What do you think?
Rate this book
Out of Line
This Telling
Audible narration by Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars)
A genealogy test sparks a woman’s reflection on the two accounts of her life—the real one and the one she’s always told the world—in this poignant short story by Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild.
In 1964 teenage Geraldine Waters was sent away by her parents to an unwed mothers’ home, where she gave up her newborn for adoption. Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.
Cheryl Strayed’s This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
A genealogy test sparks a woman’s reflection on the two accounts of her life—the real one and the one she’s always told the world—in this poignant short story by Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild.
In 1964 teenage Geraldine Waters was sent away by her parents to an unwed mothers’ home, where she gave up her newborn for adoption. Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.
Cheryl Strayed’s This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
37 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2020
About the author
Cheryl Strayed
33 books13.2k followersCheryl Strayed is the author of four books: Tiny Beautiful Things, Torch, Brave Enough, and the #1 New York Times bestseller, Wild. She's also the author of the popular Dear Sugar Letters, currently on Substack and the host of two hit podcasts--Sugar Calling and Dear Sugars. You can find links to her events and answers to FAQ on her web site: http://www.cherylstrayed.com/
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 516 reviews
October 28, 2023
In a Nutshell: A short story about a young girl and what happens to her after she becomes pregnant. Powerful without being over the top. Impressive scope and character development of the protagonist, especially for a story of this length.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Story Synopsis:
This is a standalone short story in the ‘Out of Line’ collection, described on Amazon as “an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape.”
Consider the sheer scope of this story. It is just 34 pages long, so it will take you an hour at the most to complete. But it covers a long time frame, beginning in 1964 and jumping across the years to contemporary time. It also has eighteen chapters, which is quite surprising as most short stories don’t have any chapter divisions. Effectively, these stats should have indicated a story that attempts too much and hence does no justice to its content. But as we all know, every stat has an exception.
Geraldine is the crux of the plot, a woman of her times. Through her character, we get to see how women have been conditioned into thinking about others first and putting themselves last. The writing doesn’t pass any outright comment on the lack of feminism or gender equality. Rather, through Geraldine’s thoughts, words, and actions, we get to see many red flags that are visible only to us. We see how she doesn’t question anyone, nor does she pause to wonder what she wants. Others take decisions for her, and she goes ahead with them without any complaint. To me, this is the brilliance of the story – the way it highlights the historical subservience of women without venturing into overt social commentary.
To a certain extent, this story is also about the adopted child, and about the societal thinking then and now, and about unwed pregnancies, and how only girls were shunned for becoming pregnant outside of marriage, and about the maintenance of “reputation”. But the focal point of the story remains clear – the life of the unwed mother AFTER the pregnancy and adoption.
The ending might leave some of you disappointed. It was not a sad ending, and not a happy ending as well, it was a satisfying ending nonetheless. I loved how the plot stopped just at the right point, which could be called the cusp of change, because it is at that point that Geraldine finally changes. But if you like your stories to end with a neat finish and a bow on top, you might end up wanting more.
This is just a short story, so obviously, some of the subtleties related to the stigma of unwed pregnancies, and the trauma of secret deliveries and forced adoptions are glossed over. These might have been better detailed out in a novel. Then again, there have been quite a few novels on this topic already. In short fiction however, this topic is rarely touched upon, so I am glad to see a short story making this brave attempt.
A chunk of this tale falls under ‘historical fiction’, but at one point, I did begin to wonder if it was only historical. No doubt there is a change between the thinking then and now with respect to unwed pregnancies and abortions, but with some of the US states rescinding women’s rights to abortion, things aren’t necessarily progressing upwards.
All in all, despite the few things the story left unsaid, I loved it much. It offers an interesting character study of a woman who doesn’t even realise how much she had to give up just because of her gender.
4.25 stars.
This standalone story is a part of the “Out Of Line” collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers. I have read two more stories from this series: ‘Graceful Burdens’, and ‘Halfway to Free’. All three have been enjoyable experiences. But the remaining four stories aren’t my cup of tea, so my journey with this collection ends here on a high.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Story Synopsis:
1964. Seventeen-year-old Geraldine discovers that she is pregnant but neither her nineteen-year-old boyfriend nor her own family is too pleased about the news. She is sent away to an unwed mothers’ home where she gives up her newborn child for adoption. Her mother is quite worried that Geraldine has “ruined her life.” But life goes on without any major hiccups, until some decades later, Geraldine’s past converges with her present.
This is a standalone short story in the ‘Out of Line’ collection, described on Amazon as “an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape.”
Consider the sheer scope of this story. It is just 34 pages long, so it will take you an hour at the most to complete. But it covers a long time frame, beginning in 1964 and jumping across the years to contemporary time. It also has eighteen chapters, which is quite surprising as most short stories don’t have any chapter divisions. Effectively, these stats should have indicated a story that attempts too much and hence does no justice to its content. But as we all know, every stat has an exception.
Geraldine is the crux of the plot, a woman of her times. Through her character, we get to see how women have been conditioned into thinking about others first and putting themselves last. The writing doesn’t pass any outright comment on the lack of feminism or gender equality. Rather, through Geraldine’s thoughts, words, and actions, we get to see many red flags that are visible only to us. We see how she doesn’t question anyone, nor does she pause to wonder what she wants. Others take decisions for her, and she goes ahead with them without any complaint. To me, this is the brilliance of the story – the way it highlights the historical subservience of women without venturing into overt social commentary.
To a certain extent, this story is also about the adopted child, and about the societal thinking then and now, and about unwed pregnancies, and how only girls were shunned for becoming pregnant outside of marriage, and about the maintenance of “reputation”. But the focal point of the story remains clear – the life of the unwed mother AFTER the pregnancy and adoption.
The ending might leave some of you disappointed. It was not a sad ending, and not a happy ending as well, it was a satisfying ending nonetheless. I loved how the plot stopped just at the right point, which could be called the cusp of change, because it is at that point that Geraldine finally changes. But if you like your stories to end with a neat finish and a bow on top, you might end up wanting more.
This is just a short story, so obviously, some of the subtleties related to the stigma of unwed pregnancies, and the trauma of secret deliveries and forced adoptions are glossed over. These might have been better detailed out in a novel. Then again, there have been quite a few novels on this topic already. In short fiction however, this topic is rarely touched upon, so I am glad to see a short story making this brave attempt.
A chunk of this tale falls under ‘historical fiction’, but at one point, I did begin to wonder if it was only historical. No doubt there is a change between the thinking then and now with respect to unwed pregnancies and abortions, but with some of the US states rescinding women’s rights to abortion, things aren’t necessarily progressing upwards.
All in all, despite the few things the story left unsaid, I loved it much. It offers an interesting character study of a woman who doesn’t even realise how much she had to give up just because of her gender.
4.25 stars.
This standalone story is a part of the “Out Of Line” collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers. I have read two more stories from this series: ‘Graceful Burdens’, and ‘Halfway to Free’. All three have been enjoyable experiences. But the remaining four stories aren’t my cup of tea, so my journey with this collection ends here on a high.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
April 3, 2021
Well, I probably shouldn't have read this rather emotional story this afternoon, especially when I'm feeling quite unbalanced today, but I did, and here we are.
"This Telling" is a short story about adoption, and it's life changing impact it has on all involved. I thought it was well written, poignant, and really rather interesting. I was adopted as a child, and I'm always on the hunt for new books based on this subject.
Personally, I think being forced (especially by the people that love you) to give birth to a baby, and then hand the baby over for adoption is absolutely horrendous. There must always be a choice for the Mother. This book captures the anguish and despair from the point of view of the mother very well, and it is clear Strayed is talented from the outset.
My only issue is that it was way too short. Like, a few hundred pages too short. I definitely wanted more, and there were many things left unanswered for me, but otherwise, this was a lovely little read.
"This Telling" is a short story about adoption, and it's life changing impact it has on all involved. I thought it was well written, poignant, and really rather interesting. I was adopted as a child, and I'm always on the hunt for new books based on this subject.
Personally, I think being forced (especially by the people that love you) to give birth to a baby, and then hand the baby over for adoption is absolutely horrendous. There must always be a choice for the Mother. This book captures the anguish and despair from the point of view of the mother very well, and it is clear Strayed is talented from the outset.
My only issue is that it was way too short. Like, a few hundred pages too short. I definitely wanted more, and there were many things left unanswered for me, but otherwise, this was a lovely little read.
April 10, 2021
This 33 page short story is part of the Out of Line Collection which is currently available on Kindle Unlimited.
What happens when women step out of line and take control of their own stories?
Its 1964. Geraldine is 17, Jim is 19 and they are having a baby. I had all the feels in these 33 pages. I was mad, sad, disappointed, uplifted and proud. There's one line in this book that had me whooping for women which you can't miss as its ALL IN CAPITALS.
A great start to this 7 book collection which is exclusive to Amazon and a great way to try out some new authors.
What happens when women step out of line and take control of their own stories?
Its 1964. Geraldine is 17, Jim is 19 and they are having a baby. I had all the feels in these 33 pages. I was mad, sad, disappointed, uplifted and proud. There's one line in this book that had me whooping for women which you can't miss as its ALL IN CAPITALS.
A great start to this 7 book collection which is exclusive to Amazon and a great way to try out some new authors.
September 27, 2020
“I’m sorry,” she said and reached over and squeezed his leg. She couldn’t help but think that she’d ruined his life.
It didn’t yet occur to her to wonder about having ruined her own.
This Telling
by Cheryl Strayed
This story was deeply touching.
Cheryl and Jim are young lovers. It is a time of war and Jim is getting ready to go to Vietnam. An unwanted pregnancy is the last thing either of them expect.
Abortion is their first thought but Cheryl finds she cannot do it. Instead she is sent to a home for unwed mothers. The resat of the book deals with Cheryl's choice and how it effects the rest of her life.
I found this to be a sad read. It still strikes me as crazy, looking back that unwanted pregnancies were treated with lack of..for lack of a better term..empathy, frankly. There are many times I think to myself I wish i'd been born in another time period but reading stories like this makes me feel very confused about that subject. I cannot imagine what these young girls felt like.
Anyway..In spite of the book being well written and deeply moving, I did not adore it mainly because it is so short..a novella. So many things really could not receive the attention they could have.
In spite of that, it is a short but extremely well written story and that I would recommend to Historical Fiction fans or anyone interested in this subject matter.
It didn’t yet occur to her to wonder about having ruined her own.
This Telling
by Cheryl Strayed
This story was deeply touching.
Cheryl and Jim are young lovers. It is a time of war and Jim is getting ready to go to Vietnam. An unwanted pregnancy is the last thing either of them expect.
Abortion is their first thought but Cheryl finds she cannot do it. Instead she is sent to a home for unwed mothers. The resat of the book deals with Cheryl's choice and how it effects the rest of her life.
I found this to be a sad read. It still strikes me as crazy, looking back that unwanted pregnancies were treated with lack of..for lack of a better term..empathy, frankly. There are many times I think to myself I wish i'd been born in another time period but reading stories like this makes me feel very confused about that subject. I cannot imagine what these young girls felt like.
Anyway..In spite of the book being well written and deeply moving, I did not adore it mainly because it is so short..a novella. So many things really could not receive the attention they could have.
In spite of that, it is a short but extremely well written story and that I would recommend to Historical Fiction fans or anyone interested in this subject matter.
October 3, 2020
This Telling is an Amazon Original story, the first in the Out of Line Collection – Women on the Verge of a Breakthrough. The stories in the collection are claimed to describe "what happens when women step out of line and take control of their own stories".
This first story in the collection tells the tale of 17-year old army brat, Geraldine. It is the 1960s and she gets gets knocked-up by her 19-year old boyfriend, Jim. Together they scrape together enough cash for an illegal abortion, but just as she is about to go under, Geraldine changes her mind and goes home to tell her parents instead. I’m not sure why the term army brat is used because the fact that her father was career army appears to play absolutely no role in the book. The young couple are to be married but Jim backs down at the last minute, leaving Geraldine at the alter (so to speak) jotting off a note placed on the windshield of her parents’ car explaining “sorry but, no”.
Geraldine’s parents convince her to go away to a special home, have the baby and give it up for adoption. The secret must be forever buried so that she can go on with her life and have a brighter future (this is the mother’s point of view). Geraldine does have a bright future. She finds a career, marries and gives birth to twins. It is only when she herself is a grandmother, that she comes full-circle with her destiny – after Jim gets in touch with her again and explains that his son Jeff, discovered their daughter in a genetic matching test. Her biological daughter contacts her and for the first time, Geraldine confronts and examines her feelings – finally, releasing the secret she had buried so long and revealing the story to her daughters.
This story is available on Kindle Unlimited both in Kindle reader and audible format (read by Kristen Bell).
This first story in the collection tells the tale of 17-year old army brat, Geraldine. It is the 1960s and she gets gets knocked-up by her 19-year old boyfriend, Jim. Together they scrape together enough cash for an illegal abortion, but just as she is about to go under, Geraldine changes her mind and goes home to tell her parents instead. I’m not sure why the term army brat is used because the fact that her father was career army appears to play absolutely no role in the book. The young couple are to be married but Jim backs down at the last minute, leaving Geraldine at the alter (so to speak) jotting off a note placed on the windshield of her parents’ car explaining “sorry but, no”.
Geraldine’s parents convince her to go away to a special home, have the baby and give it up for adoption. The secret must be forever buried so that she can go on with her life and have a brighter future (this is the mother’s point of view). Geraldine does have a bright future. She finds a career, marries and gives birth to twins. It is only when she herself is a grandmother, that she comes full-circle with her destiny – after Jim gets in touch with her again and explains that his son Jeff, discovered their daughter in a genetic matching test. Her biological daughter contacts her and for the first time, Geraldine confronts and examines her feelings – finally, releasing the secret she had buried so long and revealing the story to her daughters.
This story is available on Kindle Unlimited both in Kindle reader and audible format (read by Kristen Bell).
March 7, 2023
Cheryl strayed is one of those women who radiates strength and wellbeing to those who read her work. Her honest and raw writting style is something to be admired.
This short story has so much to offer. It could be anyone's story. Someone you know, family or the woman across the street. The ending nearly had me in tears. Strength is a word with so many meanings.
This short story has so much to offer. It could be anyone's story. Someone you know, family or the woman across the street. The ending nearly had me in tears. Strength is a word with so many meanings.
June 10, 2022
This Telling is one of the few things Cheryl Strayed has published in the decade since Wild that isn't just a compilation of things she'd already put out, so I wish I had better news about it. It's competently written, but, simply put, I thought this was really bland and that the main character had no personality. I listened to it on audio and Kristen Bell did a good job narrating. If I'd been reading a print version I probably would have lost interest and abandoned it.
January 17, 2021
I keep getting sucked in by these groups of short stories in Amazon Prime that then somehow also download audio versions to my Audible account until I replace them with something else. This set is read by Kristen Bell, who was great!
"This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting."
I started with this one because it was about an unwed mother who gave up a child (she was not given a choice) and how it comes back around. I agree with most comments on this story in that it wasn't bad, just very short. Widespread DNA testing is sure making it more difficult to keep skeletons in the closet....
"This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting."
I started with this one because it was about an unwed mother who gave up a child (she was not given a choice) and how it comes back around. I agree with most comments on this story in that it wasn't bad, just very short. Widespread DNA testing is sure making it more difficult to keep skeletons in the closet....
October 3, 2020
Well written story, thoroughly human and told from a feminine perspective.
October 10, 2020
3.5 Stars
I listened to this audiobook while driving to the Mohawk Trail yesterday, and then along the route, and back up to Vermont and to home. The drive took longer than the book, but I’d tried a few others before settling on this one. The drive was lovely, and the story kept my attention despite the twists and turns, in both the drive and the story.
This is a story of a genealogy test that sparks a quest for one young woman to find her biological parents and the missing pieces of her life. For the woman, Geraldine, who was a teenage girl in the 1964, forced by her parents to give up her infant girl, it is a time to relive those moments, as well as come to terms with the pain of that loss, and to take some solace in knowing.
My god-daughter was given up for adoption when she was still an infant, but she was almost a year old, and eventually found her way to her biological mother not all that long ago, and to me, as well. I’ve met her adoptive parents, as well, who are wonderful people, and I was happy to know she’d found people who clearly loved her very much, and some very entertaining family members, as well!
A very thought-provoking story, which brought back a lot of memories for me, as well.
September 1, 2020
This Telling is part of Amazon's Original Stories "Out of Line," a short story collection about women taking control. It is a beautifully written short about a woman in the mid 1960s who is unwed and pregnant, forced to make choices that the mid-century era provides; her subsequent life and the lovely, heart-felt conclusion. If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend reading this quick story.
September 3, 2020
I really enjoyed this short story, narrated for Audible by Kristen Bell - I almost expected her to say "Fork" instead of the usual expletive ;)
October 28, 2020
*Read for free with Kindle Unlimited *
Best one of the collection so far but still felt lacking in some areas. This felt ended too early as well, it could have done with more pages to flesh out some of the story.
Best one of the collection so far but still felt lacking in some areas. This felt ended too early as well, it could have done with more pages to flesh out some of the story.
November 23, 2020
Not a bad story to set up the "Out of Line" collection. We follow a young girl who becomes pregnant and how that event changes her life.
"This Telling" follows teenager Geraldine Waters. Geraldine realizes that she is pregnant and tells her boyfriend who is about to leave for Vietnam. The two of them briefly consider abortion, but Geraldine cannot do it. From there the story follows her as she realizes that her boyfriend and parents are not what she expected them to be with regards to how they deal with her news.
The story is set in 1964 and I think Strayed does a good job with showing that Geraldine is trapped in a world that will not let her be what she truly wants, a mother to the child she bears. I thought the story did a great job of showing Geraldine's turmoil over being pregnant, giving up her child, and then eventually starting again with someone else.
The ending of the story shocked me (in a good way). I liked how the it ended. The main reason why I gave it four stars though is that at times the story just feels like it's rushing towards the ending. I know it's a short story, but I wish we had been given more beats to let it just settle with you. I did re-read it twice in a row after finishing it the first time.
"This Telling" follows teenager Geraldine Waters. Geraldine realizes that she is pregnant and tells her boyfriend who is about to leave for Vietnam. The two of them briefly consider abortion, but Geraldine cannot do it. From there the story follows her as she realizes that her boyfriend and parents are not what she expected them to be with regards to how they deal with her news.
The story is set in 1964 and I think Strayed does a good job with showing that Geraldine is trapped in a world that will not let her be what she truly wants, a mother to the child she bears. I thought the story did a great job of showing Geraldine's turmoil over being pregnant, giving up her child, and then eventually starting again with someone else.
The ending of the story shocked me (in a good way). I liked how the it ended. The main reason why I gave it four stars though is that at times the story just feels like it's rushing towards the ending. I know it's a short story, but I wish we had been given more beats to let it just settle with you. I did re-read it twice in a row after finishing it the first time.
September 8, 2020
It was Eh, and I was disappointed. As an adoptee born in 1967 who’s spent most of her life examining the effects of my birth mother being sent to a maternity home and me being given up for adoption, I feel it oversimplifies the complex dynamics of the Baby Scoop Era and the ramifications for all involved. Strayed could have used this opportunity to really educate about the lasting effects and injustices that still need to be rectified from this time period, but instead did little more that perpetuate stereotypes.
September 5, 2020
4.5 stars
September 14, 2020
The Telling by Cheryl Strayed introduces us to Cheryl a woman who was a teenager in the 1960s, pregnant and forced to give her baby up for adoption. Told in the first-person, it is an intimate exploration of one woman''s grief and anger. Geraldine kept this secret for years, until a DNA test links her to her previously unknown granddaughter. I loved the premise because I am a family historian / genealogist and DNA has helped me to find some distant cousins. I know that these tests are helping to close unsolved cold cases, brought together long-lost family, and at times exposed big lies. It also was honest about the lies we tell ourselves, the secrets we keep and the consequences of that.
This is actually a story that I would have enjoyed more as a novel though. There was so much more I wanted to know. Who was Geraldine? How did this loss impact her life throughout the years. And how did its exposure change her life? I wanted so much more exploration of the emotions involved.
This is actually a story that I would have enjoyed more as a novel though. There was so much more I wanted to know. Who was Geraldine? How did this loss impact her life throughout the years. And how did its exposure change her life? I wanted so much more exploration of the emotions involved.
May 20, 2024
Rating: ⭐ 3.5/5
"She’d kept the secret sealed so tightly inside her for so long it could not be extracted without altering who she was, she realized now. The secret was not separate from her. In the telling of it, she’d come undone."
Set in the mid 1960s, this short story is about 17-year-old Geraldine, who gets pregnant and is sent to an unwed mothers' home by her parents, who fear that she has ruined her life. There, she gives birth to a daughter and is forced to give her up for adoption. The rest of her life is uneventful. She falls in love, gets married, has twins, and lives a full life.
But, can Geraldine forget the incident which changed her forever? Will she get to meet her daughter? Will she grieve the part of her past that slipped away?
This short story is part of the Amazon's Out of Line collection about women stepping out of line and taking control of their own stories. It is well written and deeply moving. However, at 37 pages, it was too short and the ending was quite...unsatisfactory. However, it makes for a quick and poignant read and will appeal to readers of historical fiction.
"She’d kept the secret sealed so tightly inside her for so long it could not be extracted without altering who she was, she realized now. The secret was not separate from her. In the telling of it, she’d come undone."
Set in the mid 1960s, this short story is about 17-year-old Geraldine, who gets pregnant and is sent to an unwed mothers' home by her parents, who fear that she has ruined her life. There, she gives birth to a daughter and is forced to give her up for adoption. The rest of her life is uneventful. She falls in love, gets married, has twins, and lives a full life.
But, can Geraldine forget the incident which changed her forever? Will she get to meet her daughter? Will she grieve the part of her past that slipped away?
This short story is part of the Amazon's Out of Line collection about women stepping out of line and taking control of their own stories. It is well written and deeply moving. However, at 37 pages, it was too short and the ending was quite...unsatisfactory. However, it makes for a quick and poignant read and will appeal to readers of historical fiction.
January 22, 2021
Literature on motherhood
Wonderful literature unfolding what we like to be and what life actually is...
The letter from the grand daughter and the ending are most touching....
Wonderful literature unfolding what we like to be and what life actually is...
The letter from the grand daughter and the ending are most touching....
December 27, 2021
Sometimes, when you read a short story, you can tell it is going to stay with you for awhile. This is one of those stories. Haunting, thoughtful and well-done.
March 2, 2022
4,5 ⭐ loved this!
December 8, 2022
“This Telling’ by Cheryl Strayed is a perfect telling, if a somewhat sweetened Disney cozy version, of how it was when a middle-class teenager girl got pregnant in mid-20th century. Abortion and birth control was illegal back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, as it is virtually in many conservative American states today.
The novella describes how an unwanted pregnancy was usually dealt with in most middle-class and wealthy families, at least, if a girl’s parents knew someone who knew someone (in this case, a secret temporary “home” for unmarried pregnant girls, which were everywhere in the 1950’s and 1960’s). Since main narrator Geraldine Water’s parents did not really get condemnatory, and the parents loved their daughter, they helped her hide her pregnancy and the adopting out of the baby. Geraldine was able to continue the future she hoped for before she got pregnant.
In reality, it was much much worse, for example, if a girl was part of a religious community or had the kind of parents who kicked their daughters out onto the streets without a dime if she got pregnant.
I suggest reading this cozy not only as a historical fiction but as an extropolated future. This is what many current (2022) young pregnant girls can expect once again if they live in a state which condemns young girls morally again like states, communities, parents, friends, churches and neighbors did in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Conservative states are acting to make abortion illegal to make sure girls are “punished” for having sex by being forced to raise a child they didn’t want or without having any financial support. Republican politicians especially have no wish to help raise a baby, a “morally illegal” one (belonging to an unmarried mother) or not.
Current costs: From the day your baby is born until the day they turn 18, your family will spend about $310,605 — or about $17,000 a year, according to a new Brookings Institution analysis of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. The exact amount will vary depending on how much you earn and where you live. Oct. 13, 2022 - the Washington Post
Before the Supreme Court made abortion an illegal crime again if the state you live in chooses to make abortion a criminal and immoral act (conservative states are trying to pass, as I write this review, laws to forbid ALL birth control too), girls didn’t have to lie and move away to hide their pregnancy, or break the law by getting an abortion or use birth control, or drop all plans for college, or be forced into a marriage they don’t want, because they used to be able to take the “morning after pill” or get an abortion. So far, they still can abort or prevent a pregnancy in some American states which continue to have legal abortions and birth control.
Folks weren’t ashamed for the pregnant unmarried girl and her parents before 2022. But since abortion became illegal and immoral again in conservative states, I predict pregnancy gossip will spread like wildfire in high school, and a girl’s reputation and planned future of getting a college education will be “ruined” just as it was in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Women still get very little financial support or professional child care support for their unwanted or unplanned or disabled or premature or sick babies. Grownup women, as well as teenagers, who have more children than they want or can provide for, or who had sick babies that die within hours of birth due to birth defects, or their babies require months of premature hospital care, will owe up to millions of dollars in hospital and healthcare fees.
To raise a disabled, or really, any baby, into adulthood, women have few long-term resources except hope if they do not have a lot of money or a good job with a high salary and a good insurance program. Mothers must hunt continously for those ever-changing and closing/opening short-term programs and sources of financial help, educational support and housing support in each voting-year political administration. Poor women who live in a poor neighborhood don’t have a chance in hell of having access to any helpful free or low-cost child resource programs unless some benefactor organization or friend steps up. Often the “free” program or service only lasts until the next election. As for those religious bait-and-switch pregnancy clinics who lie to pregnant women about providing them with an abortion, they often state they will also help a pregnant woman raise their baby. Their financial help stops shortly after the baby is born. Need to get your 5-year old healthcare, or your kid into a terrific sports program or college, or you need a good childcare service so you can work? Those nice religious clinic folk who told you to have the baby and they promised you will be provided for cannot really give you any money to raise your child very long after birth, nor does God or Republicans seem to help mothers with “free” or low-cost services for 18 years.
Kids of incompetent, abusive or addicted parents are lucky to survive until 18 years of age, much less go on to college. Some American Democrats (used to be many in the past) try to pass bills providing public funding to help mothers raise kids, but lately they do not seem to be able to focus on anything more than keeping their jobs and trying to keep what insufficient services for mothers that they got passed in the past.
Generally, Republicans close down or reduce financing for most public services for the disabled, mentally ill and most programs that support the raising of a child. They believe in the power of prayer and individual self-sufficiency to help mothers raise kids, especially if the child is disabled, sick and unwanted, even if mom is 16 years old, without a driver’s license or car, without a high school degree or any skills whatsoever, including in raising a child, unmarried, and poor, the truth be told. What Republicans mostly provide is the legal means to fund private healthcare companies and businesses. Republicans believe in privatizing healthcare into for-profit businesses, which usually spend most of the taxpayer money on salaries and buildings, real estate and furnishings first, healthcare second. Private healthcare firms often set a lot of conditions, needing a lot of paperwork, to provide healthcare. Clients must have insurance or lots of money, unlike many public healthcare providers who often have financial assistance programs for the poor, and social workers to help those mothers who are teens with paperwork.
Many women worry about what will happen to their disabled older adult children when the mothers become physically weakened due to age, or if they die before their disabled kids die. I have seen a 70-year-old woman struggle with her 50ish-year-old severely mentally disabled son in my senior park. She is terribly concerned about what is going to happen to him. Even if there is room in the few institutions (waiting list) that care for mentally disabled adults (as long as they have no history of violence), she worries that he will have no one. She has had no life but that of watching over him for 50 years. She is alone in caring for him 24/7. He is 6 feet tall, and weighs over 200 lbs., non-verbal. She is a very thin, tired, 5 foot 5 inch lady.
I have seen young women struggle with 8-60 lb. disabled baby/toddlers. Lunchdates, much less vacations or continuous full-time jobs, are a no-go. When mom is middle-aged, the struggles increase exponentially, and she is suffering horrible stress with physical and especially financial difficulties, to care for a full-grown, 200+ lb. adult disabled child. The struggle to keep such a child, especially an adult disabled child, in a beneficial childcare or other social services program, is endless. Many marriages come apart under the stress. I have seen young mothers come undone, and give up their disabled kid after all the vows of motherhood become impossible to actually carry out. Prayers and hope, and lots of broken promises from family and friends to help, do not end up solving the issues. None have in my personal experience, other than the elderly lady in my senior park, who has been dependent on finding many many many different services through the years, despite the closing down or shrinking, and then the opening, for awhile, of new resources and funding. Just finding social service programs for her ‘kid’ has been a full-time, and often stressful, job. Currently, it’s a worry because her adult son has a history of slight violence. It is a real difference between a toddler hitting another toddler who ‘stole’ his toy, and an irritated mentally-disabled adult man hitting someone because he can’t do what he wants.
Some lucky families, usually those with a lot of money and/or resources, committed family members, carry on though.
Many schools and colleges used to kick out pregnant unmarried girls because she was pregnant back in the “golden” days of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Employers fired unmarried girls for being pregnant because their unmarried pregnancy showed they must be immoral and deviant (or “unnatural women” as stated in many companies’ employment rules of conduct) by community standards. Many men considered a woman who had a child “out of wedlock” a prostitute. Men wouldn’t ever marry a woman who had had a child without a husband, but they would attempt to rape her, or turn her into their mistress on the side if they were married. True stories.
I have copied the novella’s book blurb below:
A genealogy test sparks a woman’s reflection on the two accounts of her life—the real one and the one she’s always told the world—in this poignant short story by Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild.
In 1964 teenage Geraldine Waters was sent away by her parents to an unwed mothers’ home, where she gave up her newborn for adoption. Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.
Cheryl Strayed’s This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
When I read this novella, it did indeed provoke a lot of thoughts…
The novella describes how an unwanted pregnancy was usually dealt with in most middle-class and wealthy families, at least, if a girl’s parents knew someone who knew someone (in this case, a secret temporary “home” for unmarried pregnant girls, which were everywhere in the 1950’s and 1960’s). Since main narrator Geraldine Water’s parents did not really get condemnatory, and the parents loved their daughter, they helped her hide her pregnancy and the adopting out of the baby. Geraldine was able to continue the future she hoped for before she got pregnant.
In reality, it was much much worse, for example, if a girl was part of a religious community or had the kind of parents who kicked their daughters out onto the streets without a dime if she got pregnant.
I suggest reading this cozy not only as a historical fiction but as an extropolated future. This is what many current (2022) young pregnant girls can expect once again if they live in a state which condemns young girls morally again like states, communities, parents, friends, churches and neighbors did in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Conservative states are acting to make abortion illegal to make sure girls are “punished” for having sex by being forced to raise a child they didn’t want or without having any financial support. Republican politicians especially have no wish to help raise a baby, a “morally illegal” one (belonging to an unmarried mother) or not.
Current costs: From the day your baby is born until the day they turn 18, your family will spend about $310,605 — or about $17,000 a year, according to a new Brookings Institution analysis of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. The exact amount will vary depending on how much you earn and where you live. Oct. 13, 2022 - the Washington Post
Before the Supreme Court made abortion an illegal crime again if the state you live in chooses to make abortion a criminal and immoral act (conservative states are trying to pass, as I write this review, laws to forbid ALL birth control too), girls didn’t have to lie and move away to hide their pregnancy, or break the law by getting an abortion or use birth control, or drop all plans for college, or be forced into a marriage they don’t want, because they used to be able to take the “morning after pill” or get an abortion. So far, they still can abort or prevent a pregnancy in some American states which continue to have legal abortions and birth control.
Folks weren’t ashamed for the pregnant unmarried girl and her parents before 2022. But since abortion became illegal and immoral again in conservative states, I predict pregnancy gossip will spread like wildfire in high school, and a girl’s reputation and planned future of getting a college education will be “ruined” just as it was in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Women still get very little financial support or professional child care support for their unwanted or unplanned or disabled or premature or sick babies. Grownup women, as well as teenagers, who have more children than they want or can provide for, or who had sick babies that die within hours of birth due to birth defects, or their babies require months of premature hospital care, will owe up to millions of dollars in hospital and healthcare fees.
To raise a disabled, or really, any baby, into adulthood, women have few long-term resources except hope if they do not have a lot of money or a good job with a high salary and a good insurance program. Mothers must hunt continously for those ever-changing and closing/opening short-term programs and sources of financial help, educational support and housing support in each voting-year political administration. Poor women who live in a poor neighborhood don’t have a chance in hell of having access to any helpful free or low-cost child resource programs unless some benefactor organization or friend steps up. Often the “free” program or service only lasts until the next election. As for those religious bait-and-switch pregnancy clinics who lie to pregnant women about providing them with an abortion, they often state they will also help a pregnant woman raise their baby. Their financial help stops shortly after the baby is born. Need to get your 5-year old healthcare, or your kid into a terrific sports program or college, or you need a good childcare service so you can work? Those nice religious clinic folk who told you to have the baby and they promised you will be provided for cannot really give you any money to raise your child very long after birth, nor does God or Republicans seem to help mothers with “free” or low-cost services for 18 years.
Kids of incompetent, abusive or addicted parents are lucky to survive until 18 years of age, much less go on to college. Some American Democrats (used to be many in the past) try to pass bills providing public funding to help mothers raise kids, but lately they do not seem to be able to focus on anything more than keeping their jobs and trying to keep what insufficient services for mothers that they got passed in the past.
Generally, Republicans close down or reduce financing for most public services for the disabled, mentally ill and most programs that support the raising of a child. They believe in the power of prayer and individual self-sufficiency to help mothers raise kids, especially if the child is disabled, sick and unwanted, even if mom is 16 years old, without a driver’s license or car, without a high school degree or any skills whatsoever, including in raising a child, unmarried, and poor, the truth be told. What Republicans mostly provide is the legal means to fund private healthcare companies and businesses. Republicans believe in privatizing healthcare into for-profit businesses, which usually spend most of the taxpayer money on salaries and buildings, real estate and furnishings first, healthcare second. Private healthcare firms often set a lot of conditions, needing a lot of paperwork, to provide healthcare. Clients must have insurance or lots of money, unlike many public healthcare providers who often have financial assistance programs for the poor, and social workers to help those mothers who are teens with paperwork.
Many women worry about what will happen to their disabled older adult children when the mothers become physically weakened due to age, or if they die before their disabled kids die. I have seen a 70-year-old woman struggle with her 50ish-year-old severely mentally disabled son in my senior park. She is terribly concerned about what is going to happen to him. Even if there is room in the few institutions (waiting list) that care for mentally disabled adults (as long as they have no history of violence), she worries that he will have no one. She has had no life but that of watching over him for 50 years. She is alone in caring for him 24/7. He is 6 feet tall, and weighs over 200 lbs., non-verbal. She is a very thin, tired, 5 foot 5 inch lady.
I have seen young women struggle with 8-60 lb. disabled baby/toddlers. Lunchdates, much less vacations or continuous full-time jobs, are a no-go. When mom is middle-aged, the struggles increase exponentially, and she is suffering horrible stress with physical and especially financial difficulties, to care for a full-grown, 200+ lb. adult disabled child. The struggle to keep such a child, especially an adult disabled child, in a beneficial childcare or other social services program, is endless. Many marriages come apart under the stress. I have seen young mothers come undone, and give up their disabled kid after all the vows of motherhood become impossible to actually carry out. Prayers and hope, and lots of broken promises from family and friends to help, do not end up solving the issues. None have in my personal experience, other than the elderly lady in my senior park, who has been dependent on finding many many many different services through the years, despite the closing down or shrinking, and then the opening, for awhile, of new resources and funding. Just finding social service programs for her ‘kid’ has been a full-time, and often stressful, job. Currently, it’s a worry because her adult son has a history of slight violence. It is a real difference between a toddler hitting another toddler who ‘stole’ his toy, and an irritated mentally-disabled adult man hitting someone because he can’t do what he wants.
Some lucky families, usually those with a lot of money and/or resources, committed family members, carry on though.
Many schools and colleges used to kick out pregnant unmarried girls because she was pregnant back in the “golden” days of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Employers fired unmarried girls for being pregnant because their unmarried pregnancy showed they must be immoral and deviant (or “unnatural women” as stated in many companies’ employment rules of conduct) by community standards. Many men considered a woman who had a child “out of wedlock” a prostitute. Men wouldn’t ever marry a woman who had had a child without a husband, but they would attempt to rape her, or turn her into their mistress on the side if they were married. True stories.
I have copied the novella’s book blurb below:
A genealogy test sparks a woman’s reflection on the two accounts of her life—the real one and the one she’s always told the world—in this poignant short story by Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild.
In 1964 teenage Geraldine Waters was sent away by her parents to an unwed mothers’ home, where she gave up her newborn for adoption. Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.
Cheryl Strayed’s This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
When I read this novella, it did indeed provoke a lot of thoughts…
October 24, 2020
This is a short story by Cheryl Strayed, the author of Wild.
It is historical fiction involving Geraldine, a teen in the 1960’s, who is pregnant.
I am not sure what would be “a spoiler” in a summary, so I will not go into detail about the storyline.
Cheryl Strayed has captured the cultural norms of the 1960’s very well. The story seems to end very abruptly, which worked for me. It is very thought-provoking.
I recommend it for readers of all ages. The story is “An Amazon Original” which is part of a series of short stories by known authors. The format is both audio and e print. The narration was excellent.
I rate this story 4 stars.
It is historical fiction involving Geraldine, a teen in the 1960’s, who is pregnant.
I am not sure what would be “a spoiler” in a summary, so I will not go into detail about the storyline.
Cheryl Strayed has captured the cultural norms of the 1960’s very well. The story seems to end very abruptly, which worked for me. It is very thought-provoking.
I recommend it for readers of all ages. The story is “An Amazon Original” which is part of a series of short stories by known authors. The format is both audio and e print. The narration was excellent.
I rate this story 4 stars.
September 22, 2020
Telling of a Life
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook (September 2020)
This was a beautiful short story that takes a sweeping view of a woman's life from the time of her unwanted teenage pregnancy to a surprise towards the end of life revelation. It builds very effective suspense and drama throughout.
This Telling is one of seven Amazon Kindle eBooks released September 1, 2020 as part of their Amazon Original Out of Line collection of short stories about women taking control.
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook (September 2020)
This was a beautiful short story that takes a sweeping view of a woman's life from the time of her unwanted teenage pregnancy to a surprise towards the end of life revelation. It builds very effective suspense and drama throughout.
This Telling is one of seven Amazon Kindle eBooks released September 1, 2020 as part of their Amazon Original Out of Line collection of short stories about women taking control.
April 3, 2024
I think I read this before. So much of it seemed familiar. And when I opened the story on my Kindle, it was at the end, not the beginning. But I've been recording everything I read here on Goodreads since I joined in 2014. I'm starting to feel like I'm losing it. Oh, well, the story was actually published in 2020, and that was a pretty crazy, mixed-up time, so I guess maybe I need to give myself a break.
This story is initially set in the 1960s, and it involves a 17-year-old girl, Geraldine, who gets pregnant. Her boyfriend, Jim, is not a gem, to say the least. First he takes her to get an abortion. When Geraldine cannot go through with it, they make plans to get married. Jim leaves her not at the altar, but at the courthouse.
So Geraldine's parents convince her to go to a home for unwed mothers and give her daughter up for adoption. This was a very difficult decision for Geraldine and it haunted her for the rest of her life.
Geraldine does go on to live a "normal" life - she gets married, has twins (a boy and a girl), goes through the rites of passage that most of us go through over the years. Does she ever find out what happened to her daughter? You'll have to read the story to find out.
This story is initially set in the 1960s, and it involves a 17-year-old girl, Geraldine, who gets pregnant. Her boyfriend, Jim, is not a gem, to say the least. First he takes her to get an abortion. When Geraldine cannot go through with it, they make plans to get married. Jim leaves her not at the altar, but at the courthouse.
So Geraldine's parents convince her to go to a home for unwed mothers and give her daughter up for adoption. This was a very difficult decision for Geraldine and it haunted her for the rest of her life.
Geraldine does go on to live a "normal" life - she gets married, has twins (a boy and a girl), goes through the rites of passage that most of us go through over the years. Does she ever find out what happened to her daughter? You'll have to read the story to find out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 12, 2023
Whew, what an emotional read. This short story swept me up and kept me interested the whole time. I felt for Geraldine and modern technology is making it very hard nowadays to keep some skeletons in the closet, so to speak. Overall this was an exploration of what it might mean to be in a situation where you can't decide for yourself but are 'forced'/talked into making a decision based on someone else's ideas. In this case it was Geraldine having to give up her baby for adoption when she gave birth at only 17/18. I liked that we got to follow her throughout her life
February 24, 2021
I really loved this. I only wish there was a long version of it. These stories of adoption, of miscarriage, of abortion are so important. Let us not whisper them or take them to our graves. Let us tell them.
May 19, 2024
This is a story about giving up a baby for adoption and finding out one’s genealogy. It was written well and the audiobook narration was spot on, but it somehow lacked a depth; thus, not so memorable.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
February 11, 2022
⭐⭐⭐ ½
January 30, 2021
This was a sad story in many ways. It certainly had a depressing start to it. Im not even sure if the ending was happy or sad though!
We follow Geraldine throughout her life from when she finds she is pregnant at a young age, being sent away and giving up her baby, to carrying on with the rest of her life. A sad topic when a young girl is faced with the harsh realities of having to adopt her baby and this was written sympathetically and with what felt like honesty.
This is a new series of Amazon short books which is centered on the theme of female empowerment in some way, with all female writers. An interesting book yes and well told but ultimately I felt that the story came to nothing in the end. There was no satisfying conclusion.
I’m giving this a mediocre 3*/5, it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t great either.
We follow Geraldine throughout her life from when she finds she is pregnant at a young age, being sent away and giving up her baby, to carrying on with the rest of her life. A sad topic when a young girl is faced with the harsh realities of having to adopt her baby and this was written sympathetically and with what felt like honesty.
This is a new series of Amazon short books which is centered on the theme of female empowerment in some way, with all female writers. An interesting book yes and well told but ultimately I felt that the story came to nothing in the end. There was no satisfying conclusion.
I’m giving this a mediocre 3*/5, it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t great either.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 516 reviews