Mr Bohjalian’s stories flow like a slow meandering stream that finally reaches its destination , a little ripple at a time. Never a page turner but always a good solid plot. These characters were very real, read more like non fiction.

A book like this always reminds me of my own experience. I had a high risk pregnancy with a complicated delivery, glad I was in a first class San Francisco hospital with an excellent doctor and an epidural. I don’t think a midwife would have been qualified to handle my situation.

I was somewhat repulsed by all the gory details of childbirth, too realistic!! The descriptions sounded like Mr Bohjalian had personally experienced pregnancy and delivery!! I’m not an Earth Mother, so natural childbirth and midwives were not something I’d ever have opted for. I guess they have their place, to each his own.

Just one question - wouldn’t the Judge have noticed the page he was most interested in was missing from the notebook? They were dated and in order. Not sure I agreed with the verdict, but it was an excellent look at something I knew nothing about!

One of my most favorite books. Definitely on my reread list.

I guess I am late to the party for this one but it sure was excellent

I expected to enjoy this book much more than I did because I had read one other book by Chris Bohjalian and had really liked it. I was relieved when I went to the Goodreads website and saw that the ratings were extremely varied on this one. I could see that I wasn't the only one who didn't give it high ratings.
Midwives tells the story of a home birth in Vermont done by a lay midwife in which the mother dies and the midwife ends up charged with involuntary manslaughter. The story is told from the point of view of the midwife's 14 year old daughter, Connie.
Although I am personally not in favor of home births because of my background in pediatric nursing, that did not influence my lower rating of this book. I am in favor of birth centers and babies being delivered by midwives when appropriate.
My main complaint with the book was that I felt it dragged out far too long. I did not connect to the midwife, Sybil Danforth, either, although I felt she was a competent midwife. All of the drama involving the defense attorney, Stephen, was of little interest to me as well.
The climax of the story involving an action on Connie's part was probably the high point of the novel for me but I felt like I had plowed through a lot of far less interesting reading material before I reached that point.

The thing that really impressed me about Midwives is that it is written by a man, and through the eyes of a 14 year old girl and her mother, the midwife. I liked the journal entries at the beginning of each chapter that gave so much insight into how Sibyl thought and felt. Her daughter, Connie told the rest of the story. I thought it was well-written and moved along, although trial novels are often tedious.
I had my children in hospitals. I had not heard much about midwives except that my brother was born at home and it was horrible for my mother. There was a Dr. attending. My fear is that something would go wrong, which in this novel, it did.
However, two of my grandchildren have had midwives, one at home, and one in the hospital. We have two lovely great-grandchildren.
I really liked this novel a lot, especially the ending.

This book was certainly amazing.

I love Chris Bohjalian's writing and the fact that every book he writes is a totally different subject and he just nails it with his characters so true to life. I was going through my TBR shelves for the new year and I found this in the back of my stack. How did I miss this one. I could not put this down. Told by the daughter of a midwife who will have to go to trial for the death of one of her patients. The characters are so vivid and you feel their pain, their fear and their feelings for each other.
Beautiful story!!

First time reading this author, definitely won't be the last. This one really had me thinking.

Next up for book club, although we're skipping August. I have heard of this author, but other than that I have no clue. I picked up four of his books at our recent library book sale. Starting tonight ...

Started this last night. So far it's reminding me of Jodi Picoult only with a better writer. The story is pretty matter-of-fact so far. The author's style, as it adopts the voice of a 14-year old girl, seems a bit pedestrian, but I suspect the story is all in this one. Tom Perrotta might be an apt comparison. Ones who do it(the "realism" thing) a bit better? Richard Russo, Richard Ford etc. Worse: Wally Lamb.

So, just as I was beginning to grumble about getting bored with the narrative voice(how old IS that voice anyway?), all hell breaks loose as the "thing/event" about which this book revolves takes place. Bad follows worse follows horrible and there you go. For myself, I was sort of not wanting to read the whole thing(a tribute to the author's skill) and needing to buck up and get on with it. It's over now at least and the legal(and more) aftermath will take up the rest of the book. Notes ...

- I'm back in Vermont after "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," which is unofficially set there.

- Worcester, Massachusetts(my birthplace) is a city, not a town.

- The author writes of old clapboards that have had nails "slammed through them" ... I don't think so. Trying too hard ...

- Sybil is a vaguely troubling figure. Up until the bleep hits the fan she's not much in the story, and that's one of the points of the narrator's portrayal of her. VERY "careerist/dedicated" and something of an uber-Earth mother. Still kind of a hippie and a bit tiresome. Both husband and daughter have reason for complaint vis-a-vis her absent parenting and wifing(?) ... wifery(?) ... partnering(?). Her behavior during the "thing" is open to question, but then, what then hell would YOU have done, dear reader? One thing I would have done(presumably) was pay more attention to the weather(forecast). A labor can go on for hours. At the first whiff of bad weather Sybil and mother should have been out of there and off to the hospital. Not sure if that point will be visited again.

- How does smug Sybil know that she'd never birthed a baby banker?

- "air force" should be "Air Force."(twice now)

Last night's reading was set in the post-disaster, pre-trial stage of things. There's some more boring life-of-a-teenager stuff as well. The structure of the book is curious, as the big intense disaster is fading into the mists of time. What will happen now is all the contention about WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. So far that's only sort-of interesting and so my rating has dipped back down to 3* territory.

- When I was working at Boulder Memorial Hospital in Boulder we had a patient in the Physical Therapy Rehab unit who was the wife of an ex-football player from C.U. She was in some sort of coma following a disastrous labor-and-delivery(at another hospital). I don't know if she ever came out of it.

- Don't we all know to NOT talk to cops w/o a lawyer present?????

- Please 86 the teen romance stuff - PLEASE!

- OK, it's time to get into the courtroom! Quit dawdling ...

And so to an issue that't been on my mind relative to this book and others like it in that huge category of "contemporary" serious but popular writing. Jodi Picoult and Wally Lamb come to mind. Kent Haruf would be another. I can only speak to writers I've read. John Green's another one. Is this stuff to be considered legitimate serious literature? If Tom Perrotta is a yes then why would Chris Bohjalian be a no? To me this book is NOT serious literature(though not nearly as bad as the pretentious "The Goldfinch"). Hmmm ...

Finally, the trial begins - should be interesting.

- Sybil gives the la-la-la version of what the 60's were about. Like the mother in "My Sister's Keeper," she is borderline insufferable. One of those "bogus charisma" people.

- "The Notebooks of Sybil Danforth" - supposed to be of some compelling(yes, as it turns out) interest???? BTW, there once was a Hollywood actress named Sybil Danning,

- Too much "inner Connie" is filling up the literary spaces here. Not interesting ...

Finished up last night with that "Kobayashi Maru" thing that's really the highlight of the book - on the last two pages. VERY thought-and-emotion-provoking indeed. Was it enough to push the rating of the book back to 4*? I guess not quite, but it's close. The narrator's reasons for her career choice become clearer, and, if anything, we gain more sympathy for Sybil. She screwed up with the weather-thing and had to pay a bitter price(not as much as Charlotte, however).

- The weather thing DID come back strong into the legal proceedings and then got kind of dropped. Should Sybil have been found guilty(and I'm not saying either way - no spoilers from ME) for that lapse in judgement alone? You could make a case, I suppose.

- Joni Mitchell on a dance tape????

- The notebook thing = kind of contrived I think. But ... this IS a novel, not reality. Mightn't the judge have seen that it's been tampered with?

- A consistent problem for the book is the sort-of droning/flat affect of the narration. If you choose that method to present a story it does have it's limitations if the narrator is lacking in charisma. NOT a problem for "Lolita" or "True Grit," for instance. Anyway ...

- 3.5* rounds down to 3*.

I LOVED this book, which was totally unexpected. It was absolutely riveting for me. There wasn't a slow part in it.
I really enjoyed the organization, with the journal entries, and the tone associated with the author's reflections (kind of "if only..."). It made the whole book feel like you were hearing an exciting story first hand, where the story-teller felt compelled to add little bits of insight or extra information along the way to help enhance your experience. I really enjoyed how it begins and especially how it ends. WHAT AN ENDING!!! Makes me think of the relationship between justice and mercy.
I loved the setting and the pace of the criminal trial proceedings. I had read "Civil Action" before and it was far too mundanely/tediously detailed and slow-moving for me. The court case in "Midwives" was a LOT better, and it would make a substantially better movie too.
The characters were great as well. Their relationships with each other were interesting and realistic without being overdramatic. Normally I don't appreciate a male author writing a story from a woman's perspective --especially a subject that is this feminine -- but I think Chris Bohjalian did a fantastic job.

FABULOUS BOOK! I would definitely recommend it. (Especially to mothers.)

*Just read it for the second time 2/10 for another book club. It's still awesome!

This book was ok. It did not draw me in like many books do. While it was interesting, it wasn’t a book I had a hard time putting down. Many parts could have had a deeper story behind them but were mentioned vaguely as a minor detail. Something about the book just didn’t grab me. The ending was very non-emotional and anti-climactic.

For a number of reasons this book was a complete surprise for me. Could be because I never really thought about the whole issue before I began reading it, but the very idea of midwifery in America sounded strange. And to take some liberty in a cliché; we still consider America the very epitome of modern civilization. Don’t jump to conclusions now! My feeling is well founded.

I grew up in a Kenyan village. I still spend lots of time [here] when I am not locked up in a university library sinking myself ever deeper into literary masterpieces. I no longer really hear much about the practice of midwifery, not that I am very keen at it. But in my younger days home births were the rule, not the exception. And I still remember having witnessed one when I was in class 2 (second grade – or the equivalent.) From what I recall, any mother with a bit of experience was well in position to help deliver the baby. There were, however, the proper midwives, but the one I knew, personally, painted a grim picture of the whole practice. She was old and dirty - -> somewhat weird looking too. And this made me wary of midwives – in that childlike fear that most are apt to develop at something repulsive.

It was in this frame of mind that I ventured into this book, though my open mind had me prepared to expect anything.

First thing out of this book is that Chris Bohjalian knows what he’s talking about, and even more important, how to put it down – making his book very readable. Don’t compare it with To Kill a Mocking Bird, its wrong to do so, no book can near Harper Lee’s craft, as well narrative and emotional power. But all the same Bohjalian’s style is generous enough to keep the reader hooked, sparse enough to bring the reader to his own judgment and an extent of restraint enough to make this not merely a text book on midwifery (despite offering so much detail.)

I was fascinated by a male writing from a female view point, somewhat afraid that it would affect the power of the story, but Bohjalian did one hell of a good job.