Like a King Summary and Analysis

When Adam and Martha discovered that their second child after Luke would be a girl, everyone told them this was the king's choice. Martha was just happy that the baby won't be born in New York, because she wanted a girl and all her New York friends had two boys, all with family names like Harry or Moe. Adam had no idea why the king would choose to have a girl after a boy, who would be less likely than a second boy to ascend to the throne. He realized that the phrase was both a joke and not a joke, like fathers passing out cigars in New York when a baby was born.

The couple went for the first of several sonograms and they discovered that all obstetricians in Paris wore black. Their doctor, who had...