Reproduction Is the Flaw of Love

This review is for Dial Press hardcover edition, July 2004, 211 pages. REPRODUCTION IS THE FLAW OF LOVE is Lauren Grodstein's debut novel. Joel Miller, most everyone refers to him as Miller, will be 29 next month. As the story opens, Miller waits outside the bathroom door in an apartment in Park Slope, Manhattan, while his girlfriend, Lisa, procrastinates over taking a pregnancy test. The reader correctly assumes that the author will not reveal Lisa's condition until the end of the novel. Meantime, this third person narrative explores Miller's back story from his point of view. We meet his mother Bay and his father Stan, his best friend Grant and his ex girlfriend Blair who, so far, is the love of Miller's life. His story is interesting and the reader learns what to expect of him if the test is positive. The acknowledgments page begins with, "Thanks to Elliot Grodstein, for teaching me what I needed to know about how a guy's mind works..." Elliot did a good job. Grodstein's male characters deal with angst and anxiety as men are apt to do. Her female characters are as men perceive women, enigmas. The story is enlightening, even for a guy.

Excellent! Lauren Grodstein digs deep into the interworkings of the male mind. The author masterfully articulates the affects of dysfunctional childhoood and adolescence experiences on one's thoughts and behavior throughout adulthood.

Reproduction Is The Flaw Of Love is a wonderfully ironic title for a novel precisely because reproduction is, in fact, the point of love. At least biologically speaking. But what draws couples together mostly defies facile categorization and it is the nuances of attraction (and the loss of interest in the beloved over time) that Lauren Grodstein understands so well. That Grodstein wrote this exegesis of lust and longing from the male perspective, and so convincingly, I found truly impressive. In particular, she does justice to the way men experience falling in love and the exquisite vulnerability they may feel once love has taken root. Structurally, the narrative of this cleverly written, entertaining novel has the feel of a series of interconnected short stories which revolve around a protagonist, Miller, who is seen coping with male-female issues at a number of stages of his life. Some segments work better than others but I always have trouble when authors try to accomplish a bit too much with their work. This minor criticism notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed Reproduction Is The Flaw Of Love which I devoured greedily in just a few sittings. I hope that men especially get the opportunity to read it as this novel's honest portrayal of our way of responding to the throws of painful romance holds the promise of opening up a topic or two for much needed consideration.

I really can't say enough about this excellent, assured first novel. The story of a young man - Miller - in the longest hours of his life, Lauren Grodstein's "Reproduction is the Flaw of Love" treats issues of love and family with a deft touch, and a real feel for narrative. While Miller waits for the results of his girlfriend's pregnancy test, Grodstein moves seamlessly back-and-forth between his present agony, and the events leading up to it.From a purely prosaic standpoint, the novel is a textbook example of how to perform one of the most difficult tricks in storytelling: the framing sequence. Grodstein does it by firmly grounding Miller's present troubles, and declining the temptation to gild the memories of his troubled family or his enigmatic ex-girlfriend. It's a wonderful performance, moving and finely crafted. You should read it.

To say this novel is simple is reductive...and yet it is simple. Simple in premise "man goes out for a pregnancy test" simple, but so layered in meaning and raw existential thought that you can't help but think of Proust's Remembrance of things past..."man eats a piece of cake."And yet Reproduction reminds me (thankfully!) more of Hornby's High Fidelity than of Proust, The way that Grodstein grabs on to the reader from the beginning, and sends us down a path of remembrance.,,particularly sexual remembrance,,,it has Hornby's edginess with just hints of language that in this day even Proust might've been proud of. The only problem I see with the novel is that with our deep investment in the radiant players we get to the end confused about what we think is the solution,,,what should we want to happen,,,do we want her to be preganant? Do we want Miller to want chocolate again? Or will he setlle for bread, And if bread has a baby, what would those little tiny muffins taste like? Would you taste the muffins at all, or would you just have to live with all of them in the hell of a single kitchen (sans granite counter-top upgrades) you can barely afford?Grodstein;s novel ultimately asks the single most important question you can ask in a relationship,,,can circumstance govern your life? Should it? Or can you break free from what you;ve done if you feel it is going to change the course of your life entirely, And when she gives her answer, you get the greatest suprise of all: surprise that makes sense given the context,,,,not suprise for it;s own sake, but because of what it drives the rich, deep, characters to do, chose, feel, Abnd THAT is how you write a bestseller. Forget the Da Vinci Code or The Rule of Four...with their endless intellectual brain teasers, just wanting for something more, This one's the one to watch,,,only one puzzle...is she or isn;t she, and it keeps you captivated from page one,