Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World

Flux stands as a thoughtful reflection on the common and almost expected negotiations women in the third wave often make between having kids or a career, a relationship or job success. When Orenstein hits her stride, she sucks you into stories of a women who have walked a variety of paths, with muddled satisfaction. Her writing is clear, concise, and wonderfully descriptive when...more

Flux stands as a thoughtful reflection on the common and almost expected negotiations women in the third wave often make between having kids or a career, a relationship or job success. When Orenstein hits her stride, she sucks you into stories of a women who have walked a variety of paths, with muddled satisfaction. Her writing is clear, concise, and wonderfully descriptive when appropriate. Still, there were points that felt too slow and anecdotal (namely, when Orenstein uses herself as a case study). Worst, her conclusions felt too timid, almost too documentary for my taste. Yes, there is flux--so what? Is this good, bad, unavoidable? In Orenstein's defense, she certainly shows the complications of coming down so definitively. Flux is certainly a worthwhile read for any woman who feels like she is, or in the future that she may be, stuck in having to choose between her job and a family.   hide

I had to put this book away. Far, far away. It made me absolutely crazy.