Wolitzer, Meg: The Ten-Year Nap

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In her eighth novel, The Ten-Year Nap, Meg Wolitzer focuses on a circle of friends, four women whose lives turned out differently than they'd anticipated, and different from what the feminist movement of their mothers' generation had led them to expect. Having put their careers on hold when they had kids, the women, ten years in and now largely free from the more pressing demands of motherhood, are waking up from the nap of the book's title to reexamine their situations. Do they want to go back to work? Would anyone hire them? Are their marriages happy? Interspersed among the chapters focusing on these four are briefer sections in which the lives and life choices of a variety of other women are explored--the principals' mothers, Margaret Thatcher (as seen through the eyes of her personal assistant), Nadia Comaneci, Georgette Magritte (the painter's wife)--so that the book amounts to a sort of profile of womanhood, a consideration of the state of feminism in the present day.

My reaction to the book is mixed. On the one hand, Wolitzer is an excellent writer, peppering her pages with the telling detail, so that individual scenes come alive. Her descriptions can be lovely. And in fact she captures well the conflicted feelings of the modern stay-at-home mom--the discomfort with not contributing something quantifiable to the family coupled with ambivalence about rejoining the work force. That said, the book is vaguely depressing. Wolitzer's women seem to be perpetually morose and unsatisfied, unable to recognize that their lives really aren't that bad. And although they do come across as three-dimensional characters, it's very hard to care about any of them. Nor does the book offer much by way of plot. For all its lovely writing the novel is a chore to get through. I hate to say it, but literally only ten pages from the end I thought I might not have the stamina to finish it.

Comments

[Kelly]

1.

Wow...and such a promising premise too. Thanks for the review!

[Clare D]

2.

Great review! It actually sounds like my sort of book. Ah, if only the pile weren't so large...