Oh, Kate Chopin, how you have scorned me. I opened The Awakening expecting to read about the interesting life of people living in New Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century. Instead, though, I was pelted with whining, crying, and a whole lot of crap. It was just like going to a Wiggles concert.
In all seriousness, though, this book is just awful. It is the story of Edna Pontellier, a wife and mother of two, who gets bored with her life. In an attempt to spice it up a little, she has an affair with another man while her husband is away on business and her children are visiting their grandmother. But once she has done that, she is still bored and continues to look for things that will put an end to her boredom. At some point she moves out of her beautiful home so that she can live in some small and awful apartment in an attempt to relieve herself of her duties and responsibilities at home in order to continue to fornicate with her lover.
I am not even going to talk about the end, but we learn that she is incredibly selfish and self-centered. If it's not all about Edna, then Edna just ain't happy. And if Edna isn't happy, then no once can be. I think Grease the Musical has a better message than this. But I will say this, Edna was most certainly the original Desperate Housewife, only more annoying.
I give it 1 out of 5 Wildes.
