LONDON -- Novelist Fiona Neill's morning sounds like something straight out of her new book "The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy" -- a plumbing crisis left her floor under 2 inches of water and she was late getting her children to school because the car broke down. When she arrives at a north London cafe for an interview, though, Neill seems to hold onto a calm that eludes her protagonist. Maybe that's because of the book's success in her native Britain, or the plug it got from Vogue magazine ahead of its U.
S. The book has climbed to No 5 on the hardback fiction chart. "Slummy Mummy" offers a comical window into the life of Lucy Sweeney, a high-powered television news producer-turned-stay-at-home mother of three, who is drowning in the anarchy of domestic life.
Successful mom and author Neill, 41, who lugs a tote bag stuffed with newspapers and old sneakers and wears a jean jacket over a casual print sundress, is clearly familiar with the kind of domestic disorder that Lucy's facing down. She's still able to giggle, though, while juggling motherhood with a successful writing career. "Slummy Mummy," which started life in 2005 as a Times of London column, sprang from a conversation Neill had with a friend.
"We were sort of comparing notes on motherhood and saying how nothing you really see (in print) reflects the reality of the chaos of being a parent." A journalist, she found her fictional column a hit, and soon landed a book deal. The title is a play on "yummy mummy," the label the British press has given the wealthy, well-dressed women pushing strollers through London's posher neighborhoods.
Neill recalled saying to her friend, "Far from being the yummy mummies, we're the slummy mummies. And I just knew when I said it, that was it." The book hit a nerve in Britain, becoming one of the more successful in a wave of so-called "mum's lit" titles.
Many have done well as "mommy lit" in America, too, said Jonny Segura, an editor at Publishers Weekly, including Allison Pearson's "I Don't Know How She Does It," Sophie Kinsella's "Shopaholic Baby" and Jill Kargman's "Momzillas." Such novels are often lumped together as lightweight heirs to the "chick lit" phenomenon launched in the 1990s by another British import, "Bridget Jones's Diary," by Helen Fielding. The characters (and writers) are a decade or so older and adapting to a new phase in life.
Behind their pastel covers, many of the "mommy lit" books delve into the serious issues women grapple with as they try to balance work and family. Neill said she wanted to underline the stark choices still facing women, and what she sees as the work world's inflexibility and failure to create meaningful jobs compatible with motherhood. "Instead of trying to find solutions, (public discussion) has all been quite divisive," she said.
"It's a debate that needs to be carried forward." Her novel's other theme is the contrast between struggling Lucy and the super-organized, perfectly groomed mothers she meets at school and nicknames Alpha Mum and Yummy Mummy No. "There are those kinds of mothers on every playground, and they often make women feel worse about themselves.
" Neill thinks parents would be better off eschewing perfectionism, ignoring advice books and trusting their instincts. "The more serious you make (parenthood) and the more anxious you make it, the less pleasure mothers get out of it," she said. "You laugh a lot (with children), there are lots of really funny things, and I sort of wanted to rescue that.
But to rescue the comedy, you have to let go of the perfectionism." Customer Service Site Index Terms of Service Send feedback about IndyStar.com Subscribe Now Jobs with us Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights, updated August, 2006.
LONDON -- Novelist Fiona Neill's morning sounds like something straight out of her new book "The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy" -- a plumbing crisis left her floor under 2 inches of water and she was late getting her children to school because the car broke down.
News RSS