Women writers who depict childrearing in a literary & non-fluffy way - any recs.?

[FaddyPeony]

On my list so far I have:

Anne Enright
Rachel Cusk
Sarah Moss

...And now I am stumped, can't think of any more. Are there more?

Although on Helen Simpson, I'd start with her earlier stuff - her later ones (I'm thinking of In-Flight Entertainment) are less about motherhood and I remember them as very bleak.

I so agree quirrelquarrel I still reread the L-Shaped Room just to see how far things have moved in a generation. The two sequels were almost as good.

There are several of the above that I've also read and loved (Gardham Drabble and Whipple), but I wanted to add thanks for the recommendations of the Byatt quartet and the Weiner one too, which I've just ordered. My book stack was getting dangerously low so this is perfect timing for me (even though my own baby is a strapping 14-year-old )

I just listened to a Helen Simpson story online (Guardian). Thank you for the recommendation, all - it was VERY GOOD. I may have had something in my eye by its close

Maybe Julie Myerson?

The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard includes a fair bit of quite intense pieces on childrearing, along with lots of other stuff.

Another vote for Helen Simpson - Hey Yeah Right Get a Life.

I came on to say The Hand That First Held Mine, mentioned already upthread.

Helen Simpson - Hey Yeah Right Get a Life. Fantastic book. Really showed me before kids just how unfair the whole 'man goes to work, woman stays at home' thing is, and made me be very clear about child rearing / housework / cooking with dh before we had kids.

The bit where the mum sits at a client dinner and mindlessly repeats 'the wheels on the bus' - the most scary thing I have ever read in a book.

I love all Ann Tyler's books, but Ladder of Years is my absolute favourite. It is all about a mother who walks away from her family on an impulse, and how she rediscovers herself.

Sorry, Anne with an e Tyler.

Have you read The Birth of Love? It's not just about childrearing - set in three timezones, one historical, one present, one dystopian. But it's very good, and the 'present' (with a mother about to give birth to her second child) sounds like it's what you're looking for.