Monday — I can’t…

Monday -- I can't remember Monday much, honestly. Oh yes, I did a lot of e-mail and cleaning, then went in and taught my supplementary magazine design class, then went to Filter and tried and failed to write.

Instead I dealt with more e-mail, and read a book Karina sent me for Christmas, I Don't Know How She Does It, about a British working mom with a high-powered job and lots of guilt. The book was pretty funny, and it had a Sri Lankan side character, and the main character's brain sounded a lot like mine in terms of frazzled trying to keep track of everything important that needed to be done. I'm not sure what I think of it overall, though. It was funny, touching, sweet, smart. But I was frustrated by the ending, and by the overall attitude towards men (somewhat patronizing and over-indulgent, even when irritated by them). Hmm.

It's hard to talk about properly without spoilers. I'll offer this as a central dilemma in the book -- can a parent have a high-powered and demanding career that eats up time like mad and still do justice to their partner and/or children? And if not, is it fair to have either? And if it's okay for one parent to have such a career but not two (and I might even go along with that -- if both parents are away at work eighty hours a week, they're not seeing so much of their kids at all), why are we still so willing to say that it's the woman's role to give up her career? Frustrating. In the end of the book, the author seems to just give in, saying that humanity isn't really ready for feminism yet. There's a bit of a turn-around to that in the epilogue, but it feels tacked on, and doesn't satisfy. So I don't know.