Hey Yeah Right Get a Life by Helen Simpson

Hey Yeah Right Get a Life

Helen Simpson

Nine short stories linked by frantic and exhausted women full of self-doubt whose lives have been altered forever by the birth of their children and the care that it entails. After reading Helen Simpson's snapshots of these hectic and energy-sapping lives, I was left feeling thoroughly exhausted myself and rather sad at the lack of support these women received from their husbands. Enough to make you think twice about parenthood!

Extract
'We're always down at Casualty,' said the mother, as rapidly desperate as a talentless stand-up comedian. 'Last week she swallowed a penny. Casualty said, a penny's OK, wait for it to come out the other end. Which it did. But they'd have had to open her up if it had been a five-pence piece, something to do with the serration or the size. Then she pushed a drawing pin up her nose. They were worried it might get into her brain. But she sneezed it out. One time she even pushed a chip up her nostril, really far, and it needed extracting from the sinus tubes.'
Parallels
  • Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
  • Birthday Girls by Annabel Giles