The Family Way

Owned a copy, couldn't get rid of it fast enough. The theme of this diatribe- sorry novel: you are not a real woman unless you've had babies. Nothing else equals parenthood in terms of fulfillment. Those without rug-munchers are sad creatures, possibly evil. I was a fan of Parsons other man-lit novels, until this.

This novel about babies and is set mainly in a London, a city where everyone apparently goes through the motions of having jobs, relationships and going on holiday, but in reality are only really interested in babies, spending all their time either thinking or talking about babies even if they've no interested in actually having one.

The book centres around three sisters whose mother walked out on them when they were young girls; each seemingly have a baby obsession of one form or other. Jessica, is desperate to get pregnant, but can't. Megan, in her last year as a trainee doctor, isn't "ready" to have a baby, but gets pregnant after a one-night stand. She contemplates having an abortion but as the foetus develops, so does her maternal show more instinct. Cat, the eldest sister, is happy with her life enjoying her job and has no desire to be a mother at all. But Parsons doesn't really believe that any real woman could possibly think that way. He seems to despise career women who have no maternal instinct and Cat is suddenly convinced that she's incomplete without one: "Without children all you had was now, and reminders of the past."

The men are obsessed about babies as well. Rather than going down the pub or at a football match they seem to spend their days talking about women wanting babies, about the women's body-clocks; "Their bodies were in extra time, their eggs were still hopeful of a penalty shoot-out." or about being fathers. Some of their dialogue is quite laddish as exampled above whilst some of it is more reflective " what would he tell his daughter about men? How could he prepare her for their lies, their tricks, and their black hearts? Our black hearts."

Thankfully in Parsons's world everything turns all right in the end. Jessica and Cat fall pregnant against all the odds, Megan successfully completes her training and is able to move from the vicious NHS to genteel private practice, and as an extra reward for the sisters their faithful father finds new love whilst the absconding mother has MS and her latter years will rapidly go down the drain.

I must confess that this is my first book by the author and whilst there were a few parts that made me smile, when I finished it I was left with absolutely no desire to read another book that featured a pregnancy for quite a while. show less

No self respecting charity shop would be without at least one Tony Parsons novel, which means that even if nothing else on their shelf grabs me, I can be assured of an enjoyable read, even if it comes with a slightly guilty feeling as when one eats a donut while on a diet.

This was his best so far, as far as I’m concerned – hard-wired into the emotional circuitry of its characters, this novel explores issues surrounding pregnancy and parenthood. The main characters are all female which means delving into some subject matter that would have the average bloke diving for cover in the nearest conversation about football, but Tony Parsons is not to be put off by such trifles. And I can say from personal experience that his portrayal of a show more particular pregnancy complication and resulting medical procedure is highly accurate.

There are blokes in the novel too – and given that some of them engage in deep and meaningful conversations about lurrrve and actually kiss eachother, the author has the good sense to make them Italian. Let’s face it, British men don’t do that. There were a few stereotypes on view, though- not least the feckless dole merchants on the Sunny View Estate (where nobody ventured unless “buying drugs, selling drugs or making a concerned documentary” (!!)). They were the sort of people the liberal establishment insist don’t exist while the Daily Mail insists they do. They are used to good effect here, though I was never too sure whether I should be feeling indignant about the demonization of the working classes.

The only thing that annoyed me – as with all his other novels – was the tendency towards single line paragraphs used to emphasise some point or other. Only the fact they weren’t in bold type could distinguish them from tabloid editorials. It was like a constant reminder that i wasn’t reading serious literature. But on the other hand, this was never as predictable as it threatened to be, and for its humour alone it was worth a read. The laughs kept coming. I loved the way Kirk’s parents, who stayed together despite constantly rowing, “made you believe in the sanctity of divorce”. A book that was always a pleasure to take up, never easy to put down. You can’t ask for much more. show less

Just finished reading this yesterday morning. Tony Parsons writes incredibly readable novels, all about dysfunctional families and modern families.

This one revolves around three sisters, whose mother left them when they were children, running away from the responsibility of motherhood. Now the three sisters are grown up and dealing with forming their own families.

I've found a touch of misogyny in some of his novels (he seems quite obsessed by women who ditch their kids in favour of having their Own Life And Career - and, frankly, it's not easy, but you can have your Own Life And Career *and* kids, I wish he'd get over this theme). However, in The Family Way, it seems to be men who are the absolute bastards. To such an extent that I show more despaired for the human race at times.

However, he can be upbeat, and he knows how to deliver a good (mostly) happy ending.

I can't comment on the whole "all women want kids" theme, I obviously wanted kids (and got two of them, AND a career, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!), and I was one of those women who changed their mind about motherhood (never, ever wanted kids, then all of a sudden, yeah, they could be cool...). It's all a bit too close to me for me to be able to say "yes, all women want kids". A lot of my friends still don't want kids! Although they are in the minority.

How about, "we don't want kids now". :)

[Oh, and obviously they do things differently in London. I had pre-eclampsia with my firstborn. No fun, but no panic stations either. The medication sucks, btw. And the second pregnancy was fine, although she was born - on her own whim, thankyouverymuch - a month early, at 35 weeks. She spent one night in ICU, not three weeks! I found the differences between what I went through, and what Megan went through rather interesting. Maybe they were beefed up for dramatic tension?]

I've recommended this to my partner (as a change from his usual sci-fi diet), we'll see if he'll ever get around to reading some lad lit... show less

Acquired via BookCrossing 10 Jul 2010 - donated to BookCrossing by the Moseley Lions

Like a Richard Curtis film, this book about three sisters and their various maternity issues rings through all the possible changes and tugs at all the possible heartstrings, while remaining just that bit too calculating - not exactly heartless, but a bit cold-hearted. But it passed the journey home from our holiday well enough!

I didn't like this one as much as the other books by Tony Parsons. I had a hard time telling the 3 sisters apart (which one was the youngest? and who's the doctor?). And I did sometimes get the impression that the voice of the story teller switched too abruptly, which left me confused, again trying to figure out who we are now talking about. It's an interesting style for mysteries and thrillers, but a bit of a pain in a simple chick lit romance, I thought.
Oh and I hated, hated, hated the ending, when the morale of the story seems to be that every woman is only happy if she has children even if she is single or never wanted children in the first place.

Usually Tony Parson's light novel about 3 sisters - Megan, Jessica and Cat, and how their mother abadoned them when they were younger, and now, they are each expecting children and how it affects them.