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Completed
07 February 2005
Title
Kramer versus Kramer
Author
Avery Corman
Published
1977
Quote
Ted worked in "...an office where he was with people over thirty inches high who spoke in complete sentences. And, in her world there was no one, not the park-bench club, not her old friends, nor Ted, no one with whom she could share the dirty little secret. 'I love my baby,' she said one day to Thelma. 'But basically, it's boring....Nobody admits it.' "
Review
I saw the 1979 movie when it came out, with the then-young Dustin Hoffman (who plays Ted) and (the great and beautiful) Meryl Streep (who plays Joanna). So, I knew what I was getting into with this book.

The book follows the movie pretty well. It's about a yuppy couple living in New York who, due to the wife's stupid issues, break up. She walks out. She's had enough-----but enough of what? Enough of being a mom? Enough of being a kept woman? Enough of her nice Manhattan apartment? Enough of her responsible, hard-working, bread-winner husband? Enough of not having to work? Enough of having all day to knit if she wants to?

I have no sympathy for the wife, Joanna. She is just basically bored. Bored with her nice life, bored with motherhood. Now I can understand being bored with babies-----babies who are unable to debate the significance of the provisional cast-on for a toe-up sock, for example. But then again, if the wife Joanna really felt that way, she shouldn't have signed up for that program.

People who are bored are basically boring people. It's true, if you think about it. They want others to entertain them when, in fact, they should be entertaining themselves. These are precisely the people who would benefit from a hobby like knitting. There's no way you can be bored if you're a knitter. There are just too many yarns and too many patterns to maintain your interest, eh?

Anyway, this book is not great literature. But, it's a good and easy read, despite the broken-home theme, which I do so dislike.



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