Amazon.co.uk Review To have a baby or not to have a baby, that is the question thats facing Jane Greens heroines in her fifth novel, Babyville. Julia, Maeve and Sam are pondering the pros and cons of procreation; the effect that it could have on their careers, partners and lives.
The novel opens with Julia, a successful TV producer, with her legs straight up in the air, encouraging her boyfriend Marks sperm to reach their destination. Julia thinks she wants a baby to fill the huge gap that has suddenly appeared in her life. But Mark thinks:
We don make love anymore. We make babies. And we
e failing.
Maeve, who also works in TV, is adamant that she doesn want a baby or a relationship; shes happy as a single, ambitious, career girl: "The togetherness. The cosiness. That coupledom that is pure anathema to me." But she finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand and finds that her preconceptions turn out to be misconceptions. And finally there is Sam; voluptuously, glowingly pregnant at the beginning of the book, but near the end screaming at her beloved partner Chris: "You haven been stuck in all day with a screaming baby. You have absolutely no idea what its like for me." Chris feels "neglected. Abandoned . Unwanted."
Babyville is played out in the present tense, with a staccato style delivery, with beats of humour between the emotional labour. The emotions may be powerful and universal, but the prose style may need a longer fermentation period. --Eithne Farry --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
# Paperback: 464 pages # Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (30 May 2002) # Language English # ISBN-10: 0140295933 # ISBN-13: 978-0140295931 # Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 3.2 cm
