Midwives (1998) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Sibyl Danforth: A respected Reddington, Vermont midwife in 1981
• Connie Danforth: Sibyl's 14-year-old teenage daughter and the narrator of the story, named Constance.
• Rand Danforth: Sibyl's husband
• Charlotte Fugett Bedford: Expectant mother
• Anne Austin: Assistant lay midwife to Sibyl
• Stephen Hastings: Sibyl's lawyer
• Tom Corts: Constance's 16yr old boyfriend
• Bill Tanner: Lawyer representing the State
• Rollie Mckenna: Constance's best friend
• Rhodes: Add a description of this character.
• Lori Pine
• Asa Bedford: Charlotte's husband; a minister
• Cheryl Visco: A midwife
• Patty Dunlevy
• Foogie: Charlotte's firstborn son
• Sadie
• Dr. Tierney: An expert witness
• Peter Grinnell
• Dr. Gerson
• David
• Lawson
• Dumond
• Maureen
• Tilley
• Priscilla Mayhew
• Nonny

Quotes edit see section history

show spoilers

• “I could begin my mother's story with Charlotte Fugett Bedford's death, but that would mean I'd chosen to open her life with what was for her the beginning of the end. It would suggest that all that mattered in her life was the crucible that made my family a part of one tragic little footnote to history.”

  Connie

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• You can’t spend your entire life avoiding chance. It’s out there, it’s inescapable, it’s a part of the soul of the world. There are no sure things in this universe, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to try and live like there are!

  Highlighted by 39 Kindle customers

• No one said living isn’t a pretty chancy business, Sibyl. No one gets out of here alive.”

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• the stillness that fell upon our house was very different from silence. It was not the silence of thought, the quiet of meditation. It was not the silence that grows from serenity, the hush that flowers around minds at peace. It was the stillness of waiting. Of preparation. Of anticipation tinged—no, not tinged, overwhelmed—overwhelmed by gloom.

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• This was life force she was witnessing, the miracle that is a mother’s energy and body—a body that physically transforms itself before a person’s very eyes—and the miracle that is the baby, a soul in a physical vessel that is tiny but strong, capable of pushing itself into the world and almost instantly breathing and squirming and crying on its own.

  Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers

• so many other beliefs shatter when we grow up, I want to keep this one intact.

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• Those girls who became midwives, on the other hand, knew midwifery was their calling at a very early age, or—as my mother’s path suggested—had one profound, life-changing experience involving birth that pulled them in.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• All that pleasure I once experienced has gotten to be like pain, the sort of sensation you just don’t remember very well when it’s over and done with. Very few of us really remember pain when it’s gone; we can’t recall how awful it was. That’s what all the pleasure I once got from birth has become: a vague word that doesn’t mean very much.

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• There are expressions to convey silence; there are all the old clichés. There are the poetic constructs and affectations. A silence deep as death, a silence deep as eternity. Quiet as a lamb, a quiet wise and good. The silence of the infinite spaces, the silence upon which minds move.

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• For Stephen Hastings and Bill Tanner, however, for Judge Howard Dorset, this trial was merely their job. It was, in fact, just one of the many jobs they would have in their lives. One more house for a home builder. One more flight for an airline pilot. One more baby for an obstetrician or a midwife. The stakes may have been high for my family, but for the men arguing about my mother’s character and capabilities, it was just another morning out of the office, another afternoon in court.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• My mother believed a home birth was an extremely empowering and invigorating experience, and gave fragile women energy, confidence, and strength: They learned just what their bodies could do, and it gave them comfort.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Reddington, Vermont, USA
• Charlotte Bedford
• Burlington
• Newport
• Dorset
• Montpelier
• Alabama
• St. Johnsbury
• Vietnam
• Massachusetts
• Reverend Bedford
• Boston
• North Country Hospital
• Northeast Kingdom
• New Hampshire
• Texas
• United States
• Washington

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, and followed by Where the Heart Is.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Chris Bohjalian (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Legal
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Medical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Midwives (IMDb)