Cuckoo in the Nest

by Nat Luurtsema

Keep your enemies close, your family less so...

Last year Nat found herself with nowhere to live. She considered sleeping on the bus and washing in the rain but inevitably ended up on her parents' doorstep. It was only for a month, she assured them, if that.. She repeated this phrase a lot over the next six months, while the housing market stagnated like a spoilt kid's fish tank, and her life followed suit. While her friends pursued normal adult lives, Nat was taking packed lunches to gigs and being treated to lectures on 'Why It's Nice When All The Tins Face Forwards In The Cupboard.' ('So we can see what they all are at a glance!') Nat wouldn't say she and those like her were the real victims of the recession, but it would be nice if you did. Then she would do a tiny, brave smile. A book for anyone who's been forced back to the family nest, parents who can't shake off their adult kids, or anyone who's ever excused themselves from a family gathering for a quick scream into a pile of towels.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor

258 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Nat Luurtsema is a BAFTA-nominated screenwriter, a BAFTA Rocliffe alumni, stand-up comic, author, actor and a third of sketch group Jigsaw.

She has just finished directing WYRDOES, a comedy feminist ‘Macbeth’, with backing from Film London, Film4 and the British Arts Council. It will be a part of the Shakespeare Lives worldwide tour, which will play to an audience of 500 million.

Nat plays Tallulah Bankhead in FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, directed by Stephen Frears.

Nat is developing two feature films and adapting the novel Spilt Milk Black Coffee by Helen Cross, for Mighty Atom Entertainment.

Nat’s latest book is a Young Adult novel – GIRL OUT OF WATER – to be published June 2016 in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. It will simultaneously publish as GOLDFISH in USA.

Reviews

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps 5 stars is too generous a score. (Definitely a '4' I'm still experiencing the post consumption glow, so it's hard to tell.) But I'm surprised at the low scores on here. Personally I thought this book was hilarious and ploughed through it in a couple of nights.
I guess it helps that I'm in a very similar position - indeed this is why I picked the book up in the first place. (28 and back with Mum and Dad...living the dream.)

I would liken this book to Bill Bryson's work (with less travelling and more sitting on the (non-pale) sofa.) It's a warm, easy read which makes you chuckle aloud. The parts where she describes the tiny windscreen wiper that you are supposed to use post shower and the bit where she buys a padding pool and the resulting parental interference made me roll with laughter.

Nat is a great comedic writer, hilariously describing situations that I'm sure anybody who lives with tidy obsessed parents will be familiar with. She's a great narrator and I like how she begins to regresses into an increasingly teenage state through the book. But she still manages to come across as really likeable, a bit kooky (and a little like a budget Daisy Lowe.)

I was sad to finish this book. I hope the profits allow Nat to afford somewhere nicer to live and I look forward to reading more from her.

[Lorna Redmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book it is so accurate about living back home, the similarities are scary a must read for those who do end up back home

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watford-born comedian boomerangs back home, with hilarious consequences.

[Tweedledum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book has been very therapeutic as Nat's experience is very close to home.We have had a son returned to the nest for 2 years and the book helped me a) get some perspective back and b) appreciate my son's feelings more, c)laugh a lot especially at passages that could have been us, and d)laugh out loud at some of Nat's more colourful recollections and comments. Here's a little flavour...no pun intended... " Mum hated Blackpool, from the first moment she saw a woman eat chips with gravy on them ( 'Gravy, Natalie, actual gravy'), Mum reacted as if the woman had set a dog on fire and stamped it into a slice of Mighty White. " of course half the pleasure of reading a book like this is being able to say self righteously " well at least we don't do that!" while hoping against hope that one's offspring are not actually in the process of writing a book revealing all your shortcomings. At one point I dropped the paperback in the bath but decided to dry it off and continue reading..... Was this a Freudian slip.....dropping it in the bath I mean? The crinkly and damaged paperback now emerges as a visual metaphor of the family's experiences......strained but intact....

[Annalie McCann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this because of the high score and great reviews on amazon, I personally didn't find the book that funny and instead felt annoyed and irritated as she is describing what feels like my own parents in the book (That isn't her fault). Personally I felt a lot of Nats traits were very childish for a 28 year old and a little unbelievable at times, I initially thought the topic was quite funny and there was the odd snigger, but overall I found it wasn't very well written and a bit boring as the story was dragging towards the end.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my early twenties, I read a lot of "real-life" comedy books, by Danny Wallace, Dave Gorman and so on, where an author writes about their hilarious real life, while we laugh along and wonder how much of this crazy stuff was planned for the later book. Cuckoo In The Nest has a similar chatty comedy style to those, but with added plausibility, which can only be a good thing.

More at: http://www.nickbryan.com/2013/06/agai...

[Selina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure if someone could sustain a book this long for what turns out six months of parent-child nightmare, but Nat pulls it off.
I want to put it down to the eccentricity of the English, but, her mother shows worrying signs of pathological narcissism and I fear for the daughter. As for Watford, I didn't know there was such a place. Maybe happiness is in your own backyard after all, I mean London pfft. Who wants to live there??

[Cherish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first found out about this person on woman's hour and was quite intrigued about hearing about what has happened to her. As a result of this I thought I'd loan the book from my local library. There were some parts where I did laugh, but once I reached the 16th chapter, I got a bit bored, I couldn't read on.

[Neil Larrisey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious account, with large points of recognizable details. To anyone who finds themselves in the enviable position of having to move back in with your parents, buy this book and you'll see not only yourself, but also that your parents aren't that bad....

[Haley Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny in the classic self-depreciating way. It is clear how she is a stand up success.

The sort of girl i'd love to have a drink with.