Has anyone read 'I Don't Know How She Does It' or 'The Rise and Fall of a Yummy Mummy'?

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UQD - OK let's have Caddy Daddy for the daddy who sublimates his shaggy desires with golf and Braddy Daddy for the genuinely unfaithful.
Ane now we'd better move this to a new thread before we really wind all these hard-ass working moms up

I thought it was shite.
Journalists writing for journalists.
So arch and knowig.

Oh no, is that drivel by Cristina Odone
Allison (a writer I really quite like), what have you done

oh bloody hell not Christina Odone.

If she is "poor", I'm a dutchman.

And she wrote this , which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Almost as scary as Joanna Bogle.

I read I don't know how she does it and I really liked it.

I don't for a moment think it's representative of what goes on in the city or how mothers in the city carry on and she was absurd and weak, but I thought it captured a sort of desperation that I've felt from lots of women who have had children who are trying to hang on to their careers. And it was funny.

yOU'RE SO RIGHT sQUIFFY.

There has bee na a silly 'Posh but poor' column in Telegraph about travails of London family desperately scraping cah together for skiing,tuba lessons and so on.

Have just been waiting for the person who is so obviously writing under a pseudonym to come out and boast about her amazing new book deal and lo and behold! Christina Odone did so last week.

Increasigly,columnists seem to use their writing in papers to flog their books
(cf Jay bloody Rayner Phil Hogan et al))

Is a Caddy Daddy one who the wife thinks is being unfaithful but is actually off playing golf all the time?

Good post, squiffy.

I hope some of you hate the bloody Shopaholic woman too.

squiffy, Respect.
Do please come to the next City meet-up.

decaff - I did mean the ending was a cop-out in a literary sense - not at all that choosing your choices (in real life) is automatically so. It is just that journalism/big-sellers reinforce (if not actively create, for which qv) the way people make sense of their lives, and the message that sends is "this is the only possible choice". Which it ain't. And which again is why I do so admire the Posies and the Helen Simpsons, with their no-easy-answers.

dino: gosh. Can I do a combi ? Plus extend a (slightly desperately over-eager) Monopoly invite?

ive read both and preferred I dont know how she does it - it made me laugh at her underhanded ways in which to balance or appear to balance everything.

The rise and fall of a yummy mummy was a bit too unbelievable in my opinion.

Sadly im a big fan of chick lit as it doesnt tax me at all

I hated "I don't know how she does it". The ending irritated me. As mmj says, it just felt irrelevant to my life. There was a nice little get out clause for Kate Reddy - downsize, move out of London and dump the job, but have a very nice upper-middle standard of living in the provinces.

Great post, Squiffy. Maybe you and Xenia should get together and write the book.

This isn't a specific rant against Allison Pearson (her writing is well above the bar for this style of writing), but the problem with all the chick lit stuff about mums is that it all seems to be written by ex-journalists who're savvy enough to identify a bloody good market out there for all the readers who devoured Bridget Jones 10 years ago and are now doing the kiddie thing. BUT, whilst they can spot a trend a mile off and write intelligently enough to hook a lot of people in, they're still journalists/observers/commentators at heart, and not actually walking the walk (or not in Allison Pearson's case, at least - haven't read rise & fall yet). As a city person I can appreciate that AP has done her homework and describes female city experience to a reasonable level, she just irritates me because she has taken the 'clothes' of the city woman and tried to stick them onto a non-city person. When you've spent 20 years in the city it is water off a ducks back to saunter into your MD's office and tell him you are off for the day for panto/childrens' birthday/half-term or whatever, you just look them straight in the eye and dare them to quibble. And they don't. You get to be hard as nails from the moment you step into your office until the moment you step out, and it works. you set the boundaries and so long as you stick by your rules regarding work/life balance you get the same respect you had before kids. And what really ps me off about the chick lit stuff is that they because at heart that's not the kind of people they are themselves (they'd be doing our jobs if they were), they tend to make their characters do stuff that they'd do, not what we'd* do. The IDKHSDI is a total cop-out that makes me want to retch in terms of fabricating a happy ending - it would be dumb enough to star Hugh effing Grant in it, FFS. I have huge respect for people who are SAHM and I wouldn't dream of pretending I know how they think and feel from day to day, and it irritates me that writers presume they can step into my head and know what's going down. I just wish one of those many women who are sucessfully juggling all the balls in the air had time to write a decent novel that represented us. Whilst no-one would deny that it is bloody hard work, you CAN have it all if that's what you want, and this chick lit stuff, whilst being gently amusing most of the time, really doesn't do us any favours: I shudder to think what the men I work with would think if they ever picked up one of these books and read it from cover to cover, then decided that was an accurate reflection of women in the city. The 'honesty' factor reflects their honesty and not mine, and I get so annoyed that this kind of stuff is hitting the best-seller lists. I am right up there with the 'Orange' judges. Try reading IDKHSDI back to back with Naomi Wolf if you want to appreciate the difference between intelligent honesty and 'sunday supplement' honesty when it comes to motherhood.

God I'm amazed so many people read and enjoyed these books.I wouldn't even pick them up in a bookshop.

I totally and utterly agree with cod

got this free with a magazine and threw it across the room (I dont' know Hoe she does it I mean)

the woman was so bloody cross all the time she sounded like a right cow. a cut-throat job in the city but can't bring herself to junk a crap cleaner? don't think so

character just a made up pile of old shite

I guess so UQD.

There's also Baddy Daddy, (angry) Faddy Daddy (picky) Saddy Daddy (depressed) Caddy Daddy (unfaithful) - take your pick.

Is that Like Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons?

Laddy Daddy

All chicklit heroines seem to be called Kate.

I'm still not entirely certain what as yummy-mummy is. More about what makes one NOT yummy, and who decides. What's the male equivalent?

Read both when in hospital having DD - they made a satisfying 'thwack' sound when I threw them against the opposite wall

Trite nonsense IMHO

Oh oh oh, from unpromising beginnings this turned into a fantastic thread! Bink you are a national treasure and if you didn't exist, I should have to invent you!

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S'alright X. As I said below, still a bit sensitive about my recent decision!

I agree that it is possible to have a full time career and a nice balanced life; I intend to do the same when my kids are a little older. Just didn't see too many of these in the square mile.

Anna888 - agree absolutely. Were you one of them? Tips for getting over it please!