Julie Myerson books

[Maria2007]

Hi, this is my first post as an OP on the adult fiction so I thought I'd join in by talking about the books I've been reading recently.

So. I followed the whole brou-ha-ha in the press about Julie Myerson's latest book 'The Lost Child' (awful IMO how she wrote a book about her son's drug addiction, when he's only 20 yrs old, alive & well, & actually living close by). BUT that's not what I want to ask you guys about. I just have the feeling her way of writing can be great in some books or can be really self-conscious & annoying in others. Wonder if anyone read her books & had the same impression?

For example- I recently read her first book 'Sleepwalking' which I thought was good, a very eloquent discussion of pregnancy & early motherhood. Also a good, cutting description of faded love in marriage. I also read 'Home' though, her 'biography' of her house in Clapham. Very self-satisfied and 'aren't-we-a-great-family-living-in-a-great-house', I thought.... (Still, quite interesting as an idea). But finally, I read 'something might happen'. Now that book I didn't like at all. The way it's written feels so..... forced. It really doesn't flow.

Any other thoughts on these or other of her books?

Bump? (Sad, no-replies-to-my-post emoticon)

Have read a few of hers - 'Something Might Happen' and another I can't remember. I agree that she sounds forced. She writes as, I think, she talks. Lots of "I would love to eat/drink/poo, I really would". Hate that "I really would" style of speaking. Sounds so affected. But, I was moved by the book where the girl dies (Was that 'Something might happne'?) Can't even remember teh details of the other one but think the woman was very, very annoying. Always just seem to be transparently based upon herself or her family.

I have only read the one where the baby dies-what was that called? It is still in my head,it was so sad.

Oooh, I don't. She is extremely irritating.

I just read "How I Live Now" by Meg Rosoff and there is a JM review at the top of the back cover - "Fresh, honest, rude, funny. I put it down with tears on my face".

Hers is not the only such review but honestly, the book is utter tosh

LOL Tinker about the 'I would love to eat/drink/poo, I really would'. Or lots of dialogue sounding like this:

'Why' she asked. 'Why do you think I pooed'?
'Thanks' he replied. 'Thanks for eating'.
'Don't' he said. 'Don't poo this early in the morning'.
ETC.

Very tiring after a while. Very contrived. I haven't actually heard her speak. But I was surpsised that especially 'Something might happen' was like this, but 'Sleepwalking' less so. Actually I did like 'Sleepwalking' quite a lot. I really can't figure out why 'Something might happen' sounded so contrived & affected.

Hellymelly, I haven't read any of her where a baby dies. I wonder which one it is?

I think a baby dies in The Story of You. Not read it, but remember it coming out.

"Me and the Fat Man" is the one where the baby dies.

I really liked MATFM and Sleepwalking and I couldn't put Home down - it was like a detective story how she tracked down all the people who had lived in her house - I really found it fascinating. I think I read it in a day.

I didn't like Something Might Happen as much. I know there's been lots of fuss about her latest book but I'm not in the UK so got the basics but missed most of it.

Lots of people on MN seem to really dislike her writing...I think she writes about pregnancy, birth and newborn babies really well.

...and in Something Might Happen, according to a review I was just looking at in the Independent. It seems to be a bit of a theme in her work. I always meant to read a book of hers, but there's just something that puts me off.

X-post, a baby (toddler-age, anyway) dies in The Story of You, as well.

Just finished reading 'The lost child' - borrowed it from the library. Also read Home. 'Mildly' liked both. Agree she is a bit annoying, and self satisfied in parts.

I think writing LostChild was much to premature, she lacks personal insight into her family's dynamics as well as her son's own motivations to write a really 'useful' book about addiction to skunk.

It is a bit like that old '60's film 'Reefer Madness' about the perils of this 'new' drug 'skunk.' 'Look out it'll rot your brain and send you mad! You'll be a zombie and never get to Oxbridge!'.

Also she has too many people in the narrative 'gasping' at her 'revelations' for me to feel true empathy with her predicament.

Quite like some of her writing tho' it can be very effective when she reminisces about the emotional aspects of parenting. I might try 'Sleepwalking' because of this.

Quite jealous of her naivety actually - it must be quite nice to be in her bubble sometimes.

The Story of YOu was teh otehr one I read.

Yes Maria, that is spot on . I can hear her breathily speaking like that as I type.

I've read them all but i get confused which one was which as the narrative is so similiar. I can't remember the baby dying in "The story of you". Is that the one where she is in Paris and supposedly meets her old lover?

Interesting that she writes a comment on the back of "How I Live Now" . I thought she borrowed HEAVILY from Meg Rosoff's style when she wrote "Out of breath"

I will probably read "The lost child" too although I will get cross with myself for doing so.

Now I am wondering if the book I read was even by her! I read a lot and it was in the sleepless post natal haze (that I still have but thats another story).I found it really upsetting,the baby daughter,well about 18 months maybe,pulls part of a table on top of her and is crushed to death in her cot and they don't hear her because the monitor is turned off or something.I was reading it when my baby was the same age and so it really got to me.I thought it was "the story of you" when i saw that title but I am doubting my woolly brain.

I remember it now hellymelly. but I can't be sure it was "The story of you"

i like her writing but it is all very similiar themes isn't it?

please 'scuse the crap tired typing.

thats the only thing of hers I've read, I don't know why,think I saw it in the library.I am in a Sarah Waters mood at the moment and getting through a lot of persephone books.

Surely she wrote "Laura Blundy"? Can't believe no-one's mentioned that, a fantastic read.

Off to check a minute...

Yes. Laura Blundy, and I thought "something Might Happen" was very good too.

I liked Sleepwalking which I read several years ago, before she was such a meeja personality (although she had had that very annoying column in the Independent). I didn't care for Something Might Happen, which I found very trite; every time she mentioned the baby, she mentioned its tiny, curling fingers as if she was the only person ever to notice that babies have fingers. I've got Home on my 'to read' pile but am so irrationally irritated by her that it's colouring how I feel about the book.

I think I've only read those two.

I know little about her and managed to miss most of the recent debacle, so I haven't learnt to hate her.

I thought they were well written, excellent in fact.

hellymelly I remember the bit you're talking about, the baby is in a cot and manages to stand up and pull the changing table over onto herself and dies...I think it's The Story Of You. She does have a bit of a theme of babies and children dying in her books.

Looks like it whatshesaid, at least 3 children die in the two I've read!

I'm late to this thread but have just finished The Story Of You (yes, it is the one where the little girl dies in her cot) and am laughing at some of the comments here about her style.

It's a sad novel but I just kept laughing at the descriptions of sex (many of them, all cringeworthy) and the fact that everyone seems to fall in love with the central character and wants to sleep with her all the time.

Also lots of annoying "I love you baby", "Me too, I love you too", "I love you so much". Yawn. Even if it is a ghost saying it.

I know this thread is dead, I just had to share my dissatisfaction.