基本信息出版社：Penguin Books Ltd
页码：464 页
出版日期：2002年05月
ISBN：0140295933
条形码：9780140295931
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语

内容简介 在线阅读本书

Julia and Mark are stuck in a loveless relationship. Julia thinks a baby will help, but perhaps that isn't the answer to her problems. Maeve is totally allergic to commitment - she breaks out in a rash whenever she passes a buggy. A one-night-stand results in an unwanted pregnancy. But just how unwanted is it? Samantha is besotted with her new-born baby. But how is husband Chris coping with his suddenly unavailable wife, and is Samantha's obsession as healthy as it seems?
作者简介 Jane Green is a journalist and now lives in Connecticut in the United States with her husband and baby son. She is the author of STRAIGHT TALKING, JEMIMA J. MR MAYBE and BOOKENDS.
编辑推荐 Amazon.co.uk 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Once upon a time couples married, and shortly afterwards babies usually began to arrive. Nowadays things are different. Women needn't have babies at all, unless they want them. Julia, Sam and Maeve are Best Friends and have all, serially, done the same job in Television. They are very 'now' people, with excellent professional prospects, used to freedom, money and strings of lovers; but suddenly, in their thirties, they're suffering from emotional over-drive. Julia is desperate for a baby, to 'grout-up' the cracks in her faltering relationship with Mark. Maeve is desperate not to have a baby, cherishing her independence and ability to play the field. Sam has already given birth and discovered that babies are not always tractable and adorable - and there really is such a thing as post-natal depression. Used, effortlessly, to getting what they want, the girls are startled to find that Nature is less easy to manipulate than bosses and boy-friends. Chris, Sam's steady, loving, husband, takes most of the flak generated by Sam's persistent exhaustion. Julia, frustrated by her inability to conceive, blames partner Mark, and deserts him for a job in New York. He finds impulsive consolation in the arms of another woman - Maeve. It all becomes a precarious merry-go-round of friendship, love, and a search for emotional fulfilment. But, by the end of the year - the time span of the story - all three girls have, almost, grown up. Life may not have taken the paths they planned, but their friendships are still intact, and they've moved on to a new phase in their lives. Jane Green, a young mother herself, writes sometimes tongue-in-cheek, but always with sympathetic hindsight. Her writing style is chatty, and confiding. Thirty-somethings whose biological clocks are ticking ever faster would do well to read this novel - it provides much food for thought. (Kirkus UK)

Hello! Magazine
'This is a warm, lively, wise and distinctly unputdownable novel.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sunday Express
'Entertainingly and sympathetically told by an author who treats the tricky topics ... with heart-warming honesty and humour.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Books Magazine
'An engaging novel with acutely observed characters and situations.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

OK Magazine
'This eventful and emotional comedy will have you hooked.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.