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

[litgirl]

Hello!
I was just hoping for a few opinions really! I'm an English Lit student currently writing my thesis on Women's writing, and the opinions around chick-lit, and mummy and baby novels. I am discussing these two novels to illustrate how the characters react against the yummy-mummy myth presented in the media. I would love to hear any opinions you may have about either book, or chick-lit in general, and if you think these novels present mums realistically.

Thank you so much,
Katie xxx

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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))

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.

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.

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

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

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

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decaf - tips on how to get over thinking I should and could be doing everything (a) brilliantly and (b) simultaneously? Yes, I probably do have quite a few but I think they ought to be on a new thread.

I've read both of these books, and thought they were great. Infact i've only just finished the yummy mummy one, and i've now started reading one called "You'll never Nanny in this town again" I'm only thre chapters in, but i'm hooked already

Three not thre

Thankyou very much for you lovely girls that gave me some varied opinions about the novels: I was trying to get some opinions from women with children and this has helped my understanding.

Thanks **
potoftea
BrownieBells
LilyLoo
Bink (Thankyou for the Posy Simmons ref and helpful posts)
PippiLangstrump
decafskinnylatte
Anna8888
squiffy
moondog

and others i didn't mention.

To those with claws out: rest assured you are not writing my thesis/doing my homework for me! Interesting some are so quick to judge validity of degree on short (1000 wds) section of 15000 word project. In a discussion of modern women's literature, to miss out huge chick-lit market would be literary snobbery, no?

Thanks again for posts girls, really appreciate it!

"and the hugely boring truth is that reality just involves a shedload more dreary compromise than would sell a novel"

Bink: How wonderfully true. I'm sorry to hear about your lowered spirits (from the iPod thread), but they do seem to have produced some inspirational Mnet contributions!

litgirl - i read i don't know how she does it and felt it to be truely representative of a generation of working mothers, i laughed and cried and then gave it to my dh to read so he finally could see how i felt as a working mother, it made us have a fairly frank discussion about roles/ responsibilites and why i personally thought that everything i did had to be done brilliantly - particularly like the mince pie bit - have been guilty of same myself.

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Yes I wasn't convinced by the mince pie scene. It was funny though. But would only apply to a loony and so made the work/ life balance thing look like an individual (neurotic) woman's problem, rather than a genuine issue.

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