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I don’t know if I would have picked up this book based solely on the premise, but that combined with the author made it irresistible. I have read one of Frankl’s books, Goodbye for Now, but it was just beautiful, sweet, and poignant.
The premise truly is crazy. A 77-year-old woman gets pregnant. Not on purpose — no assisted reproductive technology. She just has sex after years not having it.
When Pepper Mills gets into a minor accident, her children decide she’s too old to drive, indeed too old to live on her own anymore. So they arrange for her to move to a retirement home. It’s convenient for everyone, but not at all what she wants. But she apparently doesn’t get much of a say in her life anymore.
Pepper is pleased to make some new friends and surprised to meet a really good man with whom she just clicks. After years of being single, divorced from her husband when the kids were grown, it’s sweet to find love. They become an item and intimate fairly quickly.
When she starts feeling queasy and confused, of course she goes to the doctor. And the news is a huge shock for everyone: she’s pregnant.
As the pregnancy shockingly continues to progress, eventually word gets out about this medical marvel. Or miracle, as some call it. And of course everyone in the world wants to meet her, interview her, use her to promote some cause or the other. All Pepper wants is to be left alone to try to figure out how to deal with this situation. But, as it recently has been, her life is apparently not her own. Choice? Autonomy? Hardly.
Enormous Wings explores aging, life, death, family, friendship, and love. It also inevitably deeply explores women’s autonomy and choice about what happens with/in their bodies. So for those who are still very much anti-abortion, this novel will feel very uncomfortable. They may see the book as posturing and creating a ridiculous scenario to prove a point. But it is a fascinating exploration of what is happening in the US today after the passage of Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022. I found it curious, thought-provoking, and fascinating. There’s lots to chew on here. I think it would be excellent for a book club discussion.
On top of that, Enormous Wings is a book that’s well written and sweet. Frankl is a talented writer and I once again so enjoyed her work.
Rated: High, but just over the line from moderate. Profanity includes 8 uses of strong language, 35 instances of moderate profanity, about 20 uses of mild language, and fewer than 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes kissing and some more actions before closed door scene.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
