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Every Kind of Wanting
Every Kind of Wanting explores the complex intersection of three unique families. Miguel Guerra, who grew up in poverty in Venezuela before his family’s relocation to Chicago, could not be more different from his partner Chad Merry, a happy-go-lucky real estate mogul from Chicago’s wealthy North Shore. When Chad’s sister, Gretchen—struggling with the deterioration of her marriage—offers the couple her eggs, they begin scrambling for a surrogate to carry the child, finally settling on Miguel’s old friend Emily, happily married to an eccentric Irish playwright, Nick, with whom she is raising two boys.
Caught in the crossfires of these three families’ bustling efforts to have their “Community Baby” is Miguel’s younger sister, Lina, a former addict and stripper, whose needs and wants make her seem only peripheral to the surrogacy. Lina serves as the novel’s overarching narrator as she falls into a passionate affair with Nick while deciphering the mysteries of her past. Though the novel’s timeline is framed by the nine months of the surrogacy, it also reaches back thirty years, to Miguel’s childhood in Venezuela and the unsolved murder of his father.
Caught in the crossfires of these three families’ bustling efforts to have their “Community Baby” is Miguel’s younger sister, Lina, a former addict and stripper, whose needs and wants make her seem only peripheral to the surrogacy. Lina serves as the novel’s overarching narrator as she falls into a passionate affair with Nick while deciphering the mysteries of her past. Though the novel’s timeline is framed by the nine months of the surrogacy, it also reaches back thirty years, to Miguel’s childhood in Venezuela and the unsolved murder of his father.
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First published September 13, 2016
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About the author
Gina Frangello
24 books201 followersGina Frangello is the author of the collection Slut Lullabies (Emergency Press 2010) and the novel My Sister's Continent (Chiasmus 2006), which was selected as one of the top 10 books of that year by Las Vegas City Life and was a "Read This!" finalist for Spring 2006. For more than a decade, Gina edited the award-winning fiction literary magazine Other Voices, and in 2004 co-launched its book imprint, Other Voices Books. She is currently the Executive Editor of Other Voices Books' Chicago office. Gina is also the Fiction Editor of The Nervous Breakdown (www.thenervousbreakdown.com) and her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, recently including StoryQuarterly, Clackamas Literary Review, A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection, Prairie Schooner, Fence, and Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader. She has been a freelance journalist and book reviewer for the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Reader.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
October 7, 2016
Gina Frangello's new novel, Every Kind of Wanting, published last month by Counterpoint, is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
It is a novel that explores the idea of what makes a family a family through the lens of gestational surrogacy. While all families are strange, I guarantee you haven't met one like this.
Chad and Miguel are a same-sex couple who want to have a baby. Chad comes from a supremely wealthy Chicago family. Miguel was born in the slums of Caracas, Venezuela, and moved to the United States under mysterious circumstances.
Chad's sister Gretchen donates an egg. Miguel provides the sperm. All they need is someone who will carry the baby to term.
Enter Miguel's sister Lina. Chad and Miguel go to see an edgy play that Lina is performing in. At the play Miguel runs into Emily, an old high school friend who used to have a huge crush on Miguel. Emily is happily married to Nick, the director of the play, who is secretly in love with Lina. Emily volunteers to carry Chad and Miguel's baby. Problem solved?
As the great philosopher of our time would say: "Au contraire, mon frère."
The efforts to bring this "community baby" into the world get very, very complicated and provide Every Kind of Wanting with enough drama, heartbreak and suspense to fill a mini-series.
The story is told through clusters of chapters with alternating points of view. Frangello starts with three but leaves one behind to introduce another that opens up the narrative in fascinating new ways. One character doesn't get her voice until midway through the book. Another weighs in at the end. It's intimate without being overwhelming and allows the reader to see what makes these men and women tick.
Desire functions as a Trojan horse in Every Kind of Wanting: when the characters submit to their desire, they unwittingly invite entanglements, unexpected consequences and outright catastrophes into their lives. Here's the surrogate reflecting on her decision to carry someone else's baby: "[She] chose unwisely. She chose with her pussy; she chose with her thrashing desire to not be her mother."
Sometimes an author introduces action, drama or suspense in a way that feels manufactured. That's never the case here. Every Kind of Wanting is a powderkeg disguised as a domestic drama that detonates every one of out expectations of what it means to be a family.
It is a novel that explores the idea of what makes a family a family through the lens of gestational surrogacy. While all families are strange, I guarantee you haven't met one like this.
Chad and Miguel are a same-sex couple who want to have a baby. Chad comes from a supremely wealthy Chicago family. Miguel was born in the slums of Caracas, Venezuela, and moved to the United States under mysterious circumstances.
Chad's sister Gretchen donates an egg. Miguel provides the sperm. All they need is someone who will carry the baby to term.
Enter Miguel's sister Lina. Chad and Miguel go to see an edgy play that Lina is performing in. At the play Miguel runs into Emily, an old high school friend who used to have a huge crush on Miguel. Emily is happily married to Nick, the director of the play, who is secretly in love with Lina. Emily volunteers to carry Chad and Miguel's baby. Problem solved?
As the great philosopher of our time would say: "Au contraire, mon frère."
The efforts to bring this "community baby" into the world get very, very complicated and provide Every Kind of Wanting with enough drama, heartbreak and suspense to fill a mini-series.
The story is told through clusters of chapters with alternating points of view. Frangello starts with three but leaves one behind to introduce another that opens up the narrative in fascinating new ways. One character doesn't get her voice until midway through the book. Another weighs in at the end. It's intimate without being overwhelming and allows the reader to see what makes these men and women tick.
Desire functions as a Trojan horse in Every Kind of Wanting: when the characters submit to their desire, they unwittingly invite entanglements, unexpected consequences and outright catastrophes into their lives. Here's the surrogate reflecting on her decision to carry someone else's baby: "[She] chose unwisely. She chose with her pussy; she chose with her thrashing desire to not be her mother."
Sometimes an author introduces action, drama or suspense in a way that feels manufactured. That's never the case here. Every Kind of Wanting is a powderkeg disguised as a domestic drama that detonates every one of out expectations of what it means to be a family.
August 1, 2016
As a reader lucky enough to have access to many pre-pub titles, there's nothing more thrilling than finding a title from a midlist author (whose previous title/s I've enjoyed) when I'm not expecting to. Big authors, I usually know their new book is coming long before I am looking for an ARC. Debut authors, I pick up what looks good. But when I'm browsing a shelf of galleys looking for something to read, and I unexpectedly spot an author I've read before, it makes my whole day.
When I spot an author like that and there's no reviews for the book yet, it's even better. Don't let anyone lie to you - being the first one at this particular party is awesome.
So that's how I felt going in. I read A Life in Men, and enjoyed it but it had a couple of faults that I thought might affect my reading of this book. Sometimes I almost get worried before I read, that I might not like the book as much as I want to, and so I put off actually reading it longer than I should.
But because I've been in a reading slump, I jumped right in to this, read it over the weekend, and really loved the whole thing. And as is sometimes the case when I read something early, I'm giving it five stars because I'm not railing against everyone else's THIS BOOK IS THE BEST. I bet if I went back and checked my five star ratings, most of them would be books I read super early or by Stephen King.
The characters had just enough/the right flaws to make them interesting. I do love a story told from multiple points of view. The prologue was a bit confusing but it was short and I muddled through. The story was deep enough to make me think, not predictable enough to be boring, enough bad and good happened to create a great balance (getting the right balance of resolution matters to me. I like for people to be rewarded/feel contentment but not so much that I'm like ew.) The story line was maybe a bit far out there at times with coincidences but not enough where my belief was attacked.
Loved it.
When I spot an author like that and there's no reviews for the book yet, it's even better. Don't let anyone lie to you - being the first one at this particular party is awesome.
So that's how I felt going in. I read A Life in Men, and enjoyed it but it had a couple of faults that I thought might affect my reading of this book. Sometimes I almost get worried before I read, that I might not like the book as much as I want to, and so I put off actually reading it longer than I should.
But because I've been in a reading slump, I jumped right in to this, read it over the weekend, and really loved the whole thing. And as is sometimes the case when I read something early, I'm giving it five stars because I'm not railing against everyone else's THIS BOOK IS THE BEST. I bet if I went back and checked my five star ratings, most of them would be books I read super early or by Stephen King.
The characters had just enough/the right flaws to make them interesting. I do love a story told from multiple points of view. The prologue was a bit confusing but it was short and I muddled through. The story was deep enough to make me think, not predictable enough to be boring, enough bad and good happened to create a great balance (getting the right balance of resolution matters to me. I like for people to be rewarded/feel contentment but not so much that I'm like ew.) The story line was maybe a bit far out there at times with coincidences but not enough where my belief was attacked.
Loved it.
October 26, 2016
"Every Kind of Wanting" is the story of an intersection between three distinct families and their attempt to have a "community baby." The baby would be conceived using the egg from one woman, another woman as a surrogate who will carry it, for the purposes of allowing a gay male couple to become parents.
So far so good. The book actually gets off to an excellent start, as their lives begin to intersect and their visions for the child begin to clash. The best moment for me was the scene involving the exploding garbage disposal. The prose is simply amazing.
However, the book eventually wears out its good will. What goes wrong?
Firstly, the book errors big time by having Lina be the narrator. She is simply too selfish, spoiled and unlikeable to carry this story. Second, the book spends way too much time on Miguel (the one-half of the gay couple). Despite all the flashbacks the book shoehorns in to tell his story, he still lacks personality and I had no reason to get really invested in his role in the story.
There are also two children with disabilities, two cheating husbands, buried family secrets, deathbed scenes, an abusive father and about three more books worth of plot. It becomes very frustrating when the book seems to have lost all momentum and just starts throwing "revelations" at the reader. It should have just had the confidence to tell it's story with conviction rather than leaning on these tired "plot twists."
So far so good. The book actually gets off to an excellent start, as their lives begin to intersect and their visions for the child begin to clash. The best moment for me was the scene involving the exploding garbage disposal. The prose is simply amazing.
However, the book eventually wears out its good will. What goes wrong?
Firstly, the book errors big time by having Lina be the narrator. She is simply too selfish, spoiled and unlikeable to carry this story. Second, the book spends way too much time on Miguel (the one-half of the gay couple). Despite all the flashbacks the book shoehorns in to tell his story, he still lacks personality and I had no reason to get really invested in his role in the story.
There are also two children with disabilities, two cheating husbands, buried family secrets, deathbed scenes, an abusive father and about three more books worth of plot. It becomes very frustrating when the book seems to have lost all momentum and just starts throwing "revelations" at the reader. It should have just had the confidence to tell it's story with conviction rather than leaning on these tired "plot twists."
June 13, 2017
Frangello deftly maneuvers a complex group of characters and events throughout this mesmerizing novel. She works many twists and turns and whenever I thought I knew where it was headed it veered off into new terrain. Outstanding! LOVE!
October 11, 2016
Rounding up again. I feel like this author is going to write something truly great at some point. This is mostly very good but a little too soap opera-ish at times. I like that she's not afraid of unlikable characters. Some of her characters do some really shitty things and are deeply motivated by jealousy and bitterness, but I didn't lose interest in anyone. A few too many Very Dramatic Events for my taste but I liked the messy ending. I'm looking forward to more from her.
July 29, 2019
Listened to the audiobook. I almost put it down like 1/3 of the way through. I was getting bored with getting to know the characters.. they were all pretty terrible people... But I decided to keep reading once things started to happen. The characters stayed terrible but in an entertaining way. There were some good gems - paraphrasing, "children don't belong to their parents, it's the other way around. Children belong to people who haven't been born yet." I'm not sure who I would recommend this one to. It doesn't fit my usual book m.o.
December 24, 2016
Bittersweet story about three families brought together by an early-40's gay couple's efforts to have a baby. Explores the challenges of marriage, parenthood, and family skeletons in the closet. Well-developed, and very contemporary, ensemble cast reminded me a little of Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings.
September 18, 2016
Round up to 3.5 stars. Lush prose, but a bit too much pointless introspection.
January 22, 2017
An intricate weaving of multiple stories of a group of families that come together to have a surrogate baby for a married gay couple in Chicago. Not all of the stories are about just that, but about the intwined relationships amongst the involved adults... a sister of the of the married guys gives her egg; an old friend of the other guy is the surrogate; the husband of that woman and a sister of one of the men fall in love and have an illicit affair. And there are actually many other layers of time and family trauma, and a key character named Isabel, that matter, too. A page turner, for sure. The writing is best when from fhe internal first person voice.
Lina was the most compelling character, I thought. A complete novel could have been written about her story with nary a mention of the surrogate story. So it was expertly woven together, but at times I wondered about the import of central characters involved in the surrogacy that felt a bit tangential, like when do we get back to Lina and Nick or Lina and Miguel figuring out their family history?
When the author strays to third person prose that's when it gets really dicey, and its what held me back from giving this four stars. First, the writing carries a mean-spiritedness throughout; some of the main characters - like Emily, Gretchen, Chad - are assessed with a shallowness and spitefulness that doesn't seem necessary or even likely in their circumstances. Similarly, there's a callowness around race and ethnicity that is not funny or clever; asides about Polish maids or whatever that made me as a reader not care as much. A related second - many characters' relative attractiveness is mentioned, and EVERY character that is good-looking is given a constrasting adjective - "disturbingly beautiful", "shockingly handsome", "disarmingly attractive"... this got very annoying by the 6th or so time. We've all seen attractive people, and its not that often we are "disturbed" by it.
So I give it 4 stars for the Lina and Miguel stories, 3 for Chad, Emily, Gretchen.
Lina was the most compelling character, I thought. A complete novel could have been written about her story with nary a mention of the surrogate story. So it was expertly woven together, but at times I wondered about the import of central characters involved in the surrogacy that felt a bit tangential, like when do we get back to Lina and Nick or Lina and Miguel figuring out their family history?
When the author strays to third person prose that's when it gets really dicey, and its what held me back from giving this four stars. First, the writing carries a mean-spiritedness throughout; some of the main characters - like Emily, Gretchen, Chad - are assessed with a shallowness and spitefulness that doesn't seem necessary or even likely in their circumstances. Similarly, there's a callowness around race and ethnicity that is not funny or clever; asides about Polish maids or whatever that made me as a reader not care as much. A related second - many characters' relative attractiveness is mentioned, and EVERY character that is good-looking is given a constrasting adjective - "disturbingly beautiful", "shockingly handsome", "disarmingly attractive"... this got very annoying by the 6th or so time. We've all seen attractive people, and its not that often we are "disturbed" by it.
So I give it 4 stars for the Lina and Miguel stories, 3 for Chad, Emily, Gretchen.
December 6, 2021
3.5 rounded down.
This was so close to being a 3.5 rounded up, but the last quarter of the novel landed completely flat for me and extinguished some of my goodwill for this story and these characters.
Frangello’s prose is immediately engrossing, rife with poetic melancholy. It is without a doubt the strongest element of this novel. I’m not sure if she has any poetry efforts under her belt, but I would love to see some from her. Her prose introduces flow and beauty into otherwise unpleasant or meandering scenes. This is ultimately what kept me turning the pages.
The questions that this story asks—what constitutes a family and who bears responsibility for their role in it—are interesting ones, but I don’t think they were answered in a satisfactory way.
Melodrama is an essential component of a story like this and it’s what I expected going in, but there’s a fine line between melodrama and soap opera. The story veers toward the latter as it progresses to the point where it threw me out of the story. I guess the characters’ personalities lend themselves well to a soap opera, though.
It’s difficult to wade through a story where everyone is kind of a shitty person. The only person who wasn’t awful was Chad, whose liberal charity betrays the kind of ignorant cheeriness that characterizes the upper crust of society. Gretchen is a stereotypical wife and mother trapped in a loveless marriage with a terrible man and she conspires to snatch Miguel and Chad’s child away from them; Nick is a cheating POS whose actions speak of utter selfishness, and Lina is much the same; Emily is a burn pit of resentment and contempt; and Miguel is an emotionally repressed mess with an airport’s worth of baggage.
You might argue that this is a very plausible group of characters and I would agree, but plausible does not make for a compelling or enjoyable read. It was difficult to discern whether Frangello intended to elicit sympathy for these people or whether she merely wanted to offer a window into their lives and allow us to make our own judgments. The navel-gazing of the last 25% of the book would suggest the former, but that’s purely speculation.
Spoilers, but I found it kinda gross and cheap that the climax of the story involves Emily dying. It felt like the easy way out rather than seeing her arc and development through to the end. She dies bitter and unfulfilled and her good-for-nothing husband gets to keep on. The timeskip also makes her death feel cheap especially given that the last line of her POV is Save me.
Despite my issues with this story, it’s still a very readable book about very unlikeable people. Frangello’s prose and emotional rendering are compelling enough to soften the edges.
This was so close to being a 3.5 rounded up, but the last quarter of the novel landed completely flat for me and extinguished some of my goodwill for this story and these characters.
Frangello’s prose is immediately engrossing, rife with poetic melancholy. It is without a doubt the strongest element of this novel. I’m not sure if she has any poetry efforts under her belt, but I would love to see some from her. Her prose introduces flow and beauty into otherwise unpleasant or meandering scenes. This is ultimately what kept me turning the pages.
The questions that this story asks—what constitutes a family and who bears responsibility for their role in it—are interesting ones, but I don’t think they were answered in a satisfactory way.
Melodrama is an essential component of a story like this and it’s what I expected going in, but there’s a fine line between melodrama and soap opera. The story veers toward the latter as it progresses to the point where it threw me out of the story. I guess the characters’ personalities lend themselves well to a soap opera, though.
It’s difficult to wade through a story where everyone is kind of a shitty person. The only person who wasn’t awful was Chad, whose liberal charity betrays the kind of ignorant cheeriness that characterizes the upper crust of society. Gretchen is a stereotypical wife and mother trapped in a loveless marriage with a terrible man and she conspires to snatch Miguel and Chad’s child away from them; Nick is a cheating POS whose actions speak of utter selfishness, and Lina is much the same; Emily is a burn pit of resentment and contempt; and Miguel is an emotionally repressed mess with an airport’s worth of baggage.
You might argue that this is a very plausible group of characters and I would agree, but plausible does not make for a compelling or enjoyable read. It was difficult to discern whether Frangello intended to elicit sympathy for these people or whether she merely wanted to offer a window into their lives and allow us to make our own judgments. The navel-gazing of the last 25% of the book would suggest the former, but that’s purely speculation.
Spoilers, but I found it kinda gross and cheap that the climax of the story involves Emily dying. It felt like the easy way out rather than seeing her arc and development through to the end. She dies bitter and unfulfilled and her good-for-nothing husband gets to keep on. The timeskip also makes her death feel cheap especially given that the last line of her POV is Save me.
Despite my issues with this story, it’s still a very readable book about very unlikeable people. Frangello’s prose and emotional rendering are compelling enough to soften the edges.
August 29, 2023
There's a lot to say including "wanting" the situations to resolve themselves in a good way but that's not what this wanting is about. Gina Frangello really sets the table with characters we can learn to know, or already know. They are not necessarily likeable but understandable in some way. What we learn from this cautionary tale is that having every want satisfied, has its downside is really an upside and can include maturity, foresight, consideration, common humanity, learning to love and more. The wanting is just the first baby cry and not the whole story. Perhaps it's the set up that is intriguing. These are characters who want. It drives them to do despicable things and beautiful things. Their wants are one-dimentional band-aids on difficult life situations but the quest to satisfy those wants is circuitous. They are opportunistic and immature. Their coming together at the place of this big want is calamitous. This book is an emotional ride of liking and not-liking and wondering how they will somehow satisfy these wants without killing one another. A very good read if you can stand the shallow personalities.
July 29, 2021
I'm not sure what I think of this book. The writing was vibrant and often made me laugh. I liked all the different narrators and liked seeing how different some people appeared depending on whose eyes we were seeing them through. But sometimes it felt like I was reading three different books (at least) because there were so many plotlines that only tangentially related to each other, and I kept having to remind myself how the characters were connected. I found some of the characters (well, mainly Emily and Gretchen) to be really horrible, yet I got the impression I was supposed to be sympathetic towards them. I was slightly sympathetic, but I couldn't excuse either of them as just people going through difficult times, which I think the author intended them to be.
May 29, 2018
When my friend Dawn sent me this book saying specifically that I needed to read it, I was so intrigued! What kind of book does someone send me assured that I will love digging around in it? The answer is a book about a dysfunctional family written from each member’s point of view and told in a chronology that skips around so that as the reader, you get to keep having new insights into the thoughts and actions of these characters (used in both ways that word can be used). I couldn’t put this book down because I needed to find out what happened to each of them and if they ever would disentangle themselves from the webs they weaved!
January 10, 2017
This is a tender story about a community coming together to create a baby -- family, friends. Frangello peeks behind the curtain to examine the deeper wanting, the kind of wanting that could threaten the deal. But the higher self emerges in each person, and they draw on their own inner strength and each other's for the greater good.
February 9, 2020
4.5 rounding down
What a multifaceted, beautifully layered story revolving around a baby to be born via surrogacy. My heart ached for each of the characters in a way that it was difficult to paint anyone as the villian in this story, though some may view certain characters as such. I wanted to see more of Lina near the end and hoped for more of a bang with that arc, otherwise an amazing novel.
What a multifaceted, beautifully layered story revolving around a baby to be born via surrogacy. My heart ached for each of the characters in a way that it was difficult to paint anyone as the villian in this story, though some may view certain characters as such. I wanted to see more of Lina near the end and hoped for more of a bang with that arc, otherwise an amazing novel.
May 21, 2020
Sublime. Frangello's characters are so flawed and so relatable that it often feels as if she's tilting a prism into a mirror, allowing us to see the inner workings of the people we know, have been or will be in some capacity at various points of our lives. This book is generous but ruthless in its portrayals. Utterly adored it.
September 2, 2020
I don't read a lot of modern fiction mostly because I usually don't care much about the characters. This book, this writer, is different. These characters are so well rounded and Frangello's words are poetic. She drives deep into their pathos and we see how events change our lives. The wanting is primal. Love, sex, family, addiction, abuse. I want to read more from this author.
June 30, 2017
I actually give this 3.5 stars. The story kept me interested and was well-constructed. I just found most of the characters to be unlikeable. But if you like reading about flawed human beings, this is definitely your book.
July 28, 2017
Very Good
The plot and writing was good. This story has a lot of very messed up people. To be honest, I really did not care for most of the characters. But it is a good book and I recommend it.
The plot and writing was good. This story has a lot of very messed up people. To be honest, I really did not care for most of the characters. But it is a good book and I recommend it.
May 7, 2017
The ending fizzled.
September 22, 2017
Good story, but I found it hard to remember the names and relationships of the characters.
January 2, 2018
Love everything by Frangello. Her characters live to the hilt, and her writing does them justice.
March 1, 2018
Book about a group of people crowd-sourcing a baby for a gay couple--egg from one woman, womb from another, sperm supposedly from someone else. Interesting characters.
April 13, 2019
Audible
January 10, 2020
I loved this when I started, and then got bored. A candidate for a re-read, potentially. Loved the Chicago setting.
August 19, 2020
I felt like there was so much crammed into this book, and I wasn't left feeling like anything was resolved. It was a wild ride for sure though!
May 10, 2021
I devoured this book in a couple of days. Loved it. Each complicated, flawed, screwed up character nuzzled their way into my heart and I loved all of the twists and turns.
March 24, 2022
I tore through this, and loved a lot of it, and some bits made me a bit uneasy. Not sure where I'll land. Very messy and very engaging, certainly.
March 12, 2023
I feel this writer has a fascinating talent for writing. When you read one book, you will want to read every book she writes
July 28, 2024
Dang these people are so
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews