The New York Times bestselling novel that woke up critics, book clubs, and women everywhere.

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, they had been told that their generation would be different. And for a while this was true. They went to good colleges, and began high-powered careers. But after marriage and babies, for a variety of reasons, they decided to stay home, temporarily, to raise their children. Now, ten years later, they are still at home, unsure how they came to inhabit lives so different from the ones they expected—until a new series of events begins to change the landscape of their lives yet again, in ways they couldn’t have predicted.

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 its women with candor, wit, and generosity.

I owned this book for a long time before I read it. I thought it would be harsh towards stay-at-home moms, as the title "the Ten-year nap" has a negative connotation. I have been a stay-at-home mom for 11 years, but I have recently been hired for a full time postion, so I thought maybe it was time to read the book. I'm glad I did. Although, I don't love the book and won't re-read it, I will pass it along to somebody who may enjoy it. I felt the author was kind to her characters, she didn't judge them but let them be themselves.

I'm not sure this is a book everyone will be able to relate to. Most of the characters were upper middle class, and although there were a few who were not, they were very minor characters, although their point of view did add to the book. There was very little from the male perspective, although there was a part written from the point of view of Amy's father that was very enlightening and made me understand her a bit more (she was like her dad in some ways).

I do think that this book sheds some light on the so called "mommy wars". Although her characters sometimes are unkind and judge each other, by dealing with her characters in a mostly kind and non-judgemental way and by presenting each person as a unique individual Wolitzer does take a stand. We should deal with each other in a kind and non-judgemental and individual way.

I still dislike the title, although perhaps it is meant to be ironic. Although sometimes it seems as if staying home to raise one's kids is like taking a nap from the real world, it really isn't. Caring for children is meaningful work. And speaking for myself, I have developed skills and expertise in a variety of areas (child and non-child related) during the time I've been a stay-at-home mom. I would have liked to have seen some of the characters have interests and hobbies that they'd developed over the years. Work and child-raising aren't the only things in life and a person who has a career for a decade who has not developed in any area besides work would have a "10 year nap" too, I would think!

I bought this book from a bookstore's sale bin, I'm glad I didn't pay full price. I did love most of the writing. The book is full of wonderful phrases, clever analogies, and some on-target observations. I found myself rereading some paragraphs just because of how beautifully/clever they were written. Why the character Amy's decision to leave her job and stay home with her baby son was complete and articulated how a lot of women feel.

That said, the book did little else. I found myself bored by the characters and disinterested in their lives. While the book does an amazing job describing scenes and characters, it does little to make the reader care about them on an emotional level. Because of that, despite the writing, I slogged through the book and found myself flipping forward to read snippets of later chapters, hoping to see an indication of the story going somewhere. Amy, the central character, seems to operate in dream mode. Stereotypical, she left The Law Firm to become a Stay At Home Mom. Her Hard Working Husband is still at the same law firm where they had met and fallen in love. Therefore, while she can picture what his days are like he unfortunately has no clue and very little interest in what she does all day long. What Amy and her friends do all day long seems to be the obsession of the book. Not just what they do, but how the characters (particularly Amy) feel they are perceived by others. A chapter on this might be good, and enlightening for both sides of the situation. But an entire book? With an endless dose of whining thrown in? Nope.

Too many other stereotypical moms as well. The Perfect Mom will of course turn out be flawed, and her reasons for being flawed are stereotypical as well. Obviously there's nothing wrong with having stereotypical characters, but only if the reader is led to care about them does their story become interesting.

I puzzled by the fact that despite the focus on what the women "do all day long", there was actually very little in the book about what they DO do all day long. There's no mention of the routines of laundry, meals, cleaning up, etc. My guess - and it's just a guess - is that these things were left out of the book because maybe the author felt they would be boring to the reader. But - that's the stuff life is made of, and one way readers might have connected better with Amy is if there were references to her sorting socks or fixing a salad while dinner bubbles on the stove. I might have cared more about Jill's relationship with her adopted daughter if there were actually elements of their daily routine woven throughout the story. [One thing that made books by authors such as Rosamunde Pilcher so popular is that mixed in with the good stories are all the mundane, predictable daily routines of day to day life. The readers CARE about those characters; you feel for all the world as if you know them].

The children in the book, the very reason the women were at home, are back ground props. Yes, it's a book about the women. But to understand the women there needed to be something more about the kids as well.

Meg Wolitzer does a wonderful job of describing the confusing emotions of women who feel trapped; especially those whose traps are self-imposed and perception-based. While I could not put myself in the place of every character, I could understand and empathize with each of the women. This is not a book about how perfect women can be, but rather how human we are and how society and family helps to fashion our personality and world view.

While I worried that the book was going to the "stay-at-home moms are stupid" place, it really didn't go there at all, but was more about being true to one's self and knowing how to do that in whatever circumstances you find yourself in. In fact, what the main character went through with friends and family telling her which jobs she was suited for and how she really should be doing something with her life while she had been DOING what she wanted to do -- raise her son... well, I could relate. I could also relate with her needing to do more upon the realization that her son was needing her less and less.

If you can read a book with an open mind and see stories as infinitely human, you will enjoy this book. However, if your first impulse is to judge people and you have no interest in looking deeper, you won't like this book at all. It isn't adventure. It's just about life.

I've wanted to read this book for a long time but hadn't seen it in the library...I'm also hooked on books on CD for the car so when it turned up, I was excited to check it out. 2 disks in and I'm bored out of my mind (not a good quality when driving).

Meg Wolitzer is a competent writer in that she can string words together in an elegant way (hence the second star)...the problem is that it takes her SO long to get the story moving! Seriously, 2 disks in and we're only hitting the afternoon of Day ONE in the life of Mother #1, Amy. And her life is just NOT a fun place to be. She's a whiny, envious, miserable, cliche of a stay-at-home mom -- and every thought she has justifying her decision to stay at home (or rather, her avoidance of going back to work) is an indictment of any mother who does choose to go back to work. She just LOVED and ADORED her son too much to be apart from him. He was the air she breathed and she was his lifeline...Bleah.

And the opening chapter, with all the description of the alarm clocks going off all over the city. So VERY literary. Then we get to Amy and her mourning dove alarm and the poor narrator is just choking out the "coo coo coo". And again, Wolitzer's prose is straining at the seams trying to be poetic.

So...after reading through this review, I realize the only thing for me to do is to take this snoozefest back to the library posthaste.

I find it sad that this book is a "bargain book." I have wanted to read it since hearing the author interviewed on NPR, and finally did. Worth the time! It is not as over the top as the book "I Don't Know How She Does It," but made me laugh out loud almost as much. This is a book of observations--reading yourself, those you know, and those you don't. It is not overly dramatic, overly woe-is-me for the Manhattanite women it features, or overly preachy about women needing to rule the world. It opens one eyes to the choices and traps, fears and joys, of women unlike yourself. It is not just for women, and it is not just for any particular 'kind' of women. I had to read portions out loud to my husband to explain why I was laughing while reading, and he was disappointed that I immediately lent it to a co-worker instead of to him.