A Night in June

Williams, William Carlos

Primary Category: Literature / Fiction

Moore, Pamela
Coulehan, Jack

Childbirth
Doctor-Patient Relationship
Medical Ethics
Ordinary Life
Women's Health

Date of entry: Jan-28-1997

Summary

The doctor-narrator has been present at the birth of seven of Angelina's eight children. She is now in labor with the ninth. The mother is an Italian immigrant. The labor is prolonged, but without complications. The doctor spends much of the evening peacefully asleep in the kitchen.

Commentary

The doctor claims to admire Angelina, but, at the same time, he compares her to a cow giving birth. He appears to have little sense of her pain or concerns. The story presents a now rare view of home delivery. For those reading Williams in a literature and medicine context, Hugh Crawford's book, Modernism, Medicine, & William Carlos Williams (annotated in this database), may be of interest.

Primary Source

The Doctor Stories

Publisher

New Directions

Place Published

New York

Edition

1984

Editor

Robert Coles