Category: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN-13: 9781594489785
Pub. Date: March 2008
Date Read: June 2008
Focusing on a group of four New York friends, this novel examines how their lives have turned out as they all made the decision to stay home and raise their children instead of following their careers. These women were up-and-coming lawyers and bankers but now any meetings they have are held over at the Gold Horn restaurant discussing the children, their school, the extracurricular activities and all the other stuff that goes into building a life.
What was only supposed to be a temporary leave of absence turned into a new lifestyle for all and now 10 years later there is a sort of awakening and the women start to analyze where they are in life.
Although there are chapters focusing on each of the four friends I felt like this was more about Amy. She is married to Leo and they have a smart, young son. Amy gave up her work as lawyer to be there for Mason as he was growing up but now she finds more and more empty segments in her day. Her son is growing up and now she finds that what she does most is set up play date and keep her son’s activities on track.
When Amy beings a friendship with another woman, one who is a career woman and a mother, she first thinks this woman has achieved it all. She attained what their mothers’ worked so hard for during women’s lib but as she gets to know her friend more, she realizes that she has also made sacrifices. Is there such a thing as having it all?
As with Amy the lives of the other women are explored, and the author goes a step further and even includes some real-life personages to illustrate the hardships of what it is to be a mother and also have your own identity.
Clever observations and an issue many women can relate to keep you interested in the novel. However, I would have preferred something a bit more cohesive, maybe forgoing some of the vignettes and focusing on a fewer characters to fully develop them.