First of all, I need to thank Missy, fellow bookworm, for recommending this book to me. Little did she know, her off-handed comment sent me to the library to get the book on cd for my 9 hours behind the wheel last weekend. 10 cds, nine looooong hours made short by a truly witty and surprisingly intelligently written book.
Admittedly, my expectations were low. Any book that is being made into a moving staring Sarah Jessica Parker is one that my inner book snob tends to scorn. Plus, I’m not a mom, and I’m only three months into the first real job of my life. So what do I know of the demands of a working mom.
Turns out that you don’t have to be one to know one. I found myself loving Kate Reddy and really wanting her to have it all – the high paying investment banker lifestyle, the great stay-at-home-dad husband, and 2 adorable perfect children. The almost affair in the middle of the book only made her seem more human, not less perfect.
Because she’s not perfect, though she tries HARD to be so. Maybe that’s why I could relate to her, when we really don’t have much in common. The book is a little long for being such a light read, but it went fast. (I was only about 2/3 of the way through the cds, so I checked the book out from the library and finished the last 150ish pages in about 2 days.) I thought it was an intelligent commentary, and a realistic one at that, of the life of a working mom. There is no sugar-coating of the lifestyle, nor the choices made by Kate. She narrates the story, so you know of her internal struggles to balance her “double lives”. She just wants what everyone does: everything.
As it turns out, that might be too much to ask for after all.
You may know that this is now a movie in theaters. Even though the reviews are terrible and the trailer looks like rubbish (really? The book is set in ENGLAND, not BOSTON!!), I’ll probably still see it. When it comes out in video.
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I love that you checked out the book to read halfway through the CDs… That’s totally something I would do! (tend to zone out on those audio books)
The book sounds great- (I never even heard about the movie coming out) It sounds like the author really got to the underlying issues behind working mom- that we all just want and try so hard to achieve…
This one will go on my long list of “to read somedays”
I don’t think the movie will make it on my to see list though….
That book surprised me, too with the commentary.
It’s sort of Un-PC to say that a woman needs to be at home with the kids, and I think we have strayed SO far away from that to err on the side of caution and no one wants to point out the imperfections and flaws of being a working mom. Truth is, like you said…you have to choose between two sacrifices. Neither one is perfect. Can’t have everything.
I still don’t really “get” the affair thing, kind-of lame but I think it served to represent her need for “escape.”
Or that’s what I made it mean.
I just finished this book too. And I hated it. I just didn’t like her at all. I don’t know…maybe because I am convinced that when (or if) I am a mom I won’t be that way? I don’t know.
I am ready a GOOD book right called One Day. It was also made into a movie (which I didn’t see) but it is good. The humor is really dry so I think you’d like it. The concept is cool too. Each chapter is the same day (July 15th) of a new year. So one chapter will end and you’ll be like ooh I wonder what happens next except you jump an entire year so while you get a basic idea of what happened you never get the details. It’s good though. I am about 3/4 of the way finished and I am will probably finish today.