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Making It Up As I Go Along
When California-born war correspondent Saffron Roch discovers that she€™s pregnant ( knocked-up, newly jobless, and single at thirty-eight), she decides to leave Sierra Leone and surgeon Oscar DeVries, the baby€™s cheating father who, despite his huge ego and surprisingly small member, had captured her heart.So Saffron turns in her backstage pass to the violent dissolution of third-world countries and returns home to Los Angeles, where she is about to inherit a beach property worth a fortune. There she throws herself into motherhood, joining a politically correct breast-feeding support group at the Pump Station. In full-blown culture shock, missing Africa, Saffron comes face to face with a group of unlikely women friends and a roomful of Scud nipples that, on looks alone, could bring any rogue nation to its knees. Making It Up As I Go Along is a dazzling debut novel that questions the very meaning of motherhood, home, and family, while offering an un
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 21, 2012
The story of Saffron, a 38-year-old war correspondent who finds herself pregnant with a cheating man's baby. She returns home with newborn in tow to California where she has inherited the bulk of the family estate with caveats attached. Becoming friends with several women in the breastfeeding class, she reveals her life in Sierra Leone over time. Told with humor, this is a story any mother would understand as she goes through all the new mother trauma (getting baby fed, diapered, burped, diapered, fed, etc.).
March 17, 2008
Quick and enjoyable read but nothing particularly special or compelling.
January 23, 2012
A great story, an easy light read that kept me turning the pages....
Picked it at the library as thought the title was great, and as most mothers know, we do indeed make it up as we go along...
But there was more to the book than just a commentary on new motherhood. Saffron, the main character, is a new mom who has left Sierra Leone where she has been a war correspondent. Her reason for leaving - she falls out with the father of the baby who just happens to be a gritty, good looking surgeon who has been working with Doctors Without Borders. It all sounds so naff, but the story had a lot of unexpected twists and turns to keep interest up, and I enjoyed the references to the situation in Sierra Leone.
Picked it at the library as thought the title was great, and as most mothers know, we do indeed make it up as we go along...
But there was more to the book than just a commentary on new motherhood. Saffron, the main character, is a new mom who has left Sierra Leone where she has been a war correspondent. Her reason for leaving - she falls out with the father of the baby who just happens to be a gritty, good looking surgeon who has been working with Doctors Without Borders. It all sounds so naff, but the story had a lot of unexpected twists and turns to keep interest up, and I enjoyed the references to the situation in Sierra Leone.
October 22, 2012
From a journalist in war-riddled Africa to single motherhood in Beverly Hills.
I found this book on the library shelf and based on the summary decided to read it. I found it interesting. There is a great variety of characters that interact in Saffron's life and I wish a few would have been expanded a bit more.
Some of the flashback scenes seemed out of place and I had to reread sentences occasionally to figure out what was happening; but once I did, it would get clear again.
I found the ending to be a bit abrupt and I wished that there was a bit more to the story to find out what happened to the characters. There is a lot more that could have been told, but wasn't. If there's a sequel, I would read it just to have some closure on the characters.
I found this book on the library shelf and based on the summary decided to read it. I found it interesting. There is a great variety of characters that interact in Saffron's life and I wish a few would have been expanded a bit more.
Some of the flashback scenes seemed out of place and I had to reread sentences occasionally to figure out what was happening; but once I did, it would get clear again.
I found the ending to be a bit abrupt and I wished that there was a bit more to the story to find out what happened to the characters. There is a lot more that could have been told, but wasn't. If there's a sequel, I would read it just to have some closure on the characters.
August 30, 2008
Huh. This was a weird book. It mixed extremely disturbing and difficult world events with extremely trivial and unimportant daily events. I think she was attempting to make you see the obvious frivolity of life in LA as compared to life in Sierra Leone but she seriously missed the boat. It was disjointed and confusing at times and there were parts that were so completely unimportant and not even remotely necessary that it was distracting. Not a good book...I picked it up as I hurried through the library with three of my kids in tow...I don't recommend it.
January 17, 2009
A lot of people seemed to have disliked this book, but I really enjoyed it. It had everything I liked in a book - a quick-reading love story wrapped up with politics and an ending that I found cathartic. Four stars out of five.
December 7, 2008
Wimpy, somewhat thin plot and the flashbacks to life in Africa aren't handled well. Supporting characters are two dimensional.
February 14, 2011
A great book about the realities of mothering. This book was enjoyable, witty and easy to relate to especially if you've ever been the mother of newborn. I would definitely recommend this book!
December 24, 2016
I thought this book was full of surprises, very intelligent, and taught me a few things about Sierra Leone, of which I was totally ignorant.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews