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I Don't Know How She Does It (2002)

by Allison Pearson

Series: Kate Reddy (1)

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1,821589,224 (3.31)27
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Delightfully smart and heartbreakingly poignant, Allison Pearson's smash debut novel has exploded onto bestseller lists as "The national anthem for working mothers." Hedge-fund manager, wife, and mother of two, Kate Reddy manages to juggle nine currencies in five time zones and keep in step with the Teletubbies. But when she finds herself awake at 1:37 a.m. in a panic over the need to produce a homemade pie for her daughter's school, she has to admit her life has become unrecognizable. With panache, wisdom, and uproarious wit, I Don't Know How She Does It brilliantly dramatizes the dilemma of every working mom.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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» See also 27 mentions

English (53)  French (3)  Spanish (1)  German (1)  All languages (58)
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
I’ve known quite a few Kate’s and they’re all as terrible as our protagonist. An awful story about an awful person. I do want to give the second book a try, if for no other reason than I bought it from a bargain bin ages ago and feel obligated. ( )
  ilkjen | Sep 5, 2023 |
I do wish I'd read these two in order (though I kept chuckling to myself as I knew that future Richard would be off to get his PhD.) And phew, I think this one made me really appreciate mothers in general--small children full time are no easy feat! The love that Kate had for her children throughout was my favourite part. Her unwavering affection was so primal and well-written. ( )
  whakaora | Mar 5, 2023 |
One again I find myself in the accidental place of having cheated by watching the film before reading the book... Both have a very similar tone though, so I didn't find myself disparaging at the differences between the mediums. Until the end of the novel, that is... In the film, Kate is able to find a good work-life balance (due to her outstanding work efforts earning her some slack), but at the end of the novel she quits her job to raise her children. In the epilogue we get the idea that she's getting back in the game, but I still find her traditional motherly sacrifice annoying. I'll take my moral lessons from the movie, than, since I refuse to sacrifice my professional goals! ( )
  JaimieRiella | Feb 25, 2021 |
I think I read this within a year after it first came out, circa 2003, when I was still working in the financial district full-time, and had two little ones, ages 5 and two, was commuting to Manhattan by train and could lose myself in a book for about 45 minutes each way. I found myself laughing out loud in many spots, feeling that Allison Pearson really got it. She understood the guilt and hysteria of working mothers and put the experience out there in a way that was truly authentic. I just wonder, 10 years later, how her novel would hold up in today's market. The hilarious email exchanges in the book would have to be texts now, I suppose.

I thought Pearson was such a fresh, talented voice, but was very disappointed in her uneven tribute "I Think I Love You," which attempted to capture the David Cassidy fangirl experience of the 1970's.

But back to Kate Reddy. The only actress I had ever envisioned in her role was Téa Leoni, and had hoped to see a wonderful onscreen treatment by 2004 at the latest. So again, was very disappointed in the stale, waaaay too late 2011 film with Sarah Jessica Parker, which was absolutely awful. ( )
  Mona07452 | Oct 23, 2020 |
So. Much. Anxiety. If I had kids, I would totally be Kate. Lost in between two worlds and failing miserable at balancing them both. I just cannot seem to grasp the high demand job motherhood balance, and it gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. EVERYTHING in this book just confirmed that motherhood is not for me! Don't get me wrong - I admire the people who can do it! I just have ZERO faith in myself that I'd ever be able to balance the two without buckets of Xanax and a therapist on speed dial.

Kate Reddy is having a hard time. She's got a high power job and some littles at home and she is struggling making it all work. She refuses to become a Pinterest mom, and doesn't really have the time anyway, plus, her job doesn't take her as serious as they should - because she's a ROCKSTAR, but she's a women, so... well, 'nuff said. Trying to find the time to be a good mom to her kids, wife to Richard, and give her job the attention it deserves - is not working out, and Kate needs to figure out her priorities - and fast!

I love Allison Pearson's writing - its quick, descriptive, and so witty. I get a bit lost in some of the British slang, but it's still fun pretending I understand it. Kate trying to figure out how to be a mother in a man's world, is equally sad and hilarious and I had fun reading this. Next up is How Hard Can it Be! I'm excited to read the follow up to this book and see where Kate has landed at 50! ( )
  Bookapotamus | Jun 27, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
Being a working mom, I immediately thought that this book would appeal to me... but it seemed to miss the mark at just about every turn.

Kate, the main bread-winner in her family, works an obscene amount of hours, leaving the house before her kids have eaten breakfast and not getting home until after they are asleep. All day she agonizes over her work-life balance yet never seems to do anything to adjust it. Constantly pulled away from the home on business trips to other countries, Kate seems to have chosen her work-life over her home-life, to the point that she fantasizes about having an affair with an American client.

Have you ever heard the saying "You can't have your cake and eat it too"? That is how I felt about Kate... you can't expect to have kids and NOT give up some part of your life. Having obviously chosen her career over her family, it drove me crazy when Kate suddenly has an epiphany, when her kids are 6-years-old and 2-years-old, that she is throwing away her life with her children. It takes her husband leaving, her nanny falling ill and her assistant becoming the office 'joke' before she puts her life priorities straight. Immediately my thought was, "Really?!?! You wasted SIX YEARS of your relationship with your daughter and NOW you decide to be a 'Mom'"... Ugg.

Overall, this book was too unrealistic for me. It could be that my feelings on the whole work vs. family thing are a little too strong, but, as a mother, you will ALWAYS put your children first... ALWAYS!!
 
Let us get one thing straight from the outset: despite its rapturous reviews, the book is not artful or literary or—to borrow Time's thunderously wrong adjective—"sparkling." It's full of stock characters, including a wise minicab driver who is forever making insightful remarks about the meaning of life. A pigeon family constructs a nest outside Kate's office window and teaches her valuable lessons about motherhood. "Phones may have become cordless," we are lectured, "but mothers never will." When Kate and her husband reconnect in a London coffee shop after a brief, miserable separation, "we both laugh, and for a moment Starbucks is filled with the sound of Us." (Funny, I thought that grating, deafening sound was the coffee grinder.) Still, though, the book has struck a chord—on an episode of Oprah devoted to the book Oprah Winfrey introduced it as "the new bible for working mothers." In particular, droves of readers report that the nature of Kate's marriage mirrors theirs exactly.
 

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For Evie with love
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Monday, 1:37 A.M. How did I get here?
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I take my time brushing my teeth. A count of twenty for each molar. If I stay in the bathroom long enough, Richard will fall asleep and will not try to have sex with me.
Men today can only be better fathers than their fathers. Simply by knowing how to change a nappy or figuring out which hole you stick the bottle in--these things mark them out as more capable parents than any previous generation. But women can only be worse mothers than our mothers, and this rankles because we are working so very very hard and we are doomed to fail.
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Fiction. Literature. HTML:

Delightfully smart and heartbreakingly poignant, Allison Pearson's smash debut novel has exploded onto bestseller lists as "The national anthem for working mothers." Hedge-fund manager, wife, and mother of two, Kate Reddy manages to juggle nine currencies in five time zones and keep in step with the Teletubbies. But when she finds herself awake at 1:37 a.m. in a panic over the need to produce a homemade pie for her daughter's school, she has to admit her life has become unrecognizable. With panache, wisdom, and uproarious wit, I Don't Know How She Does It brilliantly dramatizes the dilemma of every working mom.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Ismerjék ​meg Kate Reddyt, aki befektetési alapkezelő, két kisgyermek édesanyja. Öt különböző időzónában kilencféle devizát tud átszámítani, és képes fél óra alatt megfürdeni, felöltözni, a gyerekeket megmosdatni, felöltöztetni és elindulni otthonról. Kate krónikus időhiányban szenved, úgy számolja a másodperceket, mint más a kalóriákat. Folytonosan rohan egyik értekezletről a másikra, eszébe kell tartania a jelentéseket az ügyfeleknek, a gyerek születésnapi tortáját, a tengerentúli telefonhívást , a betlehemes játékot, megnézni a Dow Jones-indexet, intimtornát végezni, időt szorítani a szexre. Mindehhez adjunk még hozzá egy számító nevelőnőt, egy ausztrál főnököt, aki úgy bámulja Kate mellét, mint árut a kirakatban, egy szenvedő – valóban szenvedő – férjet, egy csöndesen rosszalló anyóst, két követelőző gyereket és egy elektronikus szerelmet. Kate annyi labdával zsonglőrködik, hogy valamelyik egy napon elkerülhetetlenül leesik a földre. ALLISON PEARSON regénye egyszerre könnyfakasztóan humoros és fájón szomorú. Az írónő mély megértésel ábrázolja a dolgozó anyák bűntudatos életét, az önvádat, a nevetséges kis csalásokat, a kimerültséget, a kétségbeesést. Metsző iróniával, ragyogó stílusban mutatja be a dolgozó anyák dilemmáját a 21. század elején. „Az ember beleszeret ebbe a könyvbe – nagyszerű, szívszorongató regény felnőtteknek, életünk édes-keserű fájdalmainak krónikája.” Tony Parsons
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