Customer Reviews

Getting a Life: Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

These edgy stories deserve all of the editorial praise they have earned. Simpson's protagonists are smart married London women-with-children in their thirties. Several are well-paid professionals working in corporate worlds, and the rest used to, but are now home with young children. (Their good-looking husbands are not much part of the action of these stories.) These competent women are by turns cynical ("Stress! She could handle it. She positively enjoyed jumping in its salty waves." - from "Burns and the Bankers") and full of yearning - for connection, for sex, love, enough hours in the day, and - to their husbands' consistent dismay: even another baby.

Simpson's protagonists are most often outwardly composed and howlingly distressed. A day starts out like any other and quietly appalling (and wholly believable) events take place. The action is described acidly, accurately, and sometimes from several points of view.

Simpson's ability to turn a phrase wowed me, along with her pitch-perfect ear for dialogue. She can by turns describe a shopping trip, an evening at the opera, sexual disappointment, the inner life of a teenage girl, the weather, office politics, men in kilts, or intense emotional states in ways that left me breathless. This is a terrifically satisfying read.

I brought the paperback of this book back from the UK and finally got around to reading it last month. It is simply one of the best-- funniest, best written, most trenchant, most important, most affecting-- story collections published in the last decade. Pretty much every story in it is about a thirtysomething woman with children; some of the women stay at home and have minds of mush, some of them have full-time jobs and are running high levels of frustration, guilt, or rationalization; all of them are an amazing and distinctive combination of real and repellent and attractive and flawed and sympathetic. Simpson's the real thing. I'm buying all her other books now. This one was published in the US but with its outstanding UK title rendered, dreadfully, as "Getting a Life." What were the US publishers thinking?

Getting a Life by Helene Simpson is a less-than-luminously-literary-but-entertaining-anyway collection of short stories.

Most of the stories are centered around domestic life, meaning: there are a lot of stay-at-home-moms and struggling working moms in these stories, agonizing over their lost identities. I have to say that I strongly identified with this theme, and so may be rating this collection a little higher than someone else would, but Simpson really nails the mom thing. I found myself reading large sections out loud to my partner as my toddler pulled out all the toys I'd just put away.

In "Cafe Society" two mothers meet for conversation and a little intellectual stimulation. They are aware, writes Simpson, "that the odds against this happening are about fifty to one." Still, they persevere, and most of their conversation happens mentally as they wrangle the toddler. A couple of the women in the stories reappear in other stories, and I found myself hoping that Simpson would stick with just those women and wishing she'd written a novel about them.

Some of the stories, written around some themes having to do with the end of the millenium, seem a little dated. "Millenium Blues" is such a story, and probably should not have been included in this collection, both because the fears expressed already seem quaint and because the ending is absurd. Absurdity doesn't fit well with the rest of the collection, which is generally a diary of domestic life in its small details and despairs.

All in all, a light read, but a definite "don't skip" if you are a toddlerian (ie, you happen to have small children at home).

"Getting a Life," a collection of 9 short stories by British author Helen Simpson, speaks about the joys and pitfalls of domestic life for modern women. The feeling of perpetually riding up an escalator that never reaches the top haunts their soul, each woman begs for a break. They all hunger for solitude: a precious commodity for these over-run lives. The women dream, pine, scream for a life that is balanced - a husband who does his share, bosses who do not belittle them and a society that cherishes them for raising children.

The women push forward endlessly, but remain embedded in a quagmire they do not exactly love or hate, but mostly tolerate for now. Many of the characters seem surprised by their circumstances and cannot remember the time before they were labeled wife, mother and worker simultaneously. The self has been emptied via the energy drainers: husband, kids and the workplace.

Isolation resonates within each woman. This is most poignant in the short story, "Café Society." Two over-burdened women meet for a brief coffee afternoon break, but neither one is able to communicate the frustration or the ache each feel. Simpson beautifully captures the formal outward exchange and the inward silent pain unable to be released. The short story begins,

"Two shattered women and a bright-eyed child have just sat down at the window table in the café. Both women hope
to talk, for their minds to meet; at the same time they are aware the odds against this happening are about fifty to one."

The reader will cheer for the women in "Café Society" and all of Simpson's women characters as they struggle for an elusive freedom. But no quick-fix solutions are presented. Occasionally, the characters step forward a hair's breadth in their fight for inner-peace and balance.

In short, Simpson's writing resonates due to its honesty. "Getting a Life" will warm you with biting humor and then chillingly expose the true face behind the masks of mother, wife, and worker.

Bohdan Kot

I can't speak highly enough of this collection of stories - all centering around motherhood. But a warning: this is not a rosy look at the "joys of mothering." In a welcome unflinching style, Simpson plunges deep into the heart and guts of the changes and challenges that face anyone brave enough to bring a life into the world. The emotional issues that arise with motherhood make the physical changes that inevitably accompany it look like child's play.

What happens when being a mom isn't all one thought it would be? In a child-centered culture that continually raises the standards for anyone wanting to make it into the Good Mom Club,women are often too ashamed to admit asking the question. For those who aren't, Getting a Life will mean validation with a capital "V."

I just loved this book. How comforting it is to read of women who have a heart, who really love their kids - despite the fatigue, the relentless grind, and the reality of not-so-helpful partners. Helen Simpson is deliciously English - I love the way her female characters will declare, "I'm shattered."
There is a genre of "mommy lit" currently available that strikes me as being not only cold and heartless, but badly written and not particularly intelligent.
These stories are anything but - I do hope Ms.Simpson hurries up and writes another book.

Simpson is unquestionably an enviable stylist. She's also occasionally funny in a quiet way, however I personally found the collection to be a little too one-note thematically. Children suck away all your energy and all of your time, and still the urge to have them in unaccountably strong. Simpson certainly has me believing this (although I'm not sure I ever doubted it), but part of me just wishes she could turn her talent to other subjects.

Two great stories, "Cafe Society" and "Getting a Life," depict the reality of being a mother to several very young children. Yes, the life of such a mother can be bleak, because the demands of children under 5 are uniquely relentless. But these stories aren't an indictment of marriage and motherhood, but a sort of war story. After all, unless you keep having children (as some of the mothers here do; one is not sure why), this phase does end. I honor Simpson and other writers (Rachel Cusk, for example) who shed light on mothers' usually hidden daily struggle.

The other stories are weaker, especially the one about the boutique, which seems to be some sort of fantasy. Why would someone six-month pregnant indulge in an expensive shopping trip? Maybe it has some appeal to a shopoholic.

Helen Simpson's "Getting a Life" is a collection of 9 short stories dealing with women in contemporary England. The collection, which was originally published in the UK under the title "Hey Yeah Right Get a Life", focuses on the not-so-happy side of domestic life. They explore issues such as balancing your social, career, and family lives, self-sacrifice, and maintaining relationships.

The first story in the book is entitled "Golden Apples" and follows an ambitious teenager, Jade Beaumont, as she thinks about her future. She swears to herself that she is not going to end up "dead inside" and living "somewhere boring" like her mother, who works and is a mother of a brood of children.

The title story "Getting a Life" is about Dorrie, a stay at home mom with 3 small children. She has no time for herself and feels that she doesn't have enough alone time with her husband. Her husband is often busy with work and appears impatient with the children and is aggravated by the way Dorrie lets the children walk all over her and run her life.

Many of the characters in this book make appearances in several of the stories. The stories all have a very dark (and ofen depressing) humor to them. This is not your standard chick-lit fare. These are not the sort of stories to make you laugh out loud, but they will make you think about family life and motherhood. I know that they made me rethink whether or not I am ready to delve into the world of parenthood. The book does tend to focus on the 'dark side' of motherhood, but there is a ring of truth to all the stories. If you are looking for a happy, rosy collection, full of happy endings, about how motherhood is a joy, this is not the book for you. However, I enjoyed this well-written collection as did most of my book club when we discussed it recently.

I have wanted this collection of short stories for a long time; I put it on my wish list a long time ago and my stepson gave it to me this Christmas. Excellent short stories from a very smart writer. I highly recommend it for people who like reading short story collections.