Just Say Non

There's a great tradition of conversational bomb-throwing in France. This summer's ruckus concerns Corinne Maier's book No Kid: Forty Reasons Not to Have a Child . The author says her book is 50% serious, 50% humorous, but in a country with the highest birth rate in Western Europe, not everyone sees the joke.

There are interesting reviews in Times of London and the Telegraph. Or if your French is up to the task, click on the cover to read the great sales copy at amazon.fr. It begins, "Future parents, sympathetic natalists, fans of bonnet and bib..." and ends, "For the first time, someone dares write what most parents think deep down, when their kids are finally in bed."

Maier's book isn't yet available in English.--David E