As I've mentioned in my other reviews of Inheritance, I wasn't sure what to expect from this collection. I'd never heard of Amazon Original Stories and still don't know what else they've published. But after reading three of the five stories, I can say this is top-notch short fiction from some of the best authors out there. And Julie Orringer's “Can You Feel This?” is just as good as Alice Hoffman's “Everything My Mother My Taught Me” and Anthony Marra's “The Lion's Den.”

At first I didn't like the second person narration, but after a few pages I understood why Orringer chose this point of view. She wants us as readers to “feel this”--to push past our passive reading habits until we're right there, on the delivery table in the same hospital where the narrator's mother died of suicide. And it worked. I found myself remembering my own experience giving birth and how beautifully, terrifyingly harrowing it was. Because the narrator's fears in this story are both specific to her history and universal. Why isn't the baby crying? Why Is the baby crying? Is the car seat okay for the drive home? Why can't I figure out how to breastfeed when women have been doing this for thousands of years? What happens if the baby can't eat? Am I really going to be able to take care of this tiny being without the help of doctors and nurses? In movies, mothers give birth in a warm, supportive haze of joy—and that's not wrong—but it's only part of the experience. Orringer gets it exactly right.

Another thing she gets right is the “inheritance” aspect of the story. Because there are questions even more frightening than the practical ones listed above. The narrator's mother jumped off a bridge “in her misbuttoned yellow dress, a smear of something on her cheek, her hair a smoky disaster, her eyes the eyes of a chased cat.” Was motherhood more than she could handle? What do we inherit from our parents, both good and bad, and will we pass this on to our children? The narrator was determined not to risk being the mother who abandons her child, but when she finds herself pregnant she changes her mind. Was that a mistake? In the end, Orringer resists easy answers because how often in life, really, are the answers easy?

Much thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Written in second person, Can You Feel This? is a short story that is part of the Inheritance series. It describes the experience of a woman who suffers from placenta previa and gives birth to her baby at the hospital where twenty-eight years ago, her mother's body was brought, after she'd committed suicide. Having promised herself to never bring a child into this world— fearing that she would become like her suicidal mother after giving birth—the woman tries to find the joy in motherhood while reliving the horrors of her own childhood.

Julie Orringer has written this story beautifully and has ended it with the possibility of a new start for the woman, leaving the past behind. It's a short but powerful story and I'd definitely recommend it.

[I'd like to thank NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories and Julie Orringer for this ARC.]

I appreciate when an author takes a chance as is willing to experiment a bit and not play it safe. Short format is a good one for this kind of experimentation. This story conveys a deep angst that may be a lot for those of us who have live similar experiences. However, I could not quite get past the 2nd person POV. Orringer got close to pulling it off, in my view, but not quite.

Let me start by stating that I really don't enjoy stories written in second person - I find it distracting and impersonal. The author does a great job describing the confusion, intensity, and magic of having a baby and the few days that follow; the struggles with breastfeeding were especially astute. Overall, though, there just wasn't much at all here, even for a short story, and I had hard time connecting to the main character (probably, in part, due to that second person POV).

Can You Feel This
Julie Orringer’s novel Invisible Bridge is one of my all time favorite books, so I have to read everything she writes. Can You Feel This is a short but powerful story of family, secrets, motherhood and mental illness. It’s about a women rushed to the hospital when she is bleeding late in her pregnancy. An emergency Caesarian section delivers her premature baby boy. How she deals with secrets held about her own mother’s death, doubts about being a mother herself, bonding with her baby is the subject of this book. Well written, powerful story.

Julie Orringer's Can You Feel This? is another in the Amazon Inheritance short stories collection that have turned out to be so spectacularly good. This story features a pregnant woman being rushed to a New York hospital by her partner, Ky, when she starts to bleed. Frantic and worried, Ky makes his way to the nearest hospital. Unfortunately. this is a hospital that holds grief and traumatic memories for the woman, a childhood and a past she has never talked about or revealed to anyone, not even Ky. Her mother's body was retrieved from the river and bought to this hospital. She had severe mental health issues, left her marriage, taken her daughter, and committed suicide by jumping into the river. This inheritance had left the daughter with a desire to never have a child, but once accidentally pregnant, discovered she wanted her baby.

Whilst undergoing a C-section, her memories of her mother return, blending with her present fears and insecurities about giving birth, and becoming a mother. Will she really be able to cope? However, she manages to give birth to her beautiful premature baby son, a son she instantly recognises, with the unmistakable scent of Alyssum, bonding with him instantly. However, her experience is exacerbated by being unable to feed him and having to endure an unhelpful lactation consultant. A moving and profound short story about the terror of genetics, the possibility of history repeating itself, bearing the burden of the past silently until a mother understands she must share her secrets. She must come to terms with her history to stand a chance of a future as a family and as a new mother. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Amazon Original Stories for an ARC.

Five books by five amazing authors:

Can You Feel This? by Julie Orringer
Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman
The Lion's Den by Anthony Marra
Zenith Man by Jennifer Haigh
The Weddings by Alexander Chee

This was my favorite book
Of the series this far. So beautifully written and such a wonderful read.

This is one of the five books in Amazon's Inheritance series. "A collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones."

Five books by five amazing authors:

Can You Feel This? by Julie Orringer
Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman
The Lion's Den by Anthony Marra
Zenith Man by Jennifer Haigh
The Weddings by Alexander Chee

As a mother, this was one of the stories I enjoyed the most. I could feel all the hesitation, excitement, joy, anxiety, worry, frustration the main character had and the helplessness around trying to nurse your baby and not being able to. There were so many moments in this story that I loved, the best friend who comes in and takes charge, the cleaning lady who ends up being the only one who can actually help, the lactation consultant who is harsh and unhelpful. On and on, so many real characters that stay with you long after you're done. A powerful short story.

Thank you to netgalley and amazon for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Yes!!! Yes!!! YES!!! I felt this story!!!

I love love love Julie Orringer. She’s incredibly talented!

She packs a powerful punch with this short story!!!

Must say again.... I FELT THIS STORY DEEP IN MY BONES!!!