Maybe Baby

The tensions and controversies surrounding gender-neutral parenting form the core of Darlington's quietly provocative debut. Former home-ec teacher Judy Glide doesn't understand why all her children drifted away from her: Henry gone to join a rock band, Carson to join a cult, Gretchen to somewhere in Chicago. None of them ever calls home. That is, not until Gretchen phones to declare that she's pregnant, filling Judy with dreams of homemade pink and blue baby outfits. But Judy is soon dealt a shocking blow: Gretchen and her partner, performance artist Ray, plan to raise their child in an underground gender-neutral community where children are brought up without a gender, without toys and wearing black clothing. Darlington carefully juxtaposes the futuristic, almost sci-fi, allure of this unorthodox community with the domestic details of the Glides' family dynamics, flipping back and forth between Judy's home in Fort Cloud, Wis., and bohemian Chicago. And she skillfully tracks how the unexpected development forces Judy and her husband, Rusty, to acknowledge the longstanding rift in their marriage and their still-painful disappointments in their children. Though the story has an earnest, activist feel to it (complete with ultra-optimistic ending), and the historical placement is a little shaky, this is a quirkily engaging suburban drama.