Friday Books: Please Kill Me and The Ten-Year Nap

Actually, Boris, I have been reading. While in NH, I began reading N's Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. The book is a series of interviews with people in and around the 1970's Punk scene. I found it interesting, easy, and light---the kind of book you can pick up here and there without losing any plot points. It was a good to read when I was up in the middle of the night since it's pretty much gossip about all the boozing and sex that went on back in the days of Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Television, MC5, The Velvet Underground.

Man, those people could party. At nine months pregnant with nary a memory of the last time I stayed up past 1 AM, I felt pretty removed from the scene. But it was fun to read about.

Closer to home, I finished Meg Wolitzer's The Ten-Year Nap. It's her most recent book and I enjoyed it. I don't know if it's because I took a break between her novels or if I just found the topic more interesting. My problem with The Position was that I wasn't sure if it was supposed to tragic or comedic. I found The Ten-Year Nap a solidly good summer novel.

The book is about these four mothers raising young kids who aren't young enough to necessarily warrant them still staying at home. The kids are in school and a lot of the women and their families struggle financially in New York City. Yet, something holds them back from returning to the working world. The chapters dealing with the four women---a failed painter, a lawyer, a failed academic/film producer, a math whiz /econ person---are intersected with stories about their mothers--many women who had to work or truly enjoyed working. These parts tended to be shorter and at first I felt they were gimicky, but by the end, I enjoyed them more and recognized why Wolitzer needed this device.

Wolitzer remains, in my opinion, a terrific, line by line writer. She really nails the human condition and has a great sense of endings. Read this book but get it from the library. I don't see why you'd need to own it.