Babyville - Softcover

Green, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141001135 ISBN 13: 9780141001135

Publisher: Penguin, 2002

Synopsis

Jane Green, author of The Other Woman and Jemima J., explores the chaotic world of pregnancy and motherhood in the number one best-seller Babyville.

In Babyville nothing's ever simple . . .

Julia worries that her relationship with Mark has turned stale. She thinks a baby will put love back into their lives. But is a child really the answer?

Julia's best friend Samantha is besotted with her new baby. But what's her sudden obsession doing to her marriage? And does Samantha's infatuation hide something much darker?

Meanwhile career-girl Maeve is allergic to commitment - nothing's going to stop her getting to the top. Then a one-night stand results in an unwanted pregnancy - but just how unwanted is it?

Three young women are about to find out how Babyville can turn your world upside-down . . .

'Once you pick up Babyville, it's unlikely you'll be able to put it down' Daily Mirror

'You'll be hooked' Company

Visit www.janegreen.com

Best-selling author Jane Green has captured the imaginations of readers in the UK and the US with her frank and funny approach to those day-to-day issues that affect women everywhere. Other titles also published by Penguin include The Love Verb (published as Promises to Keep in the US), The Patchwork Marriage (Another Piece of My Heart), Girl Friday (Dune Road), Life Swap (Swapping Lives), Spellbound (To Have and to Hold), The Beach House, Second Chance, Straight Talking, Mr. Maybe, and Bookends.

About this title

Review:

To have a baby or not to have a baby, that is the question that's facing Jane Green's 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 Mark's 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't make love anymore. We make babies. And we're failing.

Maeve, who also works in TV, is adamant that she doesn't want a baby or a relationship; she's 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't been stuck in all day with a screaming baby. You have absolutely no idea what it's 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

Review:

Once you pick up Babyville, it's unlikely you'll put it down (Mirror)

Warm, lively, wise (Hello!)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0141001135
• ISBN 13: 9780141001135
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464