#88 The Ten Year Nap

All I can say after finishing this book is I think my time would have been better spent actually taking a nap. Not a ten year long one, of course, but a nap nonetheless.

There were parts of this book that were intriguing, at least at first. I was very interested in how these four friends interacted and supported each other through the ups and downs of stay at home motherhood. But the truth of it was they didn't really support each other. Sure, they met at a diner for breakfast on a regular basis but they didn't really talk about how they were feeling, what they wanted to do, and what they are scared of with each other. They discussed politics and volunteer work, without getting too deep. They had their own dramas to deal with but they rarely invited anyone else into the thick of it.

One character totally turned me off in her retelling of her decision to abort a baby while still in art school. She makes the claim that she doesn't really think about it anymore. I am thoroughly pro-choice - meaning I don't think any political body should tell a women what she can and can't do with her own body. I, personally, would not have an abortion but I don't want to get involved in other people's lives in that way. That being said, I also don't believe that a woman who has an abortion can just move along with her life and never think about it again. I don't believe it for a second and I don't think I would want to be involved with a person who could feel that way about it. I don't believe you have to constantly punish yourself or even think about it every day of your life afterwards, but I just don't believe that something that monumental in your life could be swept under the carpet, never to come up again.

So, anyway, I had trouble with some of the women characters and their lack of morals or boundaries or sense of friendship. I hope that I have connected better with the friends I have in my life. That we can have real conversations and share our problems, not keep them from each other wondering what they might think of us. I was left feeling very grateful for the friends I do have, friends I can cry to, vent to, share the funny and frustrating parts of stay at home mom-ness, share a rainy morning with, have lunch with, go for a run with, and basically just share my life with them. I love my friends and I hope that I won't have to experience any awkward adjustments of our relationships when we start turning 40, like the characters in this book.

Next up: The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi