Customer Reviews

Slummy Mummy

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Finally, a book for all of us "real moms" out there. You know, we're the ones who bring store-bought cookies to the class party instead of making something from scratch (HORRORS), the ones who hastily cut a hole in a sheet and call it a costume, the ones who regularly feed our kids meat (GASP). This is the story of Lucy Sweeney, a stay-at-home mom who leads a perpetually chaotic existence. She loses credit cards, passports, keys to the house - you name it - this woman has fumbled it. Of course, she is married to a super-organized architect whose drawers of underwear are sorted by color. Readers follow Lucy throughout one wild and crazy school year, where many of her antics resemble that of Bridget Jones (another hilarious Brit). There are plenty of flirtations with disaster, including one involving a fellow class parent (whom all the mothers call "Sexy Domesticated Dad"). I love British humor, and Neill certainly showcases plenty of it in this, her debut novel. What makes her writing stand out is that it is extremely intelligent and insightful as she wonderfully describes Lucy, her best friends, as well as some of the uber-moms who are quite puzzled by her - ones I'm sure every reader will recognize in their own school communities. Okay, so some of our heroine's antics are a bit over-the-top, but it's still wicked fun to read!

Slummy Mummy is hilarious--and comforting. Yes, its over the top, but where it really hits the mark is in its descriptions of the parental infighting and can-you-top-this behavior in an upscale suburban neighborhood. This mum's neighborhood happens to be outside London, but it could easily be New York or the suburbs of Washington, DC.

If you are the kind of Mom who finds herself overwhelmed by backpacks filled with "parental contracts," requests that you become an unpaid teacher's assistant not to mention nasty cliquish behavior of some mothers groups--you may end up cheering this book. I know I did.

You would never expect a piece of mom-lit to turn out as a sophisticated essay about marriage and motherhood. Slummy Mummy comes quite as a surprise, being not only smart, witty and extremely funny, but the most important of all, giving astonishingly precise account of a woman in her midlife crisis. As the heroine's pedantic husband put it, the midlife crisis is "discontent with the status quo, restlessness, questioning decisions that you made years ago, thinking you've grown apart from your husband, wondering whether happiness lies with another man". And Lucy Sweeney makes a long way from fantasizing about another man to making a decision about the future of her marriage.

The book is not dedicated exclusively to adultery. Ms.Neill provides amazing observations about the nature of being a mother, about the responsibilities, difficulties and rewards of motherhood. Lucy's life is a nightmare of sleepless nights, chronic fatigue and endless flow of domestic routine, and yet there's a rare sparkle of such overwhelming feeling that may only be felt towards a child.

..."I feel time passing like sand slipping through my fingers. Perhaps it is good that we remember only fragments of their childhood as we grow older. Otherwise, the loss would be too great to bear."...

Lucy's fears, worries, anxiety, loneliness and exhaustion are not her own. It all sounds so utterly familiar, as if someone overheard your own thoughts and shared your own experience. And yet, the Slummy Mummy does not hold a tiny bit of depression. As if Lucy Sweeney pondered on one of the big-sized dilemmas of her life "To laugh or to cry" and finally voted for the former.

This book was ferociously bad. I've read a bit of so-called "mommy-lit" and the genre has produced far better. The main character was so annoying I could hardly stand it. She seemed to have no self-control or organizational skills to the point of seeming to be mentally impaired. I feel concerned that there could possibly be women in the world this dumb and self-involved raising children. The book was completely outlandish and the situations were entirely unbelievable. This is at the bottom of the spectrum of what mommy-lit has to offer and I would urge you to find better.

Funny! Hilarious! Like reading a sober/married/mother version on Absolutely Fabulous... (is how I describe it to people!) There are so many funny parts to this book that I strongly warn all readers not to drink hot coffee or tea while reading this book...you might be spill it all over yourself when laughing out loud!

I have been trying to find an author blog site..or fan site..nothing yet... Fiona Neill...if you are reading this...Thanks for a great time! You and Jane Green (Beach House) made my summer!!

Judging from the title, I guess I assumed this book was a more frivilous or lowbrow story - a mommy verson of chick-lit, if you will. It was a pleasant surprise to find it was actually humorous, but also thoughtful and introspective with an intelligent, albeit disorganized central character.

Woven into the story of a former news producer who stops working to be a stay-at-home Mom (expecting it to be temporary, but 8 years and three children later, is still at home) are her single friends and both her family and her mother-in-law. There was an interesting mix of people and situations and overlapping storylines.

The book was entertaining and laugh-out-loud humorous at times. I liked Lucy, the central character, all the while cringing at some of her self-induced domestic messes. Most of the diverse characters were sympathetically drawn and the plot wasn't entirely predictable, nor the ending necessarily believeable. However, I read for entertainment, not reality, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected to and imagine that mothers out there will find much to relate to (and may feel better about yourself after reading this book).

Overall I liked this book but did find the plot to be slow. The writing sytle, sentence struture and word choice was above average which kept me reading.

It's well-written and has some excellent one-liners but unless you've bought into the whole middle-class, ex-careerist, multi-child mother thing you'll want to box her ears. Depressing to think there probably are people out there like her in charge of children. Not recommended for intelligent, childless women, married or not - they're too sane to get it.

I just don't get all the great reviews for this book. It was ok but nearly as funny as it was hyped to be. The situations she finds herself in were not believable and it read more like a series of columns rather than a novel. I have found other "mommy lit" much more entertaining. If you really want to read it, I would suggest checking it out of the library rather than spending your money.

I agree with the other reviewer. The situations created are NOT believable. Why would a former high-powered career woman attend a school function wearing her pajamas? How can she be so purposefully dis-organized? The narrative weak and I find myself not caring to turn the pages.
I've donated the book to a library.