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The Ten-Year Nap Paperback – March 3, 2009

by Meg Wolitzer (Author)

3.6 788 ratings

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The New York Times bestselling novel by the author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion 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.

Meg Wolitzers's newest book, The Interestings, is now available from Riverhead Books.

Print length

383 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 3, 2009
Dimensions

5.3 x 0.98 x 7.94 inches
ISBN-10

159448354X
ISBN-13

978-1594483547
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wolitzer is as precise and rigorous an observer of social status as Tom Wolfe; she is as invisibe and pitiless and clear-eyed a chronicler of female-male tandems as Philip Roth or John Updike." --Chicago Tribune

"Very entertaining. The tartly funny Wolitzer is a miniaturist who can nail a contemporary type, scene, or artifact with deadeye accuracy." --The New York Times

"Wolitzer perfectly captures her women's resolve in the face of a dizzying array of conflicting loyalties. To whom does a woman owe her primary allegiance? Her children? Her mother? Her friends, spouse, community? God forbid, herself?" --The Washington Post

"What determines a woman's worth?... Wolitzer's middle-aged moms are flawed: selfish, neurotic, and occasionally petty. But they-- and their conflicts-- feels vividly, satisfyingly real." --Entertainment Weekly

"Wolitzer's great ear for dialogues and for insinuating humor into seriousness make this noel a though-provoking pleasure to read." --The Seattle Times

About the Author

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife, and Sleepwalking. She is also the author of the young adult novel, Belzhar. Wolitzer lives in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead; Reprint edition (March 3, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159448354X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594483547
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.98 x 7.94 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #449,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,618 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #7,319 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #23,173 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.6 788 ratings

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Meg Wolitzer

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Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. Her new novel, The Female Persuasion, has been named a most-anticipated book of the year by Time Magazine, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, and more. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and lives in New York City.

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3.6 out of 5

788 global ratings

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Carla

Subtle and insightful New York story

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2008

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This book contains beautiful observations on the experience of motherhood, marriage, and friendship between women. Many passages resonated with me in profound ways. I would not read it as some have--as a text on the contemporary dilemmas facing women. This is very much an upper class New York story and the basic work/life choices that these women take themselves to be confronted with bear very little resemblance to the choices and dilemmas faced by myself and my circle of female friends. The main characters, interestingly, are more confined by their passive, yet persistent desire for the status and money than they are by any kind of tug of war between mothering and a genuine longing to work. The book aimed to capture four distinctive characters along with several others that kind of blip through, but to me, it nevertheless seemed speak with only a single melancholy, yet original and compelling voice. I found it somewhat distracting to see the effort to delineate the characters rely so heavily on stereotype--we are reminded several times that the Jewish woman has a big nose and the Asian woman lacks imagination and a capacity to understand emotional nuance. This book does capture something, though, about a particular dimension of our generation that I have not seen captured so well anwhere else and I enjoyed reading it.

7 people found this helpful

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G. Cat

A good read

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2010

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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!

24 people found this helpful

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Someone's Mom

Meg Wolitzer really "gets it"

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2008

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It's been a while since I've reviewed anything on Amazon but I just wanted to say how much I loved this book. I devoured it in a weekend and found myself stopping my husband in whatever he was doing to read him random bits and snippets, mostly because Meg Wolitzer so perfectly summed up so many of the sentiments I myself had felt during the years I stayed home with my kids.

For example, there's a passage near the beginning where one of the characters talks about picking up a newspaper like the New YOrk Times and reading yet another profile of a high-powered women who "does it all." And Meg Wolitzer writes (I'm paraphrasing) that 'she wished there was something like an asterisk at the end of the article which referred you to a box at the bottom of the page which explained the backstory, what the real deal was.' And that's EXACTLY how I felt the whole time I was trying to juggle life in the foreign service with raising little kids and being pregnant. Everytime I caught a glimmer of someone who somehow or other effortlessly did it all, you'd start to talk to them and they'd say something like "Well, actually it was easy. You see, my mother had recently retired and she was widowed so she moved to Botswana for eight years and watched my kids for me while I climbed up through the ranks to become Ambassador" or "Well, actually they're my stepchildren. My husband is actually forty years older than I am, so by the time I became a "mom", the kids had already graduated from college" or something.

There are just these little MOMENTS throughout the book where I found myself exclaiming "yes, yes. she really understands. I'm not alone. I'm not crazy." Another example -- she describes the insecure mom picking up the child at school and the child is in first grade and the mom finds herself checking out all the books the other kids are reading, trying to figure out if her child is where she should be in her reading. It's like we all do these things but never admit them, and then Meg Wolitzer comes along and writes this book -- and you realize it's not just you.

I really hope this book gets people talking -- especially the dialogue between the main character and her earnest Canadian feminist mother who can't understand how the women's movement could have ended up at this point. This is just a great book!

101 people found this helpful

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Mrs. Booklover

Etwas mühsamer Klischee Kampf

Reviewed in Germany on March 12, 2020

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...wieder ein Titel von Meg Wollitzer der mich am Ende etwas enttäuscht hat. Ja, ein realistischer Ansatz und vermutlich auch immer noch gültiger Umgang mit Frauen in Baby Pause, am Ende für mich zu viel erwartbare und oberflächliche Figuren...schade

One person found this helpful

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Paola

wonderful and witty

Reviewed in Italy on September 16, 2017

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I have learned that M.Wolitzer always delivers on her promise of a fun and nice read, but with the underlying and solid truth about feminism and the condition of women today and in the past 30 years. Most of the stuff is totally relatable and she has a true gift for putting it into exquisite words.

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Blue Naters

Well written, good insight into female psyche

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2009

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I really enjoyed reading this book and as bloke in his late forties that might be surprising. It is a well written easy book to read. If you have had kids you will recognise yourself in here. It is a sort of Nick Hornby for girls.
Although set in New York written by a Canadienne/australian it is not at all irritating
My wife enjoyed it I will buy it for my sister

7 people found this helpful

Marta

Dull

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2022

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As a stay at home mom myself, I was expecting this to be generally more interesting and relatable. I found the whole novel rather dull and characters uninteresting or unlikeable. This is my second Meg Wolitzer novel and I had mixed feelings with her previous work too, even though I really wanted to like her.

One person found this helpful

Lehrerin

Like

Reviewed in Germany on January 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

I like the writer and I liked this book. I think mostly mothers, either of young children or grown children, would particularly like this novel as it is about balancing motherhood and work or other dreams and plans of mothers (always an issue for any mother I think)

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