Chapter 16

This is the end? I didn't even realize last week that this week would be the final chapter. I'm so sorry, madam, you seem to have made a mistake, is that what made serialized fiction great? (To paraphrase Basil Faulty.)

I need to know if the baby made it, I really need to know if Amanda made it, I too, need to know Bob's big news. If this was just a "preview" or "excerpt" it should have been identified as such.

I love OinionJournal.com, it's the first place I go every day (and Best of the Web really rocks!), but this is most distressing. I think we all should at the very least be eligible for some discount on the price of the book!

Editor's Comment:

It's occurred to me as somewhat of an afterthought, which is really sad to say, but what about Bob? He has endured the stresses of a high profile case, unwelcomed publicity, demotion and a sometimes spacey wife who has been difficult at times and now his family is in a crisis he must watch from the sidelines. What is his view regarding his life, family, work, his wife's career and his place in the scheme of things?

I realize Amanda has been the focus of this story but it would be interesting to see it all through Bob's eyes. Any chance there might be a "Bob@work/home" in the future? It could be that the Amandas of the world might look at their role a little differently if Bob's view were better understood.

Editor's Comment:

I thought that Amanda, foolish person that she is, ended up sleeping in the bed she made. Her children were spoiled brats because she could never say no.

Amanda almost died because she signed on to the midwife quackery. Amanda was tormented by her mother because at 33 she was unable to tell her mom to go fly a kite.

The only victim was Bob, who was married to this brainless twit. When the divorce comes, Amanda will take every penny for "child support," on which she will live for the next 20 years.

Editor's Comment:

Excuse me, but I really need an epilogue.

Editor's Comment:

This chapter brought tears to my eyes. What a masterpiece of description.

Editor's Comment:

Wow, what a whiz-bang ending! Was the joy at the very end due to the loss of pain, or her "self-realization"? As much as this story was about Megabyte and living in Washington, Amanda finally got to the point of understanding and accepting that each day brings its own troubles and blessings. Her worries about the future and comparisons of her lifestyle to her "friends" did not amount to much in the end.

As 12-hour workdays become more common rather than out of the ordinary, and the "busyness" of lives can get out of control, we need to take time and reflect on the things that are important in our lives. Treasure and nurture those things you value, before they become an "empty carapace of the memory." Thank you, Miss Crittenden, for a good read.

Editor's Comment:

I loved the story. I want more, more!

It was great having a story to look forward to on Monday.

What's the next story?

Will it start next Monday?

Editor's Comment:

Reading Amanda Bright each week is what it must have been like to wait for the next installment of a Dickens novel! I've always enjoyed the humor, but I didn't expect to find the end so moving.

I had toxemia with my last pregnancy at age 36 so this was painfully real, but so was Amanda's appreciation of what her husband meant to her. It really struck me in the last chapter that we women don't do a good job of affirming each other's choices (the only one in the story who really affirmed Amanda's was a billionaire adulterer!) but in the end what other people think doesn't matter. Thanks to the author for a great summer reading experience--I hope she'll do it again!

Editor's Comment:

That isn't very fair! We've slogged through every chapter and we aren't told what the baby is or if he/she will be OK and what about Bob's big news? I suppose Ms. Crittenden will fill in those details for publication.

That midwife is a quack! Pregnancy isn't an illness, true, but there are very serious illnesses associated with pregnancy, namely gestational diabetes, anemia and hypertension. Some can kill both mother and child if they go unchecked or the symptoms go unheeded. It seems clear that the midwife, Blumstein, is a feminist caricature and therefore incompetent. Oh well.

Editor's Comment:

Ah yes! Amanda isn't thinking at the end about her career, the other moms, Bob's job or whether she is wasting her life. She understands the meaning of her life. It's clear and it's enough.

Toxemia doesn't usually occur in the third prengancy, but Ms. Crittenden is allowed some literary license. I remember similar feelings, although not quite as dramatic as those experienced by Amanda, when my first child was born; I had suffered from toxemia after taking a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies when six months pregnant. After all, I was invincible. Nothing bad had ever happened to me and nothing ever would. But sick in bed, my son born six weeks too early, I also experienced an epiphany of sorts. Life turns upside down and becomes very clear, what is important and what is not, what is superficial and what is crucial, what you want to hang on to and what is worth letting go. My son is now a healthy, normal teenager, miraculously overcoming his early birth to become a bright and energetic young man.

I have so much to be thankful for, like Amanda, having the opportunity to see from a different perspective what is of great value. It isn't what most people say it is. It isn't our material possessions, our careers, our position. It is life and the lives of those close to us. It is everything. It is enough.

Thanks to Ms. Crittenden for making this so evident in the life of this character and thank you to OpinionJournal for thinking the life of Amanda, her concerns, frustrations, and perspective, have any value.

Editor's Comment: