The Underachieving Ovary by JT Lawrence – Book Review

Will there be light at the end of the birth canal? Does the word ‘endometriosis’ make you want to stick a fork in your eye? No? Then perhaps this book isn’t for you.

It’s funny, and (sometimes alarmingly) frank. It contains an impressive array of synonyms for ‘vagina’ and it’s certainly NSFW. It’s about having a devil womb and a hot knife lodged in a shoulder. It’s about becoming blackly bitter and twisted in infertility, then slowly finding a way to untwist.

It’s part memoir, part dark comedy, wrapped up loosely as a journal full of TMI and quirk. Put it this way: If Helen Fielding and Marian Keyes were to go through IVF, and use Caitlin Moran as a surrogate, this book would be their baby.

Before I start my review I must tell you that I don’t feel that I am the target market for this book, as I fortunately didn’t have any issues conceiving my three sons. However, having read JT Lawrence’s books before, I was interested to learn more about her as a person, not just an author, and I knew from her writing style that this would be a book that I would enjoy (if that’s the right word to use, given the nature of the plot).

The first thing that you notice is how open and honest JT (Janita), is with her readers. You can tell how much passion went into writing this book. It’s a beautiful read, that had me hooked from the beginning. That’s not to say that it was an easy read. At times I felt myself welling up, whilst at others I was laughing out loud.

Janita has a wicked sense of humour, and you can tell that this is what kept her going through some of the hardest times of her life. I can’t imagine being so desperate for a child, but your own body is letting you down. I have seen first hand from friends who have gone through the exact same thing, how much anguish it causes.

The Underachieving Ovary is a book that touched my heart and gave me a greater understanding of infertility and the failure to conceive. A fantastic book that had me feeling that I was walking step by step alongside Janita, on her long and hard journey to become a mother.

JT Lawrence is an author, playwright and bookdealer based in Parkhurst, Johannesburg. She is the mother of two small boys and a baby girl, and lives in a house with a red front door.

Her first novel, ‘The Memory of Water’ (2011), is about a writer who would do anything for a story. It’s an Amazon bestseller with over 20,000 downloads. Her 2015 offering, ‘Why You Were Taken’, is a pre-dystopian sci-fi thriller starring a synaesthete, and takes place in a futuristic Jo’burg burdened by infertility and a water crisis. It was optioned by the national broadcaster and the much anticipated sequel, ‘How We Found You’, is currently in the works.

JT has written various plays for SAFM including ‘The Shelter’, ‘Unspilling the Milk’, ‘Every Breath You Take’, and serials, the most recent being the crime drama ‘Jigsaw’. Her short story collection ‘Sticky Fingers’ was broadcast in the last quarter of 2015, and is now available as a paperback and ebook.

Her humorous memoir, ‘The Underachieving Ovary’, was released in September 2016.

Her novel, ‘Grey Magic’, is about an eccentric modern-day witch, accused of murder, who must explore her past lives in order to keep her freedom — and find her way back to magic.

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