Anna

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Loizeaux describes how he and his wife coped with the death of his infant daughter in this intimate, harrowing journal. (Sept.)

Library Journal

VATER syndrome, a rare condition of vertebral defects, imperforate anus, and radial/renal dysplasia that combine to form a host of congenital anomalies, remains undetectable by amniocentesis. It therefore came as an awful surprise to the author and his wife when their daughter Anna was born with the condition and when, five months later, despite multiple procedures and operations, she died. This memoir of Anna's life, written in clear, moving prose, chronicles the time with her as well as the year after her death. It is a heartbreaking story, but the author's skill and eloquence make it unforgettable. While it also discusses a baby's death, Elizabeth Mehren's Born Too Soon ( LJ 6/1/91) lacks the memorable writing style of this book. Very highly recommended.-- Janet M. Coggan, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville

Kirkus Reviews

An eloquent, extraordinarily painful memoir of a father's loss of his baby daughter. The author (a Maryland-based writer) and his wife, Beth, bore a daughter in January 1989. Her name was Anna. Five months later, she was dead, of something called VATER syndrome—a series of congenital anomalies involving her heart and esophagus, as well as her gastrointestinal system. A series of operations brought Anna to the point of functioning without mechanical help, but she died from unexplained complications following what was deemed a successful attempt to repair the valves in her heart. That's the medical picture. Her father paints another—of intense emotion, of loss, longing, and fear, of empty spaces and silence—but also of courage, devotion, commitment, and the revelations about oneself and the world that only a child can bring. He also gives us a portrait of Anna, of a beautiful, brave, happy infant with wild black hair and long thumbs who cooed and cried and smiled at strangers. There are no easy answers here, no mystical or religious surrender to the unknowable ways of the Almighty. There are no answers here at all, and that, in part, is the power of Loizeaux's story. "I can offer no prescription for dealing with the losses that we all inevitably face," he says, "except to live them and share them as fully as we can." On behalf of his daughter, Loizeaux shares his sorrow with heartbreaking honesty.