On with the second discussion after finishing chapter 13 of The Ten Year Nap. Now that we’ve been introduced to 2 more of the New York friends, Roberta and Karen, along with additional information about the women’s parents, what are your thoughts about each? Do you have any new insights about Penney after the St. Doe’s trip? How about the women of NAFITAS and their stay at Amy’s apartment – how have they changed over the years? Anything else you want to discuss?
The Chicken Lit Bookclub
Where we get all literary.
Recent Comments
chickenlitbookclub on Book #51 Release maksbestfriend on Book #51 Release chickenlitbookclub on Book #51 Release maksbestfriend on Book #51 Release chickenlitbookclub on Book #51 Release Recent Visitors
-
-
The Chicken Lit Bookclub 
I was shocked at how self serving some of the women were, like Jill. She still has her reasons to make Amy feel guilty for having her friendship with Penny.
Then there is Roberta. Very hippie like, is hippie even a word? Then she goes to the middle of nowhere to take that poor girl to get an abortion, and seems to see herself at that age, and decides to help her. I wonder if that is appeasing her sense of guilt for her abortion when she was younger?
Then there is Karen. Karen who seems to always ahve something get the brunt of the comments. Remember the one about her period. That was odd. The chapter about her relationship with her mother was very tense. I wonder if some mother/daughter relationships are that way.
Jill. Right now. I cannot stand her. I kind of hope that her husband finds out. I couldn’t believe that Ian showed up at Doe, but when she ran instead of staying, I could see that, but then she acted like that was it, she wiped her hands of it all. Couldn’t even explain what the heck she was thinking. You know that this is going to come back around again, especially when Ian is healed. Since it has been mentioned more than once that he is very dependent on the women in his life. I suspect that this has the potential to turn ugly.
Jill’s husband I don’t know, he is the very driven sort. Type A. Too bad he couldn’t just turn it off and enjoy his time with his children, they grow too fast.
The last chapter, what is it with Antonia? She couldn’t even water the Christmas tree? She seems so self centered that she forgets anything that doesn’t revolve around her feminist friends or her latest venture. And what is with pushing the defense lawyer thing, again. Amy said no before. I wonder if Amy is the child that could never do anything good enough in the eyes of her mother?
Then there is Leo!
Leo who is writing the whole trip off as legal expenses! A lie! And you know how Amy looks at that. I wonder how that is going to go over. Clearly they could not afford to go on the trip on the mileage they had, I wonder if he did it just to please her. I wonder what other secrets he is keeping.
Ian has got to come through and ‘out’ Penney after she turned away from him in his time of need. But then again, she’s looking out for her own interests… as are all of the women in this novel.
Amy confuses me. She’s obsessive about this whole working/non-working lifestyle, and yet she doesn’t want the career she studied to earn. And now that Penney & Ian’s affair is no longer, Amy has no interest in her new friend anymore. Will she turn back to Jill, the friend who seemed to be replaced in that ordeal? Or have an affair of her own?
Antonia and her women lib crap makes me sick. She abandoned her girls to go after her dreams, teaching them… ? No wonder Amy is confused – she has no role model from which to draw good decisions. If anything, I think she’s doing the opposite of what her mother did to avoid inflicting the same feelings of abandonment on her son. Yet, she still seems bitter and angry about the choice she has made.
As for Leo… I’d be looking closer at the receipts if I were Amy. Perhaps the next little affair is already under her nose?
I think that Ian is going to come unglued/unhinged when he heals physically. I think that he saw the look on Penny’s face when she turned away in horror. Do you think that Ian and Amy end up turning to each other for comfort? I wonder if Amy isn’t about to find out something about Leo that she has been suspecting. I mean he sort of already has an office confidante, what if she is really more than that?
I am not sure what Amy will do about Jill. Jill appears to be so needy and clingy, something that Amy appears, and I could be wrong, has a hard time with. Jill wants Amy to please her, be there for her, when she wants her to be. Is that realistic.
Antonia is over the top, I wonder how Henry put up with her, or did he tune her out years before? Or did he find his own ways to cope with her actions, or inaction in their marriage?
I’m hoping for a happy ending, with Amy & Jill going back to their friendship, Ian going his separate way, Roberta helping the budding artist get started in her career, and Penny back to Greg and their lives together. Lessons learned by all.
As for Antonia, she started a good thing by standing up for women’s right to work outside of the home – but she didn’t think about who would actually care for the girls in her absence. She was completely ahead of her time. At least in today’s world with both parents working outside the home, there are these things called day care & nannies. That really bothered me, as you can tell.
Of course. That I do understand. It made me sad that she was so selfish and self centered. I do like Roberta helping that poor girl get her life going. I am wondering how all of todays issues are interwoven into this book, the war in Iraq, abortion, politics, marriage, religion, women’s rights? Have you noticed? I wonder sometimes if authers sometimes find this as a way to interject their own viewpoints into the book? Making sense?
I am hoping for a happy ending. This book can use one. Are we shooting for ending this book this weekend do you think? No way that I will be finished today to be honest.
Wolitzer seems to be dumping a stream of issues at us, just as you mentioned. This book is a good read, but so serious that I’m really wanting a FUN book for our next selection. Hopefully ‘Certain Girls’ will do that for us? I’d like to finish up with this one by Friday, and then we can move on to book #9 by the weekend. Plus, I need to recruit some readers… soon. I’m on it. 🙂
BTW: Is it just me, or does Nadia’s song have a striking resemblance to “Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat”? Wouldn’t that be a hoot if the ladies realized they were warming up to that tune during yoga?
Now that you mention it that would be funny! It is amazing with all the wealth amongst the women that they wouldn’t try to figure out what was the diagnosis for her.
I am FINISHED! 🙂 …How about you?
I’m on pg 279. Had to put it down before teaching CCD tonight, and probably won’t sit down to open it for another hour or so. It must’ve gotten really good there…?
Wait – don’t tell me! 🙂
Not telling!
Why is our time stamp so off? Have you noticed that before? It is 5:45 here… 🙂
Just checked the timestamp settings, and the default was UTC which made it 5 hours ahead of my timezone (CST). Changed it to UTC -5. Let’s see if this works…
I was right on the ‘Rice-a-Roni’ jingle! It seemed so obvious to me, but I didn’t expect the Romanian teacher to reveal it to Jill. Now I’m on ch 13… hopefully will finish tomorrow!
I know! As soon as I saw the jingle, I knew you were right! But it never explained where she got it from! Ok, finish up and I will get the next book tonight and get ready to go! I am hoping that it is more than just you and me the next time!
Finally finished, too. I’ll post the final discussion thread.