- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (2 May 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385606087
- ISBN-13: 978-0385606080
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 365,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
May Contain Nuts
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
A satire about competitive, over-protective parents driving their children to tutors, to ballet, to insanity ...
Product Description
‘The other day there was a feature on the radio about the dangers of asteroids falling from outer space. When David came home he wanted to know why the children were splashing around in the paddling pool wearing their cycle helmets.’ Alice never imagined that she would end up like this. Is she the only mother who feels so permanently panic-stricken at the terrors of the modern world – or is it normal to sit up in bed all night popping bubble wrap? She worries that too much gluten and dairy may be hindering her children’s mental maths. She frets that there are too many cars on the road to let them out of the 4x4. Finally she resolves to take control and tackle her biggest worry of all: her daughter is definitely not going to fail that crucial secondary school entrance exam. Because Alice has decided to take the test in her child’s place . . . May Contain Nuts is a wonderful satire on the all-consuming madness of modern parenthood; a compelling journey across divided inner-city communities to a place where normal people don’t spend hundreds of pounds to have their four-year-old’s scribbles assessed for signs of genius or pay a handyman to assemble their Kinder Egg toys. With the comic eye for detail that has sent his books to the top of the bestseller lists, John O’Farrell has produced a funny and provocative book that will make you laugh, cry and vow never to become that sort of parent. And then you can pass it on to your seven-year-old, because she really ought to be reading grown-up novels by now . . .
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Starts superbly, ends terribly,
By Christine G (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: May Contain Nuts (Paperback)
I loved the beginning of this book - a hilarious, clever satire on middle-class snobbery and paranoid parents that had me laughing out loud. BUT, towards the end the author comes over all earnest and politically correct about the wonderful humble state school system, and the biting satire all falls away. State schools, apparently, are flawless, wonderful places that cannot be satirised at all - the humour gives way to worthy preachiness that is nauseating to say the least. One can't help feeling that if this author were genuinely unprejudiced about ordinary people, he would treat them with the same scathing humour he reserves for the milieu he genuinely feels comfortable with - the upper middle classes. If I lived on a council estate, I'd want to hit him for this patronising portrait of the lives of the non-wealthy. Also, the so-called heroine who we like so much and identify with at the beginning turns out to be a despicable coward - and gets away with it - no one in the book even comments on it. In the end, this was a dishonest, cowardly book
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This could be any of us....,
By
This review is from: May Contain Nuts (Paperback)
I picked this book up with no real enthusiasm, but after ten pages I was in fits of laughter. It is a very funny book indeed, and sharp as a razor. The characters are exaggerations but if you have a children of school age, or even better, if you know parents who do, you will immdediately recognise the absurd behaviour of people obsessed with protecting and promoting their little darlings. A wonderful, hysterical, bitter sweet satire of our time!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh out loud funny,
By Helenbookworm (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: May Contain Nuts (Hardcover)
This my first time reading a John O Farrell book and I was not sure what to expect. The book is written from the point of view of Alice an over anxious middle class mother desperately wanting the best for her children and loosing site to the fact that if she does everything for them they won't learn to do things themselves. After reading the first couple of pages (involving the `heroine' causing a car crash after ambushing an unsuspecting speeding driving with a mannequin dressed as Tony Blair in school uniform!) I was worried that the book was going to be ridiculous rather than satirical.
However I was wrong, though some of the premises in the book are a little off the wall (a mother sitting an exam for her daughter for one) he keeps the right side of satire and has written an extremely entertaining book. The over pushy parents timetabling every second of their children's life were priceless and sadly recognizable. I laughed out loud on several occasions especially at the children's book club. The only problem that I had with the book was though I applaud the message that it is important that a school concentrates on pupils as people and not just their exam results I do think the last few chapters of the book were just a little over idealized. Generally a really good read.
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