Grown-Up Book Reviews

Short reviews of the few books I've read so far this year.

The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer. Wow! A gorgeous book that I read at just the right time. Deals with women who rearranged their lives for the sake of small children and, 10 years into parenting, are reconsidering what to do with themselves. Wolitzer's characters are complicated and respect the broad range of feelings, contexts, and needs we bring to parenting.

Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott. I love Lamott's non-fiction. I read this several years ago and was happy to spot it at Goodwill. This is a kind of diary of Lamott's first year as a mother. I love how honestly she describes her irrational anxieties and the teeter-totter of loving your child so much you can hardly stand it and then feeling like you cannot bear another minute with him.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Fine but not great. Set in 1960's Mississippi, this book imagines the relationships between black domestic workers and the white women for whom they work. The characters are flat -- all good or all bad -- and the book is at least 100 pages longer than necessary.

Stockett got me interested in race relations again, so I'm reading Toni Morrison's Beloved. I know it is going to tear my heart out. A lot of great books will do that.