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 enlarge | Author: Meg Wolitzer
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $6.24
You Save: $18.71 (75%)
New (53) Used (41) from $6.21
Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 4235
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 351
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 1594489785
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781594489785
ASIN: 1594489785
Publication Date: March 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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| Customer Reviews:
Wake Up Women!!!! August 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a book club read for me: I think the author does get into the head of some middle-class women who decide to be stay-at-home mothers and are often tortured by angst at their decisions. This book was occasionally insightful but often made me cringe. I wanted to read a book about women who were thoughtful and talked about their thoughts to each other. It felt like a soap opera.
The author flits between multiple points-of-view, even at one time ending up in the head of Margaret Thatcher (a women who's head I never want to be in) and Nadia Comaneci. Why exactly? Were the characters not interesting enough to write about? Yes, it makes sense to go inside the main characters' mothers' heads, but Nadia? I also disliked the use of capitalization to emphasize clock sounds and other things. It was irritating, which I suppose a clock is suppose to be. I'm also getting tired of the fad of multiple perspectives in a book, especially when it's overdone as in this book.
I gave it three stars because we did have a lively discussion about why we so disliked the book and it's characters. Although certain things resonated (open field of English vs. the enclosed pasture of Law was a good line), generally I wanted to shake these women in the book and tell them to WAKE UP!!
For the record, I'm not a mother.
 stereotypes abound August 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My review is based on reading about 1/3 of the book and skimming the rest. I could not finish it. Very surprising that this was written in 2008. Most character seemed to be pretty one-dimensional. The challenges they faced seemed too pat, unlike real life which is always more complicated. In the book, you have the woman who stays home and the woman who pursues a career. They don't seem to understand each other. But most women I know, combine roles almost continuously, sometimes taking on a job, then concentrating on kids, then trying to do both. They also try to help each other and are pretty understanding of why some choose to work full time, others to "stay home" or work part time. And the moms I know who "stay home" are often incredibly involved in civic organizations, taking leadership positions or doing hands on work, but not always getting paid. I didn't see this reflected in the book. The author's tone was, to me, patronizing. If it was supposed to be humorous (I think "wickedly funny" was how her writing was described on the book jacket) I totally missed that. Maybe there are real women out there like the protagonist who really do feel like they have been sleeping for 10 years. But I just couldn't "buy" the premise so I had a hard time appreciating the book.
Not for non-urbanites, but that's a COMPLIMENT August 24, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Anyone looking for a good learning experience for a book group, or a realistic portrait of the "normal" in-home mom experience, will not find it here. Non-urban or conservative readers should stop carping about how this book doesn't reflect their experience! A book about motherhood isn't required to speak to every mother. This is a story for New Yorkers and people who orbit Manhattan, and as such it works very well. I should know, having raised kids in both Manhattan and the suburbs.
My problem with the book is that Wolitzer has taken on more plots and characters than she can handle. In the second half, she can't keep all the plates in the air--too many flashbacks, too many characters introduced and then discarded, too many heads to see into. (What the hell is Nadia Cominich doing here?) Everything wraps up too fast. And as others have pointed out, there's also some stereotyping; Karen's mother sounds like a generic Amy Tan mother. In real life, of course there are math-y Chinese women and angst-filled liberals. In this particular book, they come across as caricatures.
 A page turner but disappointing nonetheless August 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Maybe you'll buy this book regardless of the reviews just to see for yourself - I did - but I must say, I'm left a bit disappointed. While it was definitely a page turner of a book so that means it was at least somewhat interesting and entertaining (there were some really funny lines), I felt the general feel of it was so negative. I can't recall one character who felt content in their role as a stay-at-home mother (aside from one - Karen- but she was underdeveloped and didn't seem self-aware enough really to even know if she was really happy or not.) The author bounced around and tried to show different perspectives, which is appreciated, but generally all the characters are discontented (except the Isabelle Gordon character - again underdeveloped.) I suppose the author wanted to focus on the malaise felt by these discontented people - if so, she succeeded. I just wish the perspective of a happy, content full-time mom could have been represented - without it, the role of a full-time mother seems to be devalued and does that have to happen in order to advance the equality of women - does it really?? I don't know for sure but I hope not.
Annoyed me. Neurotic, self-centered whiners with everything. August 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a very stereotypical NYC perspective. Despite the author's attempt to portray a wide variety of perspectives without apparent comment, what we get is a very narrow impression of the world and families and it is terribly depressing.
A collection of whining stay at home moms who have it all end up finding slightly more meaning in their self-obsessed lives by not being stay at home moms anymore. Only one character was supposedly happy and that was the least fleshed out, most stereotypical of all the friends, an Asian maths whizz who, despite her decade out of the workforce could still get any job she wanted but prefers not to because her husband is so successful (yes, success is defined by wealth) that she doesn't need to.
There is very little actual affection, let alone love, in this book, not even the incidental moments that pepper our days and the men are universally bland and characterless.
Don't bother with this unless you are really trying to inspire your own existential crisis.
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