Suggestion for next book

I don't know if anyone has their heart set on something but I thought I'd toss an idea in the hopper for the next book...

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

1st section thoughts...

Sorry I haven’t weighed in sooner, I just stared the book last weekend because I HAD to finish the other book I was reading (Geographer’s Library, a really fun read by the way if you like DaVinci Code type books) My first impression of this book was that I was not going to like the author (aka main character) at all. She seemed very immature and selfish to me and not just a little bit shallow. (Sometimes it is great to be reading a book for a book group because it forces you to give the book more of a chance) I am glad I stuck with it though because as you move through the book you gain more of an understanding of her. I must admit I still don’t like her all that much, mostly because she is someone I really can’t relate to, but I do have a better appreciation for her situation and where she is coming from.

Quite frankly it is good to read the honest perspective of someone who really doesn’t want children in their 30s because I count myself among those that she refers to who just dove into parenthood without too much consideration for it. It just seemed like an awesome thing to do; an experience that I couldn’t imagine not having. I found her story about the artist new mother particularly striking. I think I had a similar night to this woman early on after Evie was born. What the author is missing, however, is that women who have children don’t necessarily know immediately how to best adapt their lives around their kids and can easily overdo it in those first few months (goodness knows I did). As a result their lives can look like misery in a snapshot when the truth is they are filled with joy AND constant adaptation trying to move back toward a new normal that includes many pre-kid activities but done in a different and oftentimes better way. So the author witnesses the scene but doesn’t have the right perspective on it in my opinion.

Her stories about Italy definitely make me want to travel again. (I was lamenting the other night that it has been more than two years… oh boo-hoo for me I know… since we have left the country for someplace other than Mexico) But I am not jealous per se, because I see the circumstances that have freed her to travel like she is and would not take that in a million years in exchange for a year of travel.

So on to India…

about the next book

So, I am listening to Eat, Pray, Love on CDs, which means that I can't use Post-it notes to mark the things I will want to discuss later. I am also too lazy to write things on a piece of paper. Therefore, I want to bring up a few things I'd like to discuss when we meet. I am still on the first part. We are still in Italy.

I wasn't initially too impressed with the book. The literary snob in me kept nagging about the writing. The word that kept coming up, though, was "self-indulgent." Do we really care, thought I, about another well-educated woman who is depressed because her life is not going who she planned? How hypocritical of me. I too had a few years of self-proclaimed hell, anti-depressants, the drama that enveloped me so completely, that it was the only thing that existed. So why then is it so hard for me to just relax and read about smart, pretty, successful women, instead of reading about starvation and serial rape? I don't know. What do you think?

I think she finally won me over when she quoted the country song that goes "I've been screwed, sued, and tattooed, but I am still standing here in front of you." So now I am mostly enjoying the ride. As a consequence of reading/listening to it, I am thinking that I need to rethink my relationship with pleasure (although I am not American, I think I have fully bought into the mentality she so well describes, which doesn't allow doing nothing), and especially with food. Maybe I can stop eating cereal for dinner out of plastic containers.

But, to shorten this long rant, my main question is this: how do you all feel about reading this book, knowing that, most likely, you will not be able to do anything similar to what she did, probably in the next 15 years? Are you envious? Am I envious? It's a whole different world that she talks about. And I can't even have lunch without Joe pulling on my legs to pick him up. Am I envious? I don't think so. But it sure is nice to fantasize about escaping to Rome for a few days.