Family Way [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Tony Parsons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2004

It should be the most natural thing in the world. But in the latest Parson's masterpiece, three couples discover that Mother Nature can be one hell of a bitch. Read by Samantha Bond with the humour and sensitivity that perfectly compliments Tony's Parson's latest bestseller. A hard-working trainee doctor, Megan Jewell finds herself accidentally pregnant. She wants a baby one day -- but God, not now! Can Megan really bring a baby into the world when she can hardly look after herself? Megan's happily married sister Jessica wants a baby -- immediately. But her husband Paolo is worried. He loves his wife and he sees what a baby is doing to his brother's marriage. Cat Jewell, the oldest sister, is scarred by the memory of their mother walking out. She wants a baby -- maybe. But what's a girl to do when the man in her life has seen and done it all before? Rory already has a teenage son. The last thing he wants is to start changing nappies. Tony Parsons shows us once again the dilemmas and decisions that confront men today. Modern-day relationships are tested in this very realistic, contemporary story about procreation and new life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Man and Boy: 'Wistful, touching and funny, it looks back at the glory days of the family without losing hope for the future. In the end, it is a deeply touching book: a love letter to a son from his father, and to a father from his son' Mail on Sunday 'One of the finest books published this year! Hilarious and tear-jerking in turns' Express Praise for One for my Baby: 'One For My Baby is stylish, polished, complex and it really gets its teeth into the big issues of sex, love, family and friendship.' The Mirror

About the Author

Tony Parsons is the author of Man and Boy , winner of the Book of the Year prize. His subsequent novels -- One For My Baby, Man and Wife, The Family Way, Stories We Could Tell and My Favourite Wife -- were all bestsellers. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Harper Collins Audio; Abridged edition (June 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000718199X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007181995
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,839,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is Tony Parsons a Preacher?, June 3, 2008

By 

Stella - See all my reviews

This review is from: Family Way (Paperback)

This is how I believe the author wrote this book:
a. interviewed a few medical students (surfed the internet and watched some B-rated movies)
b. talked to 2-3 women (including his mother and probably his wife)
c. put it all together into some really, really lame characters

The way the characters speak is so corny that I wondered if the author was being sarcastic - but he wasn't!!!
He was being a moralistic prick at best.

If you like these cliches, then by all means - read this crap:

women change after they have a baby and their husbands cheat (but only if they have been bad guys in the first place);

a career woman is bitter and angry because she's never had a family and now she is jealous of every other pregnant woman;

a bad man who cheats on his wife gets punished by losing his family;

an independent woman who left her children (in what didn't seem to me to be such a terrible situation - the father had money and the children had nannies) in the end is abandoned by all her children and will die of MS (how cruel of this author who is like what...a saint??!!);

everything in your childhood is a trauma (unless both of your parents were there to devote their entire lives to you and did that while holding each other's hands and cuddling)- I got so tired of Cat whining over her childhood (get over it already, it wasn't THAT bad)

a handsome surfer guy ends up being a cheater although he tries not to be;

the prettiest sister is like a really good wife and not at all aware of how beautiful she is;

and the most annoying thing of all - an ultimate happy ending for all the good guys and a punishment for all the bad guys.

COME ON! How pathetic!
Was this written for a 13 year old girl whose parents are still censoring what she is to know about real world?

But I give it 3 stars - because I did manage to finish it after all.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Family Way, August 23, 2010

By 

G. Chang "toy digger" (Fairfax, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Family Way (Paperback)

Very trite, forced and one dimensional. Bought book in $1 discount rack and felt relieved when I finished it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the family "package" with its goods and bads.., August 17, 2005

By 

book women "Book women" (Asia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Family Way (Hardcover)

I love Tony Parsons as a writer and I have read all of his previous books and finished this book in almost a day.

its a very emotionally book that deals with the beautiful thing called: pregnancy, having a child and living as a couple.

maybe the fact that I am pregnant at the moment and could easily relate to it and at some points I almost cried.... (really).

but.... there were some medical "facts" that were mistakable and that made the enjoyable reading being less enjoyable..

I loved it but it wasn't Parsons's best but still I recommend it to anyone who is expecting a baby, having a baby,planning to have one or just living with the great other...