Grab Your Edition Dear George And Other Stories Put Together By Helen Simpson Presented As Copy

her second collection of short stories, Helen Simpson continues to explore ideas of independence, solitude, marriage, sex and babies with her characteristic blend of comedy and lyricism.
Here are tales of young love successful or thwarted, intense or comic,

From a wedding day for one, through the knotty problems of babies, their conception, arrival and impact on adult lives, to a Lothario receiving his just deserts, and the title story, where a schoolgirl's erotic daydreams during Shakespeare homework produce eventual blushes of horror.
Most of the stories left me feeling a bit 'meh', I saw someone recommending this on their book blog, and it intrigued me, so I thought I would buy a copy myself.
As with every book of short stories, there are some that stand out more than others, The stories revolve around marriage,

birth and sex, They are witty, heartwarming, heartbreaking and downright strange, One story really spoke to me, and I had a funny feeling that the story had been written just for me.
Strange how stories can do that to you, Anyway, a bit of a mixed bag that didn't take me long to rad, so I might see if I can sniff out another of her books.
. Helen is an old school friend of mine, She was brilliant at writing short stories then and even more brilliant now, Perhaps appealing more to women of a certain age these stories ring true every time, This is the last Helen Simpson book on my tbr shelf and I was really looking forward to it having absolutely adored all my previous encounters with her writing but wow! The first few stories have thrown me a wobbly.
Im assuming its me thats changed not her because I was really thinking the writing is a wee bit pretentious and even classist and I really just didnt enjoy them at allbut then,

Panic over!

Every short story collection has one or two that dont gel with every reader.
I thought Id have to go and find my real head because Id clearly screwed the wrong one on.


But then. .


“Your fondness for dubiety, the way you prize the fluid and infinite possibilities which unfurl before an unattached person, these I sympathise with utterly.
You cry freedom and I hear you, Harbouring the sense that theres an epiphany just around the corner, you wait, breath bated, creatively passive, for the chance phrase or glance that will crystallise it all, show you what your life is about and where it is leading.
You lack the desire to commit yourself, You tell me you are not ready for the responsibility of a child, and why should you be, my darling Youre only thirtysix.
”


These words and the couple of stories after this one connected with, and really resonated with my experience as a young working woman and as a young mother.


And I thought, all good, here she is, the astute and acerbic, wise and sassy, Helen Simpson as I remember her being and the story Heavy Weather had such sharp painful resonance I almost feel she had spied on me and my young family and told the tale here.
And then it turns out that I read it in a precious collection that I red back in!

And then, the next few stories again! Sorry but I yawned my way through them.


A real mixed bag, its definitely me, not the book!
is generous I think,stars

This book was consistently 'quite good', All the short stories were interesting without being hugely engaging, The writing on a surface level was really good, and there was a lot of interesting themes presented, but a lot of the characterisation felt flat and the same ideas were presented over and over again.
Although different perspectives were brought to these issues namely babies and young adulthood it did still feel a bit samey and the lack of variety impacted my enjoyment.
Sometimes, because of the format, there was also a slight lack of clarity, although this was rare, I don't read many short stories, and thought this was good without being anything special, I would probably not recommend, but if you enjoy this format or want to broaden the genres you read then you would probably enjoy this.
The reviews on the cover describe these stories as laughoutloud funny, yet I found most of them to be very sad.
Good though. Simpson is becoming one of my favourite short story writers, Deciding to have children or not looms large here, In “When in Rome,” Geraldine is relieved to get her period as her relationship limps to an end, In “Last Orders,” the heavily pregnant protagonist, nowdays overdue, fears the transformation ahead of her, “To Her Unready Boyfriend,” echoing Andrew Marvells “To His Coy Mistress,” has the narrator warn him time runs short for babymaking.


I also liked “Bed and Breakfast,” about a young couple hoping not to turn into their boring parents “Caput Apri” and its magical twist on the story behind “The Boars Head Carol” a Christmas story or two is a trademark of Simpsons collections, like the focus on motherhood and “Heavy Weather,” in which parents of two small children have a manic Dorset holiday that takes in some beloved sites like Hardys cottage and marvel at the simultaneous joys and tyranny of childrearing.


The gentle absurdity of “The Immaculate Bridegroom” reminded me of a previous Simpson story in which a woman marries herself, and “Creative Writing” connects back to two of the other collections Ive featured here with its writers workshop setting.


Some favourite lines:

“You will not be you any more, her ego told her id.
Not only will you have produced somebody else from inside you, someone quite different and separate, but you yourself will change into somebody quite different, overnight a Mother.
”

“Children were petalskinned ogres, Frances realized, callous and whimsical, holding autocratic sway over lower, larger vassals like herself.
”


Originally published on my blog, sitelinkBookish Beck, Underwhelming.
I was hoping that at least one of the stories would stand out, but it was just, Linear. Not exactly boring but almost, Helen Simpson is an English novelist and short story writer, She was born inin Bristol, in the West of England, and went to a girls school, She worked at Vogue for five years before her success in writing short stories meant she could afford to leave and concentrate full time on her writing.
Her first collection, Four Bare Legs in a Bed and Other Stories, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award while her book Hey Yeah Right Get A Life, a series of interlinked stories, won the Hawthornden Prize.
Librarian Note: There is than one author in the Goodreads database with this name, In particular, the mystery author sitelink Helen de Guerry Simpson is a different author, In, she was selected as one of Grantas topnovelists Helen Simpson is an English novelist and short story writer.
She was born inin Bristol, in the West of England, and went to a girls' school, She worked at Vogue for five years before her success in writing short stories meant she could afford to leave and concentrate full time on her writing.
Her first collection, Four Bare Legs in a Bed and Other Stories, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award while her book Hey Yeah Right Get A Life, a series of interlinked stories, won the Hawthornden Prize.
Librarian Note: There is than one author in the Goodreads database with this name, In particular, the mystery author sitelink Helen de Guerry Simpson is a different author, In, she was selected as one of Granta's topnovelists under the age of, In, she donated the short story The Tipping Point to Oxfam's 'Ox Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written byauthors.
Her story was published in the 'Air' collection, sitelink.