Graceful Burdens by Roxane Gay

Graceful Burdens Reviews

• 
  Brat

  Roxane! We need a full book about this! Whew!
• 
  luce (tired and a little on edge)

  / / /
  Read more reviews on my blog / / /
  
  2 ½ stars
  
  Graceful Burdens is a competently written short story that is very much concerned with reproductive justice. This story presents us with a world in which some women do not meet the necessary 'requirements' to be mothers and therefore are not allowed to reproduce. Some 'unfit mothers' borrow babies from a 'baby library', others are grateful not to have to reproduce. Of course, there are also those who have no choice but to reproduce. The reality Roxane Gay writes of is sadly not wholly unimaginable (I come from a country that makes it nearly impossible to have an abortion, and where
  an anti-choice group buried the foetuses of women who miscarried or had abortions without their knowledge/consent ).
  The thing is Gay doesn't do anything expectational prose, plot or world-building wise. There are many other novels that explore similar concepts (to name a few: The Handmaid's Tale, Red Clocks, The Farm) with much more depth.
• 
  Sara

  I listened to this at 2am with an insomnia riddled brain so my review isn't going to be amazing. However, that said I really enjoyed this. It was very feminist, very much about reproductive rights and the various societal roles women take on (whether they want them or not), and their perceived worth depending on whether they are mothers or not. I found it quite thought provoking, and I liked the various women's voices. It had definite
  The Handmaid's Tale vibes, and for such a short novella I thought you could grasp enough of the dystopian world and social structure to understand what was happening and really imagine the setting.
  
  If anything I just wanted it to be longer.
• 
  Michelle

  This 21 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 lives?
  
  All women are screened at 16 for their suitability to procreate and based on those results you are given a license to procreate or not and that's all I'm going to tell you because anything more would be a spoiler in this short story but know this is excellent.
  
  I cant believe how much is packed into such few words. I could read a whole book set in this world.  I really enjoyed the different reactions and rules to being licensed or unlicensed as a woman.
  
  I have been wanting to try this author for a while now and I'm fully convinced now that I need to read more from her.
  
  This 7 book collection is exclusive to Amazon and a great way to try out some new authors.
• 
  Julie Ehlers

  Another lackluster stop on my journey through the Amazon standalone short stories. A lot of this seemed derivative of The Handmaid's Tale and the parts that weren't didn't make much sense; I think more world-building was in order here. Also, the point of view switches midway through to a character who's almost cartoonish in her horribleness. It eventually switches back, but the additional viewpoint wasn't necessary and the story would have been better without it. I liked Gay's An Untamed State, so I'm not giving up on her fiction, but this was not a great reading experience.
• 
  Jo (The Book Geek)

  This story is from the "Out of line" collection, and what what I know, the primary subject matter, is women taking control. This one, was in a dystopian setting, and the women are ruled by people, that choose whether or not you are fit to raise a child. If you are deemed unfit to be a Mother, you can always loan a child, at the local library, just like Hadley did, and this is her story.
  
  The writing was accessible, and the characters were developed enough despite the length of this story.
  
  I thought the idea behind this was intriguing, if not a little strange, but I think it was certainly worth the read.
• 
  aPriL does feral sometimes

  Roxane Gay crucifies male conservative reactionaries in ‘Graceful Burdens’. I LOVED this short novella! I also hated this short novella, because it is now possible it could actually happen in some form.
  
  I have copied the book blurb because it is accurate:
  
  ”From New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay comes an unforgettable tale of nightmarish bureaucracy in which genetic profiling has redefined the “unfit mother.”
  
  A trip to the library prompts one woman to question her fate in this galvanizing short story. For a woman like Hadley, deemed not acceptable to procreate, there’s only one recourse. Unlicensed for motherhood, she can alleviate her grief and frustration at a “baby library,” where a curiously endless supply of infants is available for a two-week loan. But the borrowed life that serves as a temporary balm leads to a journey of self-discovery that will forever change the direction of Hadley’s future.
  
  Roxane Gay’s Graceful Burdens 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.”
  
  Spoiler: none of the characters are men! While men have created a patriarchy controlling women’s bodies utterly, the story is only from the viewpoint of women, and how they are living under this strange fictionalized patriarchal society of America. When men take control of American laws to legalize male power over women, restructuring society to forbid women from deciding what rights women have in reproduction decisions, it ALWAYS leads to extremely bent laws. Full stop.
  
  I was alive in the real-life era before women could control their reproductive choices, when birth control was illegal in America, when abortion was illegal in America until mid-20th century, when unmarried pregnant girls were turned into immoral pariahs even if raped by their fathers. Men who raped did not lose any social standing, unlike women, indeed, males were often protected by laws and the police.
  
  Married women were respected only for being housewives and mothers and beauty, and not for any other attributes, like intelligence or their education. Being an intelligent or educated female ruined her in the opinion of most men, made her unsuitable for marriage. If a woman wanted children, she had to obey and live and have children under the laws made and designed for male privilege. If a woman did not want children, she was often forced to have children anyway. There were no female escapees from male domination of women’s bodies. I am not kidding or exaggerating. I was there. Watch 1950 American ‘family’ movies. They are my proof. Worse, in these mainstream movies all of the actresses are forced into taking the only scripted roles available for them if they wanted to work as actresses: of always appearing happy and fulfilled in being wives and mothers. They all must work onscreen and off on staying beautiful for the eyes and pleasure of men, and the camera.
  
  I saw the results of enforced motherhood in America, the results of women’s bodies under the strict control and command of men, amplified by forbidding women to have their own money under any circumstances, even if she was allowed to work by the men in her life. The work of women, if they worked in a paid job, was considered too shameful and disgusting for men to do: the paid jobs which involved serving others, like cleaning, nursing, teaching. Equal pay for equal work was a laughable concept, especially since women were forbidden to attend many colleges or if permitted to attend a college, forbidden to study any STEM classes or get a STEM degree or job. The real social calamities of all women, no matter their financial or physical resources, no matter if they wanted children or not, or how many children they wanted, was of being forced to have or not have children, or what numbers of children to conceive, decided by only a man, never the woman. If she DARED to choose to have a baby or not have a baby, to make the decision without a man’s input, heaven help her. Of course, every original text of all religions around the world hates any equality of the genders and the majority of religious texts preach against the autonomy of women, a fact which has been airbrushed over in Western countries.
  
  And now, male domination and control over women’s bodies is back in many American states, using the law, religion and force.
• 
  Laura

  Powerful short fiction highlighting the dangers of government controlling all aspects of our lives. Women are resilient and there will always be those brave enough to resist.
• 
  H.A. Leuschel

  Gripping, thought-provoking short story!
• 
  Tammy

  I love dystopian novels and this short story was so good, I wished it were a novel!
• 
  Melki

  Gay presents a disturbing, dystopian view of a world where reproductive freedom is controlled by the government, only not in the way you may think. Instead of outlawing abortion, this fictional governing body, in a bizarre form of eugenics, seeks only to allow certain individuals to reproduce. Women who are not judged as qualified to raise "acceptable" children? Why, they only need to visit the local library, and check out an infant to assuage their baby hunger.
  
  This one grabbed me right from the first sentence, and didn't let go. A fascinating freebie for Amazon Prime members.
  
  
• 
  Cheryl

  This had quite a hard hitting beginning which really caught my attention. A dystopian future where babies are the issue in this troubled world; only a few privileged and genetically perfect women are allowed to conceive. So as you might expect we have women who want to be mothers and are denied the chance and visa versa, rather obviously.
  
  It did make me think but it was so baby focused I couldn’t quite empathise, also it seemed like men and women just didn’t like each other any more, let alone love, all because of babies.
  
  Sadly this was too short to be much of anything, I suppose it’s a starting point for your own thoughts but as a story it falls short, because it is too short. It would/could be a great story if it had more detail and explanations but as it was I felt half the story was missing.
  
• 
  Obsidian

  I did like this one, but thought there were too many holes in the story to truly give it five stars. Also the whole borrow a baby thing was just bizarre and felt like it would be more suited to a Black Mirror episode where you don't have to set that up. Since this was a short story, I thought that Doctor Gay left too many questions for me while reading and the end. I still did think it was a solid piece of story-telling though.
  
  "Graceful Burdens" is set in a world where some women are allowed to procreate, and others are not. In this new world due to your genetic material you are deemed worthy of giving birth and having a child. Even if your genetic material is deemed not great, if you are rich enough you can spend enough to get a designer baby of your own. The story then shifts when we follow a young woman named Hadley who leaves her Mormon family when she is deemed unable/unfit to have a baby. The story follows her as she goes off to borrow a baby from the library (yes this is a thing). The story also follows a woman who marries and gives birth to two children and wonders why she did any of those things.
  
  I think if the story had just stayed with Hadley it would have worked better. I think when we jump to the mother with the two kids in order to tie the story to two other characters down the line the book loses its mojo at that point.
  
  I do like the questions the story asks though, what do you become once you are deemed unfit by society. We have Hadley reacting in different ways and still longing for children. She just didn't want to be forced to stay with her family and raise her siblings.
  
  The ending felt off to me though. If there is really this super society out there tracking babies and stuff it seems a bit out there something like this can actually have been set up without anyone noticing.
• 
  Natasha Niezgoda

  This needed to be longer. Ugh, it was just on the cusp of brilliant.
• 
  Kori ☾

  Read it in one night. I need a full novel with all these characters and their complex issues in a messed up world that Roxane created. I loved it!
• 
  Alicia

  Roxane Gay has done it again! She never fails to take my breath away or draw me so deeply into a story. Only 21 pages, but each page packs a punch.
  
  I love dystopian novels and
  Graceful Burdens takes us into this alternate [or not so distant] future and shows the effects of the government dictating what women can and cannot do with their bodies. Only those they deem fit can have kids. Those that aren't as worthy aren't allowed kids, and, if they have them, the kids end up just as the government sees them, slaves.
  
  

  "It absolved the Federated States of their culpability in thinking they had any right to control who bore children and who did not."

  
  
  A poignant book just in time for us to focus in on what really matters before elections.
• 
  Maike

  In the alternate reality of Graceful Burdens, you have to pass a genetic screening to be allowed to have children. Those who fail can only numb their desperation and longing by checking out babies from the library. Yes, a two week loan, no, renewals are not allowed. One has to wonder – where do these library infants come from?
  
  
  Full review on our blog.
• 
  Bobbieshiann

  So short but worth the read. Gay has found a way to emphasize the lack of control women have over their own bodies. How there is an "order" to be considered worthy or not. Not being able to reproduce lessons your value and you are now limited to renting a baby from a library or being a helper. Gay shows what happens when women break free of the norm and start to reconnect with themselves versus societies structure.
• 
  Satomi

  I wish this short story was a full length novel.
  
  This book is written by Roxane Gay and I am convinced that it is. This is something she likely to write.
• 
  Claire (Book Blog Bird)

  Super short story about a dystopian society where couples have to be licensed to have babies and mysterious baby libraries will lend you a baby if your maternal instinct gets too strong but you've not been licensed to have babies of your own.
• 
  Mariana

  WHAT. I need this to be a whole damn book ASAP!!!!
• 
  Misty

  So good!
  Too short!
• 
  Anushree

  What if genetic profiling by the government decided if one should procreate at all and with whom? What happens to those who can't be mothers but want to, and what about those who had the right genes but not the will? This dystopian story is fast-paced and plagued with intriguing questions. The premise is unique and the characters stick out though their scope is limited by the few pages.
• 
  Kerry

  This short story has a Handmaid’s Tale vibe. I wish it was longer, this would make for a really good novel.
• 
  Lowrie

  so good! love her and love the dystopian but slightly hopeful story. brilliant concept, would actually love it to be a bit longer to get some more nuanced info!
• 
  Stephy Simon

  The Freedom we enjoy becomes priceless once it becomes unattainable. Roxane Gay has given her best to create a dystopian world where the government takes control of even things like who should marry and who shouldn't. Giving the wavelength of George Orwell's 1984, this story made it extremely difficult for me to calm my mind while reading it.
  4* because I ail for more perhaps a novel, the storyline has the potential for it.
• 
  Shaneka Knight

  No international travel means no finishing books in bulk. Like sometimes I would carry multiple in my carry on. I still always carry a book whilst travelling around, such a great way to pass the time. Today, I forgot my book at home (well yesterday). So downloaded this for free!
  
  What a pleasant surprise took me straight to dystopian hell haha. I loved it!!
• 
  Alan Teder

  The Baby Borrower's Tale
  Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook (September 2020)
  
  This was an effective short story that was set in a future dystopia. The tie-ins and the conclusion were completely unexpected.
  
  Graceful Burdens 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.
• 
  Anita

  Amazon's Out of Line collection
  Not bad short similar to The Testaments, book 2 of THT, when things are already the way they are and our MC stumbles into an underground. I'm a little confused about our second POV though that didn't lead to anything.
• 
  Lekeisha The Booknerd

  I now want a full novel.