This book opens with a mention of a trip to Israel. From a look at the author's Instagram this appeared to take place in 2022, she has subsequently said nothing about Palestine. I do not wish to continue to read further based on this so will not be providing a comprehensive review.

3.5 Stars

This book made me appriciate "Women" by Chloe Caldwell way more! I wasn't a fan of the alcohol and drug consumption (still not!) but I get it more!

This book was really personal in a way that it wasn't written for me but it was educational and moving from the author. I personal don't have a wish for children, I don't consider myself that age yet to even think about that in more detail. It was really nice to lean and read about Chloes history. The desparation, the wanting , the longing all really moved me. I learned alot about IUI and IVF and I feel like some of this should be common knowledge or atleast more talked about. The pain you put your body and mind through is harsh.

What made me give the book two stars less ist that at times I find the writing style not my kind of jam. I get the spintered way of telling it cause it's really fragments of her life but I am just made for it. I tend to let my concentration fly away while reading something like this. Its me not you for sure!

I liked especially her journey about her sexuality and all her thoughts concerning w/w relationships trying and being in that process. The differneces in treatment and how you get a diagnostic is really shocking.

I wnat to recommend this to all the people wanting to try, still trying and who gave up trying! It's heartwarming and informative!

Stream of conscious is not usually my thing but reading Caldwell's prose was like living inside her head and made the writing all the more impactful. At times, I wanted more but at others I really appreciated how much Caldwell let's you see of herself without spilling all of herself onto the page

I will admit that I hadn’t heard of Chloe Caldwell until I saw the cover of “Trying”, but that whimsical little book jacket just spoke to me and now I’m buying her back catalogue of books, so that’s a win. I like nothing better than spare prose from a self-aware first-person writer, whether fiction or memoir (think Ada Calhoun or Jami Attenberg) and this book was perfect.

“Trying” starts as a stream of consciousness about trying to conceive, but this journey falls apart in real time, after months of “unexplained infertility” suddenly and very quickly become irrelevant when Caldwell discovers her spouse’s infidelity and her life changes hugely. The “trying” term then still seems appropriate - she is no longer trying to conceive but trying to figure out identity, a sense of place, a lifestyle, a relationship.

Self aware but never self pitying, funny but never deflective - it’s great. (Also super current in terms of references - I enjoyed quotes from eg Sarah Manguso’s “Liars”, which I also read recently and which is a relatively new book).

There’s no neat resolution and I finished up buzzing with questions but that’s kind of the point of the whole book. Definitely one to read.

I read this at a time where I felt like I really needed it. I am at the start of my infertility journey at the moment and I think I was looking for something to uplift me, when I picked this up. Unfortunately, it kind of did the opposite of us!

I'm not saying that we should only publish and read infertility memoirs that result in success but I do think a book that is marketed as such should touch more on the emotional turmoil that 'trying' couples go through.

This book felt like two stories in one -one of a long term struggle with infertility and another of a woman discovering her queerness. I couldn't really understand why these two stories were together, as the narrator seemed to lose interest in having a baby when she began dating women. This was something else I struggled to understand.

Ultimately, I wanted something other than what I got from this book. I enjoyed the earlier parts where we were deep in the psyche of a woman trying to come to terms with the idea of unexplained infertility and the desire to understand this. However, when it changes into the queer story and suddenly we're not trying to get pregnant anymore, it morphed into a run-of-the-mill, modern literary novel, which I probably would have enjoyed more if I wasn't constantly wondering when we were going to talk about the anxiety and confusion of unexplained infertility again.

Trying by Chloé Caldwell is a book about navigating life's challenges even when they're actually different from the ones you thought you'd be dealing with. Perceptive and resonant.