Meg Wolitzer and "The Ten-Year Nap"

Meg Wolitzer's new novel would provide great conversation fodder for any group of mothers. The Ten-Year Nap explores the lives of a group of New York friends who left the workforce a decade ago when they had kids, and have not gone back to work.

I read the book last weekend and I'll write more about it in a few days. It's like a literary, stay-at-home version of I Don't Know How She Does It crossed with Sex and the City (more like No-Sex in the City with these long-married couples, but the New York vibe is prevalent). Wolitzer writes with a lot of integrity and compassion, which allows her to honestly probe our ambivalent spots without making us feel used. Wolitzer's point of view comes through nicely in Rebecca Traister's Salon.com interview.

I've been in New York for the week, just after finishing the book, and it was interesting to sit in Starbucks at going-to-school time and watch women go by who could have been the characters from this novel. It appears that huge, overloaded strollers take on the minivan function here in Manhattan. We must be near an Upper West Side preschool because we saw a ton of mothers trying to get down the sidewalk with multiple toddlers in tow. I did see a father or two as well, one with his fancy briefcase stashed away in the back stroller pocket.

More when I get situated back home....