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saltpopsicle's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
At 11, I read this book not understanding but being moved anyway. At 20, I read it again and understood more, I hope to read it again, carrying my beaten copy with me, and I hope to understand more as I age.
laila4343's review against another edition
5.0
I am such a sucker for a book like this! Although I'm not yet a mother, I think this book is valuable also for it's honest portrayal of marriage and women's friendships. It follows 4 friends, all stay-at-home-moms, as they navigate the realization that their children are growing up and no longer need them to be right there all the time. So they're doing a lot of soul searching about what they want to do with the rest of their lives, how they relate to one another and to their spouses. It also has brief chapters about their own mothers, I think to portray how things have not changed all that much for women in the last 40 years. It was a very realistic and fast-paced novel.
anniewill's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it fell way short for me. I slogged through it hoping that it would get better. I found the privileged women in this novel to spend a lot of time feeling sorry for themselves and whining. There was a lot of potential for this story idea, I personally don't think Wolitzer delivered.
mk_pagano's review against another edition
I really love Meg Wolitzer--The Interestings was one of my favorite books I read last year--so just assumed any book by her would be just as good. In terms of writing, this book had really lovely prose. But ... there just wasn't enough going on to capture my interest. There really wasn't much of a plot--each chapter was just a portrait of each woman's life, at various stages of career/stay-at-home Mom-ness. I made it about halfway through before giving up, which is something I hate to do, but I was just so bored. Maybe this will resonate more for me when I'm older?
lisawhelpley's review against another edition
3.0
Very interesting. Stay-home moms of 10-year olds (they were professionals then dropped off at birth of 1st child). Everyone has struggles; interesting changes of perspective from present to women of generations past. But:...spoiler alert, if you have not read it, stop now if you think you'll read it.
Are you kidding me? Everyone takes 10 years off the career path and then most go back to jobs, albeit different jobs, with hardly no problems? Out of all those women, no husbands turn them in for trophy wives, leaving them without any knowledge of how to pay bills; how they keep their houses financially afloat; etc.? Are you kidding? With a 50% divorce rate, at this point in their early 40s, someone if not more than one, should have been dumped, or dumped the hubby. Too clean an ending for my tastes.
Are you kidding me? Everyone takes 10 years off the career path and then most go back to jobs, albeit different jobs, with hardly no problems? Out of all those women, no husbands turn them in for trophy wives, leaving them without any knowledge of how to pay bills; how they keep their houses financially afloat; etc.? Are you kidding? With a 50% divorce rate, at this point in their early 40s, someone if not more than one, should have been dumped, or dumped the hubby. Too clean an ending for my tastes.
bonniew's review against another edition
3.0
The book follows a group of friends and how they navigate through life post children and a 10 year career gap, how society and how their perceptions of themselves change.
A poignant part for me was quite early on around the subject of time, how when you're younger it seems like an eternity and it passes quicker as you get older.
I absolutely love the rambling narrative throughout, mimicking thoughts as they form and take you off on tangents, examining the mundane alongside the profound in a single sentence. The level of detail into everyday life is quite awe inspiring, but also makes for a slow read. In saying that I still enjoyed the level to which Meg explores each characters perspective.
A poignant part for me was quite early on around the subject of time, how when you're younger it seems like an eternity and it passes quicker as you get older.
I absolutely love the rambling narrative throughout, mimicking thoughts as they form and take you off on tangents, examining the mundane alongside the profound in a single sentence. The level of detail into everyday life is quite awe inspiring, but also makes for a slow read. In saying that I still enjoyed the level to which Meg explores each characters perspective.
beastreader's review against another edition
1.0
The Ten Year Nap is the story about a group of friends that live in New York City. They share a bond…motherhood. They came from the working class to stay-at-home moms. Of course it wasn’t planned to stay at home. In all of the ladies cases, they assumed that they would go on maternity leave and come back to work. That was ten years ago. What happened?
Well in Amy’s case, she truly meant to only take off twelve weeks and go back to work. That was the deal her and her husband, Leo made. They had both been working at the same law firm. After the twelve weeks. Amy just couldn’t tear herself away from caring for Marty. He needed her and everything else at that point seemed meaningless. You could say that is pretty much the same situation for the rest of the women…Karen, Antonia, and Jill.
Now they are re-evaluating their lives. They are wondering how time could have passed so quickly. Some of them are even debating going back to work but are they ready to face life outside of motherhood?
At the beginning I really liked the book but towards the middle there became too many different characters to keep track of. This was a little distracting and made the story a little hard to follow. Something else that turned me off was that some of the women seemed really whiny. They would complain about their husbands not doing enough to help pitch in with all the housework and taking care of the kids. Now I have nothing against complaining but these women would not even talk to their husbands about their feelings. How are you suppose to try and fix anything if the other person does not know what is wrong? What I did like about this story was that it showed that mothers are just as important as the working class women.
Well in Amy’s case, she truly meant to only take off twelve weeks and go back to work. That was the deal her and her husband, Leo made. They had both been working at the same law firm. After the twelve weeks. Amy just couldn’t tear herself away from caring for Marty. He needed her and everything else at that point seemed meaningless. You could say that is pretty much the same situation for the rest of the women…Karen, Antonia, and Jill.
Now they are re-evaluating their lives. They are wondering how time could have passed so quickly. Some of them are even debating going back to work but are they ready to face life outside of motherhood?
At the beginning I really liked the book but towards the middle there became too many different characters to keep track of. This was a little distracting and made the story a little hard to follow. Something else that turned me off was that some of the women seemed really whiny. They would complain about their husbands not doing enough to help pitch in with all the housework and taking care of the kids. Now I have nothing against complaining but these women would not even talk to their husbands about their feelings. How are you suppose to try and fix anything if the other person does not know what is wrong? What I did like about this story was that it showed that mothers are just as important as the working class women.
auroraboringallofus's review against another edition
4.0
Torn on this one. It's optimistic and sentimental in a way that can only come from the time it was written -- but it asks essential questions and pokes around in the right direction for me, even though I think some of its conclusions are only the result of the year it was written. I love her writing style so much and I love the humanity of her characters and plot. It still just feels like an out-of-touch fantasy book, though.