Letters to an Embryo
About divorce, loneliness, and healing after betrayal, Letters to an Embryo is an intimate memoir.
Jasna Kaludjerovic’s vulnerable memoir is about processing the dissolution of her marriage through letters to their last frozen embryo.
Kaludjerovic had known her husband since their teenage years. When she was thirty-five, they divorced, leaving her disillusioned. Adding to her internal dilemma was a single remaining frozen embryo from their IVF attempts to start a family. Herein, Kaludjerovic records a three-year personal and spiritual reckoning, moving toward beginning anew.
Openhearted and honest, the book addresses the “dearest little Embryo” as “my little bean,” the letters signing off with “Your Mama” for immediacy. Reflections on the embryo’s possible gender, eye color, and personality type reinforce Kaludjerovic’s stated desires. Still, the entries are about Kaludjerovic’s internal reckonings most of all.
With the flavor of a diary and organized by date, the letters address divorce, loneliness, and healing after betrayal. These topics are approached with care and grace as Kaludjerovic works to move forward, leaning on family, friends, and self-help books. Her considerations of motherhood lead to explorations of gender roles in the workplace and thoughts about how work might change were she to become a single mother. Hope for an appropriate resolution is pinned on Christian beliefs, feeding into a trip to Jerusalem in the latter part of the book in search of inner peace—and a final decision.
Effective linguistic flourishes arise: In covering Kaludjerovic’s return from a seaside vacation, the book includes perceptions of literal and figurative waves in life. A knitting analogy is also incorporated: “I have a pattern for a sweater, but not yet for my life.” References to local Serbian culture and food, accompanied by distinctive descriptions of Crete, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Israel, flesh out the book’s background well, too.
However, the letters also have a stream-of-consciousness style that slows the book’s pace. Some reflections repeat, as with those on the most opportune timing for having a baby, juxtaposed against Kaludjerovic’s equal desire to first find new love and focus on her career. While the letters symbolize the seriousness and magnitude of her conundrum, considering all sides of each argument at length, including the fact that the embryo’s father was a man she was still learning to forgive, this teeter-tottering is belabored. Still, uncertainty about the embryo’s fate adds a steady element of suspense, pulling audience attention forward toward the book’s hopeful conclusion.
Letters to an Embryo is a heartfelt memoir that addresses a frozen embryo in a woman’s search for faith and healing after divorce.
Reviewed by
Katy Keffer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
