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The Family Way, Tony Parsons
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

A male author writing about pregnancy and childbirth has a refreshing zing to it. Getting over my initial "... what would he know about contractions?" didn't take long. Tony Parsons is, after all, a writer who has earned stunning success with his novels Man and Boy, One for my Baby and Man and Wife.

So how does this former gin factory worker tackle the subjects of procreation, relationships, abortion, IVF and the whole elusive business of creating happy families?

The book tracks the chosen pathways of three sisters – surname Jewell. First-born, Cat, is predictably scathing of parenthood, since she was the one who at the age of 12 had to care for her two little sisters when Mum walked out. Her partner, Rory, is equally scarred: "Rory looked at the shattered fragments of his former family, and he yearned for the impossible – to somehow make it whole again ... The sexual images we are bombarded with every day – what did they have to do with the possibility of a new human being, another life, building a family of your own? Nothing at all."

Next sister Jessica desperately wants a baby with doting car-salesman hubby Paolo. Mother Nature appears to be failing them and they embark on a journey through the avenues of first IVF and then adoption. China is a vast country with baby girls to spare. Jessica badly needs the support of her sisters, but they are consumed with their own trials.

Third sister Megan is an incredibly dedicated junior doctor. She's the focused one, the "successful" one. One party and two drinks too many produce a roll in the sack with a cute Australian diving instructor named Kirk. Doctor Jewell is left pregnant, appalled at her sloppy behaviour, embarrassed, and faced with some heart-stopping decisions.

I really like the male characters in The Family Way. There's an uplifting honesty in their stories. As Tony Parsons says, "Pregnancy is like flying – the difficult bits are take-off and landing."

You can tell he has spoken to hundreds of women to get his raw material, yet the male perspective on love, sex and women is disarmingly there, too. The topic of making babies – or not, is a hot one.