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In the Driver's Seat
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 midlife—anxious mothers, besotted mothers, beset mothers—in a (futile) search for security and consolation.
Helen Simpson’s stories are short but by no means small. One story takes the Iraq war as its subject; another describes a smoker’s reprieve from death by lung cancer; in another, a simple tale of home maintenance—a woman in a conversation with the carpenter replacing her door after a break-in—becomes a deftly sketched study of grief. In still another, Simpson manages the seemingly impossible—producing 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 “Constitutional”—a pun on one of the word’s a walk taken for the benefit of one’s health—deals with memory, family, Alzheimer’s, oak trees, pregnancy for the over-forties, stolen photographs, and crossword puzzles.
Helen Simpson’s stories move and disturb us as they light up the human gift for making the best of it— whatever it is.
Helen Simpson’s stories are short but by no means small. One story takes the Iraq war as its subject; another describes a smoker’s reprieve from death by lung cancer; in another, a simple tale of home maintenance—a woman in a conversation with the carpenter replacing her door after a break-in—becomes a deftly sketched study of grief. In still another, Simpson manages the seemingly impossible—producing 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 “Constitutional”—a pun on one of the word’s a walk taken for the benefit of one’s health—deals with memory, family, Alzheimer’s, oak trees, pregnancy for the over-forties, stolen photographs, and crossword puzzles.
Helen Simpson’s stories move and disturb us as they light up the human gift for making the best of it— whatever it is.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
192 pages, Hardcover
Published May 8, 2007
5 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Helen Simpson
70 books47 followersHelen Simpson is an English novelist and short story writer. She was born in 1959 in 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 more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. (In particular, the mystery author Helen de Guerry Simpson is a different author.)
In 1993, she was selected as one of Granta's top 20 novelists under the age of 40.
In 2009, she donated the short story The Tipping Point to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Air' collection.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. (In particular, the mystery author Helen de Guerry Simpson is a different author.)
In 1993, she was selected as one of Granta's top 20 novelists under the age of 40.
In 2009, she donated the short story The Tipping Point to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the 'Air' collection.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 24, 2020
Like most books of short stories, I liked some more than others. Each story seemed distinctly different from the next, which helped to keep me engaged. My favorite was the very first story, Up at a Villa, as the choice vocabulary was enchanting and the story was very different from anything else I had read.
Examples of language that tickled my imagination: the screaming baby is described as "a furious geranium," and a man diving into a swimming pool as "losing his poise at the last moment so that he met the water like a flung cat." No generic bellyflop for him!
Examples of language that tickled my imagination: the screaming baby is described as "a furious geranium," and a man diving into a swimming pool as "losing his poise at the last moment so that he met the water like a flung cat." No generic bellyflop for him!
September 5, 2019
(4.5) One of my highest ratings ever for a short story collection. My usual problem with a set of stories is that there will be a few standouts but a few duds, too, and the rest are completely forgettable. So when I enjoy nearly every story in a collection, and especially when I find a few keepers that I know I will reread many times in the future, I know I’m onto something special.
I liked this 2005 release even more than Simpson’s first book, Four Bare Legs in a Bed, which I read at about this time last year. The themes include motherhood (starting, in a couple of cases, in one’s early 40s), death versus new beginnings, and how to be optimistic in a world in turmoil. There’s gentle humor and magic to these stories that tempers some of the sadness. I especially liked “The Door,” about a grieving woman looking to restore her sense of security after a home break-in, “The Green Room,” a Christmas Carol riff (one of two Christmas-themed stories here) in which a woman is shown how her negative thoughts and obsession with the past are damaging her, and “Constitutional,” set on a woman’s one-hour circular walk during her lunch break and documenting her thoughts about everything from pregnancy to a nonagenarian friend’s funeral.
In two stories, “Every Third Thought” and “If I’m Spared,” a brush with death causes a complete change of outlook – but will it last? “The Year’s Midnight” creates a brief connection between frazzled mums at the swimming pool in the run-up to the holidays. “Up at a Villa” and the title story capture risky moments that blend fear and elation. In “The Tree,” which is funny and cringeworthy all at the same time, a man decides to take revenge on the company that ripped off his forgetful old mother. Prize for the best title goes to “The Phlebotomist’s Love Life,” though it’s the least interesting story of the 11.
Some favorite lines:
“the inevitable difficulty involved in discovering ourselves to others; the clichés and blindness and inadvertent misrepresentations”
“Always a recipe for depression, Christmas, when complex adults demanded simple joy without effort, a miraculous feast of stingless memory.”
“Your thoughts are making you miserable. Change your thoughts.”
“You shouldn’t be too interested in the past. You yourself now are the embodiment of what you have lived. What’s done is done.”
(Found in a Little Free Library at the supermarket near my parents’ old house.)
I liked this 2005 release even more than Simpson’s first book, Four Bare Legs in a Bed, which I read at about this time last year. The themes include motherhood (starting, in a couple of cases, in one’s early 40s), death versus new beginnings, and how to be optimistic in a world in turmoil. There’s gentle humor and magic to these stories that tempers some of the sadness. I especially liked “The Door,” about a grieving woman looking to restore her sense of security after a home break-in, “The Green Room,” a Christmas Carol riff (one of two Christmas-themed stories here) in which a woman is shown how her negative thoughts and obsession with the past are damaging her, and “Constitutional,” set on a woman’s one-hour circular walk during her lunch break and documenting her thoughts about everything from pregnancy to a nonagenarian friend’s funeral.
In two stories, “Every Third Thought” and “If I’m Spared,” a brush with death causes a complete change of outlook – but will it last? “The Year’s Midnight” creates a brief connection between frazzled mums at the swimming pool in the run-up to the holidays. “Up at a Villa” and the title story capture risky moments that blend fear and elation. In “The Tree,” which is funny and cringeworthy all at the same time, a man decides to take revenge on the company that ripped off his forgetful old mother. Prize for the best title goes to “The Phlebotomist’s Love Life,” though it’s the least interesting story of the 11.
Some favorite lines:
“the inevitable difficulty involved in discovering ourselves to others; the clichés and blindness and inadvertent misrepresentations”
“Always a recipe for depression, Christmas, when complex adults demanded simple joy without effort, a miraculous feast of stingless memory.”
“Your thoughts are making you miserable. Change your thoughts.”
“You shouldn’t be too interested in the past. You yourself now are the embodiment of what you have lived. What’s done is done.”
(Found in a Little Free Library at the supermarket near my parents’ old house.)
August 25, 2012
Just wasn't engaged by her characters. A week later, I can't remember a single story .
November 10, 2007
These stories are wonderful, and I am indebted to my well-read friend Andrew Corbin for letting me borrow his copy. Because now I might just steal it, FOREVER. No. Just kidding, Andrew. You can have it back if you will have Chinese food with me.
I read the last story twice, so tender and moving and intelligent it was. And I kept laughing at loud in the subway at funny, alive turns of phrase like this one, describing a guy jumping into a pool and losing his center of gravity on the way: "he met the water like a flung cat."
Awesome and sharp and funny and sad, just like I like 'em. Go Helen Simpson.
I read the last story twice, so tender and moving and intelligent it was. And I kept laughing at loud in the subway at funny, alive turns of phrase like this one, describing a guy jumping into a pool and losing his center of gravity on the way: "he met the water like a flung cat."
Awesome and sharp and funny and sad, just like I like 'em. Go Helen Simpson.
Read
March 3, 2013Her stories are so marvelously bleak!
January 6, 2008
First ran into the book last spring at a reading with Helen Simpson and Lorrie Moore. Simpson was very nervous, but not shy just anxious in front of an American crowd who had come to see Moore and probably had never heard of her. In time her humor won the crowd over and it was easy to see why a publisher would put Moore & Simpson together. Simpson's stories are much shorter and tighter in purpose than Moore's stuff. Yet you do long for a couple longer and more ambitious pieces while reading through the collection. All in all, the stories refueled me in feeling young, fresh and still with a bright future ahead of me at 24, because the collection is full of stories about middle-aged woman living stale lives with only death ahead of them, cheery.
July 30, 2008
Wonderful voice for sharp wit and insight about women facing tension, conflict in contemporary suburbia. Even though she is a British writer, the lives of these women and men translates well across the Atlantic. Her previous collection, Get A Life is equally entertaining with her unique voice.
February 18, 2010
Middle-aged women is a Library of Congress classification I was surprised to discover! I'm my new favorite genre. I came to these stories because a critic thought Simpson did a better job with middle-aged women and our issues compared to someone else (was it Hadley?) and I liked these, although they didn't linger with me.
July 26, 2007
Many of these stories take a familiar approach -- a seemingly mundane domestic surface, like driving the kids to school, runs over the top of a bunch of summary about the story's real core. A lot of nice, tart writing here, but I just don't find much narrative energy or freshness of effect.
May 6, 2008
Very minimal. Some of these stories were over before they even seemed to begin, as if they were sketches and not full stories. And many of them deal with like characters: women taken for granted and the men who take them for granted. The last story is the most complex and is worth the read.
July 1, 2007
Loved these stories. At times Simpson is scathingly funny.
July 30, 2007
I usually don't read story ccllections but I ordered this because it had such great reviews. I enjoyed the well-written stories, but realized, once again, that I prefer to sink into a good novel.
July 31, 2007
Why o why o why have I only now discovered Helen Simpson? She is totally AMAZING and I kept reading parts aloud becuase they made me laugh so much.
August 22, 2007
Perfect short stories about various and sundry domestic horrors, esp. those things called "Children." Ick. Never.
August 25, 2007
A collection of short stories about women. A good travel or beach read.
November 6, 2007
Most of the stories are somewhat forgettable, and really depressing. I liked it anyway, enough to read more of her work, but not enough to buy the book.
November 12, 2007
highly enjoyable, fast read; stories stand alone and work together too
January 23, 2008
Book of short stories. They were all uplifing without being maudlin or hokey. Lots of musings about time, relationships.
March 11, 2008
This book has a beautiful cover and begs to be picked up. The stories, however, fell kind of flat for me.
May 26, 2009
excellent and I am not a big fan of short stories
September 16, 2010
This is a lovely little book of well-crafted short stories, illuminating touching, heartbreaking, everyday events in the lives of ordinary people like you and me.
September 1, 2010
Uneven. Not as intense as Getting a Life. The last story in book, Constitutional was exceptional.
May 5, 2014
Could not finish boring
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October 30, 2014Helen Simpson gives the reader a refreshing spin on everyday events in her collection of short stories, In the Driver's Seat, thanks to her quirky point of view. All in all, Jill enjoyed the ride.
May 15, 2017
Just finish writing a damn story! There were 2 decent ones, I think, so 2 stars.
February 15, 2018
wonderful collection of stories.
January 30, 2021
3.5
Entertaining and thoughtful.
The firts stories were the most interesting.
Worth reading.
Entertaining and thoughtful.
The firts stories were the most interesting.
Worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews