Getting Over It

by Anna Maxted

Overview

Helen Bradshaw isn't exactly living out her dreams. She's a lowly assistant editor at GirlTime magazine, she drives an ancient Toyota, and she has a history of choosing men who fall several thousand feet below acceptable boyfriend standard. Not to mention that she shares an apartment with a scruffy , tactless roommate, her best girlfriends are a little too perfect, and the most affectionate male in her life—her cat, Fatboy—occasionally pees in her underwear draw.

Then Helen gets the telephone call she least expects: Her father has had a massive heart attack. Initially brushing off his death as merely an interruption in her already chaotic life (they were never very close, after all), Helen is surprised to find everything else starting to crumble around her. Her pushy mother is coming apart at the seams, a close friend might be heading toward tragedy, and, after the tequila incident, it looks as though Tom the vet will be sticking with Dalmatians. Turns out getting over it isn't going to be quite as easy as she thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060988241
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/24/2001
Edition description:	1 PBK ED
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	905,740
Product dimensions:	8.06(w) x 11.04(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Anna Maxted is a freelance writer and the author of the smash international bestsellers Getting Over It, Running in Heels, and Behaving Like Adults. She lives in London with her husband, author Phil Robinson, and their son.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

When it happened, I wasn't ready for it. I expected it about as much as I expect to win Miss World and be flown around the planet and forced to work with screaming children. And being so awesomely unprepared, I reacted like Scooby Doo chancing upon a ghost. I followed my instinct, which turned out to be hopelessly lost and rubbish at map reading.

Maybe I was too confused to do the right thing. After all, the right thing rarely involves fun and mostly means making the least exciting choice, like waiting for the ready-cook pizza you've torn from the oven to cool to under 200 degrees before biting into it. Or deciding not to buy those sexy tower-heeled boots because they'll squeeze your toes white and lend you the posture of Early man, and a vast chunk of your salary will moulder away at the back of your wardrobe. If we always made the smartest choice, we'd never get laid.

That said, the day it all began, I came close to making a very smart choice. Here it is, bravely scrawled in black ink, in my blue Letts diary:

I am dumping Jasper, tomorrow.

Words that whisk me back to what was barely one year ago but seems like an age. July 16 remains as sharp in my mind as if it were today. Maybe it is today. And this is how today begins:

I am dumping Jasper, tomorrow.

He deserves it for being called Jasper, for a start. And for a finish, he falls several thousand feet below acceptable boyfriend standard.

Funny thing is, at the age of five I knew what that was. I was dating the boy across the road and I routinely drank his tea before embarking on mine. I also tantrumed until he surrendered his Fisher Price wheely dog.And I refused to play in his bedroom because it smelt of wee. Then I grew up and started taking crap.

Unfortunately, Jasper is beautiful. Tall, which I like. The only time I've had dealings with a short man is when my domineering friend Michelle set me up on a blind date. He rang the bell, I wrenched open the door, and looked down. And I'm five foot one. Two Weebles wibble-wobbling their way down the road. Michelle's excuse was that when she met him, he was sitting down. (We've known each other for twenty-one years and I've never heard her say the word "sorry.") So Jasper, at six feet, is a delight. I wear five-inch heels so he doesn't notice the discrepancy. He has floppy brown hair, eyes so paradise-blue it's incredible he actually uses them to see, and my favorite, good bone structure. And despite being the most selfish man I've ever met--quite a feat--he's a tiger in the sack.

I'm on my way there now. Sackbound. For one last bout. Except I'm stuck in traffic on Park Road. There appears to be road work with no one doing any work. I'm trapped in my elderly gray Toyota Corolla (a castoff from my mother, who was thrilled to be rid of it--please don't think I'd go out and buy one even if I had the money) and trying to stay calm. In the last twenty minutes I've rolled forward a total of five inches. I might ring Jasper to say I'll be late. The road converges on approximately fifty sets of lights and everyone is barging--as much as you can barge when you're stationary. It's 2:54 P.M. I'm due at Jasper's at 3:30. Great. My mobile is out of batteries. I pick the skin on my lip. Right. I'm phoning him.

I assess the gridlock--yes, it's gridlocked-leap out of the car, dash across the road to the phonebox, and dial Jasper's number. Brrrt-brrt. Brrrt-brrt. Where is he? He can't have forgotten. Shit, the traffic's moving. I ring his mobile-joy! He answers. "Jasper Sanderson." Never says hello like a normal person. He's so executive. I hate it but I love it. He sounds suspiciously out of breath.

"Why are you out of breath?" I say sharply.

"Who's this?" he says. Jesus!

"Your girlfriend. Helen, remember?" I say. "Listen, I'm going to be late, I'm stuck in traffic. Why are you out of breath?"

"I'm playing tennis. Bugger, I forgot you were coming over. It'll take me a while to get home. Spare key's under the mat."

He beeps off. "You're such an original," I say sourly, and look up to see the gridlock has cleared and swarms of furious drivers are hooting venomously at the Toyota as they swerve around it.

Forty minutes later I arrive at Jasper's Fulham flat. I ring the bell, in case he's already home, but silence. I kick the mat to scare off spiders, gingerly lift a corner with two fingers, and retrieve the key. Ingenious, Jasper! The place is a replica of his parents' house. There's even a silver-framed picture of his mother as a young girl on the hall table--and a right prissy miss she looks, too. Happily, he's never introduced me. His most heinous interior crime, however, is a set of ugly nautical paintings that dominate the pale walls. Thing is with Jasper, just when I think I can't take any more, he does something irresistible, such as iron the collar and cuffs of his shirt and go to work hiding the crumpled rest of it under his jacket. I poke the scatter of post to check for correspondence from other women and see the green light of his answer machine flashing for attention. Jasper calling to announce a further delay. I press play...

Getting Over It. Copyright © by Anna Maxted. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

What People are Saying About This

Suzanne Finnamore

Getting Over It is a charming and compelling debut.
— (Suzanne Finnamore, author of Otherwise Engaged)

Gregory Maguire

Lost love can be gotten over, and grief survived, but the infectious snarky voice—overs of Anna Maxted's endearing heroine may well prove habit—forming. Get Getting Over It, and then see if you can.
—(Gregory Maguire, author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked)

Marian Keyes

I loved Getting Over It! Its tone is so breezy and subversive, but with a heart of vulnerability. Helen is a fabulous character, and Maxted's handling of the emotional fallout of death is spot-on. Most important, Getting Over It never loses its humor or its warmth -- a great achievement.

Reading Group Guide

1. Anna Maxted writes about a sensitive issue with humour and pathos. Discuss how she accomplishes this without trivialising the experience of death.

2. At the same time as her father’s death forces Helen to acknowledge that she must reassess her life and future, and regain some control over it, her mother is experiencing a similar situation. To what extent is their growing self-awareness helped, and hindered, by the mother/daughter relationship?

3. There is a subplot of domestic violence in the book. How well do you think this episode is portrayed, and does the main storyline detract from or underplay it?

4. The men in Getting Over It are depicted entirely through the female gaze, particularly Helen’s father whom we never get to meet. Discuss the role of the male in the novel.

5. With the use of the first person narrative throughout the novel we are not privy to the thoughts of any of the other characters and must view their lives and reactions through Helen’s eyes. To what extent does this style limit the development of plot and characterisation?

6. The 20-something chick-lit novel is an ever-growing genre. Do you think Getting Over It is typical of this genre or surpasses it?

Editorial Reviews

I loved Getting Over It! Its tone is so breezy and subversive, but with a heart of vulnerability. Helen is a fabulous character, and Maxted's handling of the emotional fallout of death is spot-on. Most important, Getting Over It never loses its humor or its warmth — a great achievement.

Marian Keyes

Getting Over It is a charming and compelling debut.

Suzanne Finnamore

There is nothing cocklewarming, or tearjerking, about Getting Over It. It is far too witty, and clever, for that. Its protagonist's bad habits, moral weaknesses and drunked lapses are its greatest asset. Like Bridget Jones, it refuses to gloss over life's ordinary squalor; unlike Bridget, however, its heroine's traumas are serious, giving it an edge which makes her predecessor's worries seem laughably small. It's compelling, humane, and worryingly funny, and better written than many more 'literary' novels. The difference between Maxted's novel and her would-be peers is honesty.

Evening Standard

In this "very funny," "hip" fiction debut, Helen Bradshaw - a young woman with a past she needs to get over (including hopeless boyfriends, a dreary job with an irritating boss, annoying roommates, and a self-obsessed mother) -- gets a telephone call that changes her life. Though most of our readers liked it, others wrote, "too frantic for me. Will appeal to twenty-somethings, but will wear older readers out." "What does 'scuppering' mean anyway?"

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

Maxted, contributing editor to Cosmopolitan UK, has a quick wit and creates amusing characters in her first novel. Helen, the thirtyish heroine, is a features writer for a trendy women's magazine. She's reeling with grief at the sudden death of her father, and her stress is compounded by the neediness of her mother and grandmother. Helen has plenty more on her plate--she is being evicted from her apartment, she is trying to save a friend who is being abused by her fianc , and her neurotic cat suffers a series of psychosomatic ailments. Behind the hilarious one-liners, there's a serious theme: it's tough for a young person to "be in charge" when a parent dies. Unfortunately, the appeal of this likable, if nonessential, novel will be limited in the United States by its many British colloquialisms. In addition, the book is far too long and loaded with slapstick scenes; its episodic content would have worked better as linked short stories. For larger collections.--Joyce W. Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

If you liked A Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing...

Jane

[An] affecting tale of tragic loss, told with wit and gumption.
—People

Wulff

Yet another London career girl looks for fulfillment, though newcomer Maxted's narrator has enough endearing charm to make her stand out from the rest of the Bridget Jones clones. When she begins her story, 26-year-old Helen Bradshaw is relatively happy as an assistant at a woman's magazine, flatmate to sweet Luke and sexy Marcus, and center of a close-knit circle of girlfriends. But when her father suddenly dies of a heart attack, Helen spends the rest of the year (and the novel) "getting over it"—a flippant suggestion offered far more easily than achieved. At first Helen seems a pillar of strength, comforting her increasingly withdrawn and suicidal mother and moving on with her own life in quick time. The personal blunders Helen continually makes, however, suggest unresolved grief and conflicted feelings about a father who was distant in the best of times. It's a lot to handle, especially for a girl who's engaged in a colossal fight with Marcus (with whom she regrettably slept in a moment of weakness), the romantic pursuit of Tom (who always catches Helen at her very worst moments), and a struggle over what to do about her friend Tina, whose perfect boyfriend is beating up on her. It's a wonder Helen makes it to work in the morning—though once there she assiduously avoids working. All this drama is conveyed in the lightest manner, with an overload of hip references (Fox Mulder and Quentin Tarantino turn up on the same page), and seesaws between annoying and entertaining. Finally, though, Helen's plight succeeds in winning the reader's sympathy, the slight and the heartfelt strike a companionable balance, and by the end all hopes areforour heroine's happiness. A friendly summer read that manages to rise above the lighter-than-air comic fluff that terminally inflates many another Bridget Jones wannabe—by now a genre all its own.

Kirkus Reviews

'Maxted writes beautifully' — The Express

'Warm, poignant and very funny' — Marian Keyes

'A brilliant debut' — Cosmopolitan

'Maxted is a gifted comic writer' — The Times

From the Publisher