I basically picked up the book because reading the short description made it sound like most of my married working mother friend’s lives. I couldn’t have guessed how close till I finished reading.
About the Author - Journalist and critic Allison Pearson is a regular columnist for London’s Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph, having previously written for the Independent on Sunday. She was voted Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993, and has been a judge for the Orange Prize for Women’s Fiction and the Forward Poetry Prize. Allison has presented J’Accuse on Channel 4 and The Copysnatchers on Radio 4, and, with Tom Paulin and Tony Parsons, was a regular panellist on Newsnight Review’s predecessor, Late Review. She lives in London with her husband, the New Yorker writer Anthony Lane, and their two children.
About the writing style - This is Allison Pearson’s debut novel. Most of the book is in the style of Dairy quite like Bridget Jones detailing the activities carried out in the harried life of Kate reddy, the main character of the book. It is embedded in between with interesting emails exchanged with her friends and a client. The Must remember at the end of each chapter are pretty interesting.
There are those philosophical passages in between , which take you close to the trauma she is actually going through. About the book/story Katherine Reddy is your average woman who is constantly running a race against time. A good at her job fund manager trying to survive in a male dominated big financial organization. She is also a mother of two Emily and Benjamin aka Ben.
Although set in London , the story seems to be to that of every modern Indian women , who like a juggler has to manage a job full of competitive males, demanding kids, never helping husband, continuously nagging in-laws.
The most insightful parts are when she brings out the essential ironies of the lives of today’s working women. Her husband although trying his best to help her out with kids and chores, doesn’t really understand her. He also doesn’t know how to react about the fact that she earns more than him. At her work place , people are not understanding about the pressures on a working mom. She is under constant guilt about not able to spend enough time with her children. Her dilemmas and battles are those of every other working woman.
The book has a lot of interesting characters to prevent it form becoming monotonous or boring. Richard the typical husband, Paula the nanny , Emily the curios daughter, Ben the fast growing son, the male chauvinist co worker, Jack the prince charming client, the nagging mother in law, the drinker and inventor father, Momo - the innocent Mentee who wears rose colored glasses, Candy and Deb - A woman’s most essential - girl friends, Winston - the philosopher cab driver Rod the Australian boss, the local Muffia that is the non working mothers. My two cents
If you like a quick page turner and like the new chick lit genre then my take is pick it up. You’ll enjoy it.