Desperate housewives
Heleen van Royen is a Dutch author who is well known for her liberal views on marriage, relationships and men. Her latest book, “the escape” is about a woman who is fed up with her life and leaves her children and husband behind to cope with the ghosts of her past.
A key theme in the book is a woman feeling like a desperate housewife. The setting seems highly familiar: a well educated women, living in modern suburbia together with her husband in a loveless, passionless marriage with their 2.1 kids and a dog. Boredom, anger and frustration drive these women to drugs, alcohol and other mind-suiting substances. They resolve to leaving their families, having affairs or even committing suicide.
How did this become a key theme for an entire generation? Books, television shows and talk shows all deal with this same question: how can these women become happy with their lives again?
During lunch I had a discussion with my boss and collegeaus. We seem to have it all in our society. If you seem the number of people on Prozac, you will be shocked. Debts are rising, because people want what they cannot afford. Overall, we seem to be very frustrated people.
How is this possible that people who barely have enough food to keep themselves alive every day are more happy with their lives than us? Is materialism such a powerful concept? Or do we simply have too much time on our hands, since survival of our children is a given not a question?
When visiting my hometown I sometimes recognize the early stages of these patterns. A girl that I have known since she was 12, lives 4 block away from her parent’s house. She is in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend whom I happen to know well. Over a glass of beer, I asked him where his girlfriend was. With fear in his eyes, he responded: “why did you see her here”? The girlfriend is one of those people whom I have never seen genuinely happy. She has been depressed since puberty; she has anger tantrums and screams at her boyfriend. Her hobby is gossiping about bad things other people do. In her effort judging others, she cannot see how unhappy she herself is.
A passage in the book states:
“life is like a shadow passing over the grass before disappearing in the night.”
Be happy with your life, life sucks and life is great.
A key theme in the book is a woman feeling like a desperate housewife. The setting seems highly familiar: a well educated women, living in modern suburbia together with her husband in a loveless, passionless marriage with their 2.1 kids and a dog. Boredom, anger and frustration drive these women to drugs, alcohol and other mind-suiting substances. They resolve to leaving their families, having affairs or even committing suicide.
How did this become a key theme for an entire generation? Books, television shows and talk shows all deal with this same question: how can these women become happy with their lives again?
During lunch I had a discussion with my boss and collegeaus. We seem to have it all in our society. If you seem the number of people on Prozac, you will be shocked. Debts are rising, because people want what they cannot afford. Overall, we seem to be very frustrated people.
How is this possible that people who barely have enough food to keep themselves alive every day are more happy with their lives than us? Is materialism such a powerful concept? Or do we simply have too much time on our hands, since survival of our children is a given not a question?
When visiting my hometown I sometimes recognize the early stages of these patterns. A girl that I have known since she was 12, lives 4 block away from her parent’s house. She is in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend whom I happen to know well. Over a glass of beer, I asked him where his girlfriend was. With fear in his eyes, he responded: “why did you see her here”? The girlfriend is one of those people whom I have never seen genuinely happy. She has been depressed since puberty; she has anger tantrums and screams at her boyfriend. Her hobby is gossiping about bad things other people do. In her effort judging others, she cannot see how unhappy she herself is.
A passage in the book states:
“life is like a shadow passing over the grass before disappearing in the night.”
Be happy with your life, life sucks and life is great.
posted by Floor @ 11:14 AM
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