The Ten-year NapThe Ten-year Nap
Title rated 3.25 out of 5 stars, based on 64 ratings(64 ratings)
Book, 2008
Current format, Book, 2008, , Available .From the bestselling author of The Wife and The Position, a feverishly smart novel about female ambition, money, class, motherhood, and marriage-and what happens in one community when a group of educated women chooses not to work.
For a group of four New York friends, the past decade has been largely defined by marriage and motherhood. Educated and reared to believe that they would conquer the world, they then left jobs as corporate lawyers, investment bankers, and film scouts to stay home with their babies. What was meant to be a temporary leave of absence has lasted a decade. Now, at age forty, with the halcyon days of young motherhood behind them and without professions to define them, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen face a life that is not what they were brought up to expect but seems to be the one they have chosen.
But when Amy gets to know a charismatic and successful working mother of three who appears to have fulfilled the classic women's dream of having it all-work, love, family-without having to give anything up, a lifetime's worth of concerns, both practical and existential, opens up. As Amy's obsession with this woman's bustling life grows, it forces the four friends to confront the choices they've made in opting out of their careers-until a series of startling events shatters the peace and, for some of them, changes the landscape entirely.
Written in Meg Wolitzer's inimitable, glittering style, The Ten-Year Nap is wickedly observant, knowing, provocative, surprising, and always entertaining, as it explores the lives of these women with candor, wit, and generosity.
For a group of four New York friends, the past decade has been defined largely by marriage and motherhood - but it wasn't always that way. Growing up, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen were told by their mothers that their generation would be different. "You girls will be able to do just about anything you want," Amy's mother had predicted. And for a while, this was true. Amy and her friends went to good colleges and began careers as lawyers, film producers, bankers, and artists. But after they got married and had babies, they decided for a variety of reasons to stay home, temporarily, to raise them. Now, ten years later, at age forty, with their children older and no longer in need of their constant presence, and without professions through which to define themselves, the four friends wonder how they got here - in lives so different from the ones they were brought up to expect - and why they have chosen to stay so long.
When Amy embarks on a friendship with a charismatic and successful working mother of three whom the others think of as an "advertisement for work and motherhood and glamour and a refusal to compromise," a lifetime's worth of concerns opens up, both practical and existential. As Amy's entanglement in this woman's complicated life increases, it drives a wedge between Amy and her husband, as well as her and her friends, until a series of startling events ultimately forces the four friends to confront the choices they've each made and, for some of them, changes the landscape entirely.
Ten years after leaving high-power jobs to raise their children, four New York friends enter their forties while struggling with the differences between their past ideals and their present realities, a situation that become turbulent when one of them meets a successful working mother of three who seems to have it all. 40,000 first printing.
Ten years after leaving high-power jobs to raise their children, four New York friends enter their forties while struggling with the differences between their past ideals and their present realities.
For a group of four New York friends, the past decade has been largely defined by marriage and motherhood. Educated and reared to believe that they would conquer the world, they then left jobs as corporate lawyers, investment bankers, and film scouts to stay home with their babies. What was meant to be a temporary leave of absence has lasted a decade. Now, at age forty, with the halcyon days of young motherhood behind them and without professions to define them, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen face a life that is not what they were brought up to expect but seems to be the one they have chosen.
But when Amy gets to know a charismatic and successful working mother of three who appears to have fulfilled the classic women's dream of having it all-work, love, family-without having to give anything up, a lifetime's worth of concerns, both practical and existential, opens up. As Amy's obsession with this woman's bustling life grows, it forces the four friends to confront the choices they've made in opting out of their careers-until a series of startling events shatters the peace and, for some of them, changes the landscape entirely.
Written in Meg Wolitzer's inimitable, glittering style, The Ten-Year Nap is wickedly observant, knowing, provocative, surprising, and always entertaining, as it explores the lives of these women with candor, wit, and generosity.
For a group of four New York friends, the past decade has been defined largely by marriage and motherhood - but it wasn't always that way. Growing up, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen were told by their mothers that their generation would be different. "You girls will be able to do just about anything you want," Amy's mother had predicted. And for a while, this was true. Amy and her friends went to good colleges and began careers as lawyers, film producers, bankers, and artists. But after they got married and had babies, they decided for a variety of reasons to stay home, temporarily, to raise them. Now, ten years later, at age forty, with their children older and no longer in need of their constant presence, and without professions through which to define themselves, the four friends wonder how they got here - in lives so different from the ones they were brought up to expect - and why they have chosen to stay so long.
When Amy embarks on a friendship with a charismatic and successful working mother of three whom the others think of as an "advertisement for work and motherhood and glamour and a refusal to compromise," a lifetime's worth of concerns opens up, both practical and existential. As Amy's entanglement in this woman's complicated life increases, it drives a wedge between Amy and her husband, as well as her and her friends, until a series of startling events ultimately forces the four friends to confront the choices they've each made and, for some of them, changes the landscape entirely.
Ten years after leaving high-power jobs to raise their children, four New York friends enter their forties while struggling with the differences between their past ideals and their present realities, a situation that become turbulent when one of them meets a successful working mother of three who seems to have it all. 40,000 first printing.
Ten years after leaving high-power jobs to raise their children, four New York friends enter their forties while struggling with the differences between their past ideals and their present realities.
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- New York : Riverhead Books, c2008.
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