Looking for an illustration using a "had had" sentence, I found this mug using four HADs in a row. The following sentence is my version of a famous "had had" demonstration. See if it makes sense to you. I'll break if up into lines and add punctuation, letting you know when to pause so you can "hear" the right meaning:
John, where James had had "had,"
had had "had had";
"had had" had had the teacher's approval.
Count them. There are eleven HADs in that sentence — eleven HADs in a row, with no other words intervening. It's a perfectly good English sentence, and I love saying it.
Margot and James are broken up — for good this time. James made sure of it when he dropped the bomb on Margot: that he doesn’t want kids, ever.Then, on the biggest morning of his life, James — an ambitious lawyer at a high-powered firm — wakes up pregnant. He realizes with dread that he is part of a recent epidemic of men suddenly and inexplicably becoming pregnant. His condition obvious to the higher-ups, James is denied the promotion he was expecting, sending him reeling.Meanwhile, Margot, a social worker, must handle the influx of desperate, pregnant teenage boys suddenly seeking her help. When she receives a call from James with the same problem, the challenge of navigating post-Roe America hits even closer to home.
(Please note: This content is intended for adults only. It features themes of pregnancy loss that may be upsetting to some listeners. Discretion is advised.)
What can I say about this book, this idea? Well, it made me think. It seems impossible for a man to have a baby — but if you think about it, so does a woman having a baby seem impossible. Yet I myself have done it — I have twin daughters and a son. (And I have six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, but who's bragging?)
I'll probably be thinking about this "speculative fiction" for several days, and I'll probably mention it to friends as we chat. It was a very good story, but I realized I'd still rather READ a book than LISTEN to one. I'm a visual person.
