In the Driver's Seat Helen Simpson Vintage December 18, 2008 A dark, dazzling, surprisingly funny new collection of stories (Masterly Adam Mars Jones, The Observer; A virtuoso performance Jane Shilling, The Sunday Telegraph) about single women and wives in various phases of midlifeanxious mothers, besotted mothers, beset mothersin a (futile) search for security and consolation.Helen Simpsons stories are short but by no means small. One story takes the Iraq war as its subject; another describes a smokers reprieve from death by lung cancer; in another, a simple tale of home maintenancea woman in a conversation with the carpenter replacing her door after a break-inbecomes a deftly sketched study of grief. In still another, Simpson manages the seemingly impossibleproducing laughter at terminal illness and untimely death (this might be the first story in which the amputation of a limb provides a happy ending). And finally, the story entitled Constitutionala pun on one of the words meanings: a walk taken for the benefit of ones healthdeals with memory, family, Alzheimers, oak trees, pregnancy for the over-forties, stolen photographs, and crossword puzzles.Helen Simpsons stories move and disturb us as they light up the human gift for making the best of itwhatever it is. About the Author Helen Simpson is the author of three collections of short stories, Getting a Life, Four Bare Legs in a Bed (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), and Dear George, as well as one novella, Flesh and Grass. She is the recipient of the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in London with her husband and two children.From the Hardcover edition. About Iceberg The Iceberg Reader revolutionizes the reading experience, making it easier than ever to browse, buy and enjoy books. Features - Attractive interface provides a natural reading experience with full pagination. - Table of Contents incorporates one click navigation. - Vertical and horizontal page orientation. - Adjust font size with a pinch, text reflows automatically. - Search the text within a book. - Create margin notes with user notation. About Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Random House, Inc., the world's largest English-language trade book publisher, publishes many of the foremost & most popular fiction & nonfiction authors in hardcover, trade & mass market paperback, audio, electronic, digital & other formats. Random House, Inc. (www.randomhouse.com) is the U.S. division of Random House, the book division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading media companies. Random House, Inc. has won the most major awards of any publishing company, including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, & the Newbery Medal. Among the dozens of Random House, Inc. publishing divisions & imprints in the U.S. are the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, the Crown Publishing Group, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, the Knopf Publishing Group, Fodor's Travel Guides, Random House Children's Books, the Random House Publishing Group, & the Random House Audio Publishing Group. Random House's publishing companies in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, & Korea are publishing leaders in their territories. About Scrollmotion ScrollMotion, creator of the Iceberg Reader, is a content technology company based in downtown New York City. For more information, visit www.scrollmotion.com. Support If you have any technical problems please email us at icebergsupport@scrollmotion.com before you post a review.
