'Linda, you're obsessed.'
'Off with them.'
'Linda – ' 'Off with them!' she bossed, leaning on the back of a chair and wrenching off her own suede Hush Puppies.
Sometimes there's no point arguing with Linda. It's a question of energy levels. We went through to the bathroom, where we stood barefoot next to each other in front of the mirror, levelling our big toes along a line of grouting. Linda put a copy of Assertiveness and You on her head to confirm she was the taller.
'By a good five centimetres,' I reassured her.
'I'm one metre sixty.'
'And I'm one fifty-five, just like I've always been.'
'Not always, you haven't,' she said, full of mistrust.'You've always been up and down.'

This was Liz Jensen's first novel and although I enjoyed it, it is not my favourite as I don't think it works as well as most of her later books. It's a quirky tale of sisterly rivalry, mental illness, religious evangelism and genetic meddling to create perfect babies. Hazel and Linda speak about visiting their mother in the mental hospital as visiting the State of Absolute Delusion, and Linda at least shows some signs of inhabiting the same State. ( )

This is a very odd book. :-) There isa lot about gender roles and assumptions about love, motherhood and fatherhood, as well as scientific acheivement/glory. A biologist is on the quest for the "perfect" baby, but his wish list is kind of eerie (the baby will know what the parents want before they do and give it to them...). The first go round (er, human trial) is done without the mother's consent, and she just happens to be his wife. The second is done with his mistress. There's also a lot of madness, so the narrators aren't necessarily reliable. The wife's sister is an abrasive woman who can't seem to keep a boyfriend, and her brief foray into motherhood is focussed on revenge. It was a fasincating read, and not too confusing despite the baby shuffling going on. ( )