"Her voice was creamy with catches, like chocolate chip ice cream" (Having It and Eating It - Sabine Durrant)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Having It and Eating It - Sabine Durrant
Date:	07/03/02 (61 review reads)
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I’ve been on a bit of a chick-lit kick lately, but after Daisy Waugh’s “The New You Survival Kit” which is, quite frankly, pants, I was feeling a bit wary about rushing out to buy another book just because it was super cheap or had a nice cover. So why did I get this? Well it wasn’t just one but both of these – only £3.89 instead of £5.99 in Tesco, and with a wonderfully colourful front, and despite my resolutions, I just couldn’t resist. For once I was rewarded though, because this book is absolutely fantastic.

“Having It and Eating It” is Sabine Durrant’s first novel, and I for one cannot wait for the next. It tells the tale of Maggie, a youngish housewife from London who is in a bit of a rut. Partner (not husband, although not by her choosing) Jake is out at work all day, and she’s left with her two kids and a host of local mothers, many of whom are not exactly here type. The family aren’t amazingly well off, but they do manage to own a home in a nice sounding leafy London superb where their neighbours, if not them themselves, have nannies, aupairs, cooks etc. When Maggie begins to think that maybe, just possibly, Jake could be seeing another woman (a girl she went to school with and has been jealous of ever since), instead of confronting him to find out the truth, she decides to get her own back. The question is, can she have her cake and eat it too, and at the end of the day, is that really what she wants?

Durrant has done a great job with the story. We have some hilarious characters, from Lucinda the “power-mum” to Pete, the rough and ready gardener. The children don’t get the chance to fade into the background and are portrayed so realistically you can almost hear their shrieks. What makes this book stand out from so many others that I’ve read is that the characters are so ordinary in many ways. I’m yet to find someone who’s
read this book and hasn’t gone on about how much they can relate to Maggie, even though in “real” terms, none of us could be more different – especially on the age / kids / job front.

It’s not a girlie book about love and romance and wonderful encounters will tall, dark and handsome strangers, or the lengths some women will go to to get their partners to commit with a ring. Instead, it’s a refreshing look at the trials and tribulations of motherhood – “mum-lit” as someone dubbed it.

The book is very well written and is lovely and engaging – one you just can’t bear to put down. In deed, you know something’s good, at least in my opinion, when I end up cycling for twice as long as normal without even realizing because I’m so engrossed in what I’m reading. The ending was a complete surprise but the type that when you think about it, you could see coming. It’s a fantastic book that I just know I’ll be reading and re-reading over and over again.

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Publisher : Time Warner Paperbacks

ISBN: 075153191X

RRP : £5.99 but available for less online and in some high street shops

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