“Eleven Hours” is a Short, Informative Take on Pregnancy

“She’s in labor,” Franckline explains, calmly, and the articulation of the obvious makes the disproving woman’s eyes lose their sharpness. She tips her head in acquiescence and turns to her friend. “She’s going to have a baby.”

This was a strange little book—less than 200 pages, following two pregnant women as they become close at a hospital where one is about to give birth. There were no chapter breaks and the narratives flickered from the past to present.

I really liked the compelling writing, the way the author pulled the reader into the minds of Lore and Franckline, one a single, soon-to-be mother, the other a nurse.

Lore has a very specific birth plan—she doesn’t want an IV, fetal monitor, or epidural. When the doctors tell her her ring is cutting off blood flow and she may lose a finger if they don’t remove it, Lore isn’t even remotely concerned.

Franckline is from Haiti and disowned by her family. Ever since she was young, she’s been gifted with assisting women give birth. When she first meets Lore, she finds the quiet, lonely woman who has no problem saying “no” strange, but she is patient and looks after her.

These two women’s narratives flowed together so they almost felt like one mind. The author showed the emotions pregnancy brings: fear, anxiety, and happiness. Lore loved her unborn child, but she couldn’t help remembering her past and wondering how she would provide for her new son or daughter. She decided she would be both the mother and father of the child.

“These last months Lore has often woken in the morning aware of some fearsome fact she cannot quite place. She has groped uneasily until finally, with a stab of fear, she remembers again: The baby will have to come out.”

I enjoyed this unique, unsettling story, but by the time I finished it I was left wanting something more. Erens impressively managed to develop the plot and characters very well in the short duration of pages, but I would have liked to see how Franckline and Lore’s stories played out even later. The ending felt too unfinished.