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A review by karieh13
Nine Months by Paula Bomer
2.0
I would be very curious to talk to another person who read this book. More specifically, a person who read this book and either like it or could identify for more than a few seconds with the main character, Sonia. Because despite the fact that she and I have several similarities in our lives – I just could not stand her.
Which I suspected would be the case going into “Nine Months” given the blurb I’d read. I didn’t expect that a story about a woman who abandoned her husband and two children while pregnant with her third would be either touching or heartwarming. But I thought I would come to understand why Sonia made that decision – at least from her point of view.
But the closest I came was summed up with this. “All her life, all of her thirty-five years, she’s only wanted to experience everything…”
Sonia is selfish, hedonistic, incredibly crude, critical of everyone except herself, verbally abusive and just not very interesting. Although I am sure she finds herself fascinating.
With such a main character, a book could still be interesting if the characters surrounding her were well drawn, layered…even just realistic. But the stereotypes here are just eye rolling. Upper-middle class entitled New York wives? Check. “Clarissa and Riva believed in their inheritances. They believed in staying home and shopping. They believed that they were their husbands’ wives and their children’s mother. And those who didn’t believe didn’t have the same God. Those who didn’t believe weren’t saved.”
The over nurturing to the point of creepiness Earth mother? Check. Gun loving and toting xenophobic mother? Check. Overworked husband who doesn’t understand his wife’s needs? Check.
This is a story about a woman who wants for almost nothing…and mostly wants what she can’t have. She wants to make no choices and every choice. She wants it all and none of it. Nothing seems to make her happy. Which makes for a very unhappy reader.
Which I suspected would be the case going into “Nine Months” given the blurb I’d read. I didn’t expect that a story about a woman who abandoned her husband and two children while pregnant with her third would be either touching or heartwarming. But I thought I would come to understand why Sonia made that decision – at least from her point of view.
But the closest I came was summed up with this. “All her life, all of her thirty-five years, she’s only wanted to experience everything…”
Sonia is selfish, hedonistic, incredibly crude, critical of everyone except herself, verbally abusive and just not very interesting. Although I am sure she finds herself fascinating.
With such a main character, a book could still be interesting if the characters surrounding her were well drawn, layered…even just realistic. But the stereotypes here are just eye rolling. Upper-middle class entitled New York wives? Check. “Clarissa and Riva believed in their inheritances. They believed in staying home and shopping. They believed that they were their husbands’ wives and their children’s mother. And those who didn’t believe didn’t have the same God. Those who didn’t believe weren’t saved.”
The over nurturing to the point of creepiness Earth mother? Check. Gun loving and toting xenophobic mother? Check. Overworked husband who doesn’t understand his wife’s needs? Check.
This is a story about a woman who wants for almost nothing…and mostly wants what she can’t have. She wants to make no choices and every choice. She wants it all and none of it. Nothing seems to make her happy. Which makes for a very unhappy reader.