A review by marilynsaul
The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman

1.0

Well...I stuck with it. I was determined, despite many negative reviews, to give this book a fair reading. Holman had a bone to pick with fertility drugs and she made her point. But that wasn't the core of this book, which, sadly, just ended up being individuals who, though I started out liking, ended up being singularly unlikable, with August being the single exception. A protestant Priest obsessed with himself and giving out singularly bad advice to people in his role as pastor, advice that benefits only his own self importance in his view as himself as the center of the universe. A strong woman (whom I originally admired) who hasn't the parenting skills of a slug and raises her daughter in a prison designed only to further the mother's self obsession in the guise of protecting her daughter from the world. Then there's poor Manda, talked into taking fertility drugs because her idiot, worthless husband wants a son, and then talked into keeping all eleven embryos at the risk of bearing all eleven damaged rather than saving some to become wholesome survivors; never a thought by anyone of how horrible this is for her own body and spirit, how thoughtless to manufacture through drugs a passel of damaged infants, all the time spouting "God's will" when it is really just modern medicine playing god and the pastor hoping to put their small town on the map and claim fame and fortune. I made it through about 300 pages before I started hating everyone (but August); then did a lot of skipping through way-too-long passages of sermons by the despicable pastor, and Thomas Jefferson quotes and analysis (enough already), finishing, finally, thank goodness, the last 150 pages. I'll pay attention to the other reviewers next time, especially those who said the book is way too long. Oh, my....it is WAY too long!