fascinating. And she wrote it in three weeks. At the age of twenty-seven. Damn.

A good and realistic story of teens who have babies because they don't know any better, think it's the thing to do, or so that they will have someone to "love" them. Once the girls have the babies, of course, it's a different story...it's also the story of two adult women who pine for relationships that no longer exist as they once did, and how difficult it is for them to wake up and smell the coffee. Hindsight is 20/20 we all know after being through what we've been through. Joyce Maynard is an extremely capable and gifted writer who can pull you into a character's life with real-life details - the long monkey toes of Sunshine, Wanda's sad acknowledgement that "she will never have a rear end like that again", Jill's "turtle-necked" prom gown remark, and Sandy's tears of despair when no one shows up for her son's five month birthday party. Although I must say, Wayne was a character I just didn't get - what was the motivation there?

The main characters are 3 young girls with babies who try to deal with being moms. The first time I read this book I was about 15 years old. My mom picked this book up from a garage sale because a young and pregnant relative was staying with us. Meanwhile many other characters deal with their problems such as heartbreak, frustration, money and family. The characters meet, and interact in small bits that build up into a whole story. The first time I read this book I was about 15 years old. My mom picked this book up from a garage sale because a young and pregnant relative was staying with us. I found it fascinating for its honest and sometimes brutal description of what it is to be a mother and daughter. The men and women in this book become real as you read this story. It was the kind of book you read and reread. I enjoyed the book but others might find it a little too honest or disturbing. The author Joyce Maynard based the character of Ann on herself, which I only realized very recently. I enjoyed this book and have read more of the authors work. It is a great book that I would urge anyone to read.