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Book Reviewed by:A deeply moving novel about a woman who thought she never wanted to be a mother--and the many ways that life can surprise us.
In every woman there are many stories...
Rose Napolitano is fighting with her husband, Luke, about prenatal vitamins. She promised she'd take them, but didn't. He promised before they got married that he'd never want children, but now he's changed his mind. Their marriage has come to rest on this one question: Can Rose find it in herself to become a mother? Rose is a successful professor and academic. She's never wanted to have a child. The fight ends, and with it their marriage.
But then, Rose has a fight with Luke about the vitamins--again. This time the fight goes slightly differently, and so does Rose's future as she grapples with whether she can indeed give up the one thing she thought she knew about herself. Can she reimagine her life in a completely new way? That reimagining plays out again and again in each of Rose's nine lives, just as it does for each of us as we grow into adulthood. What are the consequences of our biggest choices? How would life change if we let go of our preconceived ideas of ourselves and became someone completely new? Rose Napolitano's experience of choosing and then choosing again shows us in an utterly compelling way what it means, literally, to reinvent a life and, sometimes, become a different kind of woman than we ever imagined.
A stunning novel about love, loss, betrayal, divorce, death, a woman's career and her identity, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is about finding one's way into a future that wasn't the future one planned, and the ways that fate intercedes when we least expect it.
In addition to being a reflection on the complexities of relationships, Freitas's novel is an elegant exploration of what might be called fate. While exploring Rose's attitudes toward her potential future(s) as a mother, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano examines her relationship with her own mother and the identities of women in general. Rose's role as a daughter comes to affect the way she conceives of her other identities, such as her professional role as a sociologist—an occupation Freitas, whose background is in sociology and religious studies, knows something about. Rose's personal life inspires and informs her research, and her academic knowledge affects how she understands and analyzes the patterns of her life and those of women like her...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).
Over the past couple of decades, it's become more socially acceptable to talk and to write about the complexities of motherhood. It's also become less taboo to acknowledge—as Rose does in The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas—that motherhood is not the right choice for every woman. The following books articulate, in different ways, the ambivalence or unease many women feel toward the prospect of becoming mothers.
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
This novel of Lessing's, first published in 1988 and set in the late 1960s, is a work of literary horror. Two conservative parents have created a haven of domestic bliss in opposition to the social unrest unfolding in the wider world. But their feelings of smug ...
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Ambitious, compelling, and provocative, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano delves deep into love, motherhood, and the complicated dance that is navigating the world as a woman—its intricate structure kept me turning pages and the questions posed therein kept me awake at night.-
