Title: Knocked Down

Author: Aileen Weintraub

Audiobook Length: 9 hours and 8 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography

Read Start Date: February 23, 2022

Read Finish Date: February 25, 2022

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: Aileen Weintraub has been running away from commitment her entire life, hopping from one job and one relationship to the next. When her father suddenly dies, she flees her Jewish Brooklyn community for the wilds of the country, where she unexpectedly falls in love with a man who knows a lot about produce, tractors, and how to take a person down in one jiu-jitsu move. Within months of saying “I do” she’s pregnant, life is on track, and then wham! Her doctor slaps a high-risk label on her uterus and sends her to bed for five months.

As her husband’s bucolic (and possibly haunted) farmhouse begins to collapse and her marriage starts to do the same, Weintraub finally confronts her grief for her father while fighting for the survival of her unborn baby. In her precarious situation, will she stay or will she once again run away from it all?

My Review: I received this book from Netgalley as an ARC. To be honest, I requested this book in part because it was one of the few audiobooks available on Netgalley, but also because the cover is so eye popping! I love the pink. The title is also very apt. I interpret it to be a play on words. Instead of being “knocked up”, the author is “knocked down” by her “incompetent uterus”, which forces her to endure months and months of bedrest.

Having just given birth to my first baby 6 months ago, this book really resonated with me. Pregnancy is not easy, even when it is normal. I cannot imagine being stuck laying down for months on end! I really liked the author’s candor and humor throughout the memoir. If I had been in her position: everything seeming to fail around her, from her body, to her house, to her new marriage, I am not sure that I could have taken it with such a good nature, nor would I have been able to see the humor in it all.

I also liked that the book was not only about her pregnancy, but it also dived into the author’s past and took an honest look at the relationship with her parents and religion, and the conflicts inherent in both. I feel like this really rounded out the book and gave the reader more insight into the author as a person, not just a pregnant person.

The only con for me was the audiobook narration. It was so monotone, which did not suit the story. I was also not impressed with the accent that the narrator used when speaking the dialogue for Weintraub’s mother and father: she went for the stereotypical “Jewish” accent, which was a tad offensive.

Therefore, I would definitely recommend this book, but only in a written format.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.