page turners
by rantywoman
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/07/love-actually.html
The pleasures of this novel—its lucidity and wry humor—are mixed with the sting of recognizing the essential unfairness of the sexual mores of our moment: after years of liberated fun, many women begin to feel terribly lonely when realize they want a commitment; men, who seem to have all the power to choose, are also stuck with an unasked-for power to inflict hurt. We’ll have to keep searching for an arrangement that works better, and monogamous coupledom may not be it, Waldman suggests. But she offers no balm, no solution—and tacitly resists a culture that offers sunny advice and reassurance to women.
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I’ve been meaning to read this book. I left NYC at age 25 and I’m certain it was the best decision I ever made… for all the reasons the review and the book articulate.
It’s good but a little depressing. I think I am a Hannah. On the other hand, I could relate to some of Nate’s feelings of claustrophobia and, since I’m now a long-term single, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat supportive of some of his anti-relationship-imperative tirades.
The subject of dating is less interesting to me now, but I recognize the book as being quite insightful.