The Hysterectomy Waltz — Merrill Joan Gerber

"It's truly powerful, and acrid, and barbed, and filled with wonderful, and unexpected, turns of phrase and above all it's shocking in its directness and understated anger and sadness and fear… it's an amazing piece of writing." -- Cynthia Ozick

Imagine being told before the age of forty that because you have an ovarian cyst, the surgeon wants to take out the "whole kit and caboodle." Imagine being told that "because you already have your children, "who needs all that?" Why not "keep the playground but get rid of the plumbing?" Imagine watching a film strip at the hospital which assures you that though you will no longer have your female organs, you will still have romance in your life and will be "able to waltz the night away with your husband."

The Hysterectomy Waltz is a sharp and cynical, funny and tragic comedy, a story of marriage and motherhood under the threat of the knife, a tale of friendship and betrayal.