How I Went from Mild-Mannered Geek to Gay Superdad
Ratings3
Average rating3.5
As a teenager growing up in the 1980s, all Jerry Mahoney wanted was a nice, normal sham marriage: 2.5 kids and a frustrated, dissatisfied wife living in denial of her husband s sexuality. Hey, why not? It seemed much more attainable and fulfilling than the alternative coming out of the closet and making peace with the fact that he d never have a family at all. Twenty years later, Jerry is living with his long-term boyfriend, Drew, and they re ready to take the plunge into parenthood. But how? Adoption? Foster parenting? Kidnapping? What they want most of all is a great story to tell their future kid about where he or she came from. Their search leads them to gestational surrogacy, a road less traveled where they ll be borrowing a stranger s ladyparts for nine months. Thus begins Jerry and Drew s hilarious and unexpected journey to daddyhood. From then on, they re in uncharted waters. They re forced to face down homophobic baby store clerks, a hospital that doesn t know what to do with them, even members of their own family who think what they re doing is a little nutty. One thing s for sure. If this all works out, they re going to have an incredible birth story to tell their kid. With honesty, emotion, and laugh-out-loud humor, Jerry Mahoney ponders what it means to become a Mommy Man . . . and discovers that the answer is as varied and beautiful as the concept of family itself."
Reviews with the most likes.
Mommy Man is a story about the making of a family. It is, for the most part, a funny and touching book and I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of it. There are a few times in the story where the author seems to look for instances of homophobia that aren't really there so that he can make a point or make a political sort of statement, and then mention how the person wasn't discriminating after his lifestyle choices after all. I'm not sure if it's because of how those sections were written or if it because for the most part he was defending himself from slights that were imagined, but it took me out of the story a bit. Many families do go through this type of discrimination, but his family did not, and the story did not need the extra drama added to it. The story was beautiful on its own because of the struggles they overcame to become parents and the cast of characters that made it possible.
3.5 stars. Pretty good, but got pretty long. I really thought more would be about after the kids were born.