Julie Myerson - why am I not surprised that a book has materialised concerning her own son's drug issues?

[glasjam]

Read this is in today's Observer www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/01/julie-myerson-novel-drug-addiction

Does anyone else have the uncomfortable feeling that I have on learning that she is writing about her son's drug problems? I know that writers often mine their own personal experiences for material but I think she's putting her literary endeavours ahead of her son here. From what I can gather, he is still young, his drug issues are ongoing, and although he is out of the family home, surely this is risking any possible future reconcilliation? I also baulk at the way she "weaves historical research about Yelloly with her disturbing account of her son's ejection from the family home" It just smacks of middle-class-writer angst.

My cynicism is further fuelled by my very strong suspicion that Julie Myerson is the author of Living with Teenagers - but that's another story...

yah she's a great writer, dark and creepy! (like a MAN)

Hmm. what other writers do you like, CleanDeskPolicy?

MrsGuy, I doubt you are the only one, but given the nature of this thread I think you may find yourself in a minority!

You know she's one of those writers where you think "This is GROSS, this can't possibly be a woman writing..."

Like Will Self type gross? Or horror? And how very sexist of you, mp! The shame...

I'd have thought MN would have kicked any such thoughts out of your head.

I KNOW

I seem to recall that in Me And The Fat man the 'heroine' carries a dead baby in a suitcase for two weeks while it slowly decomposes

THAT sort of gross

Mind you it was YEARS ago that I read this book so I might have completely forgotten the actual story and warped it in my head

Um. Doesn't sound terribly appealing, tbh - is it just shock-value stuff?

'Like I said it's not like the Royal Family haven't been pulling exactly the same kind of stunt for years without quite the level of uproar that accompanies someone like Jade Goody. '

Erm...now I'm really lost. Has the Queen been in Big Brother and I've missed it?

ermmm I can't quite remember

I seem to remember thinking it was awfully well written

I don't think I'm really SELLING it well

You're not - though I've just realised that this thread is in adult fiction. Oh, the irony.

You are all jealous of my desk

Oh, yes, that's it. I just want to lick it, but then remember there'd be no cake crumbs, and so it would be a big let-down.

I like to put my cake in a tin, rather than, say, crumbling it all over my work area

Do you just stick your head in the tin to eat it? In manner of a nosebag?

mp and Habbibus' desks

Living proof that having a tidy desk turns you ORANGE. The head in hands pose just right for me - it's how I sleep at work.

Though the bad desk is much tidier than mine!

Myersons' desk seems to be covered in bags and cats

Nice try justabout!
The cat would give you somewhere to keep your pen though?