There's no other way to begin this, except to say that The
Undomestic Goddess was thoroughly entertaining. Sophie Kinsella has
given us another character to love. Unlike the outrageous Becky
Bloomwood, we have the indomitable Samantha Sweeting. Samantha is
very responsible and career focused. Shopping is likely the last
thing on this young woman's mind. What happens to her is not her
fault. She copes with the situation as best she can. Though she has
a mini-breakdown, becoming The Undomestic Goddess is the best thing
for her.
At first, one might get the impression that Sophie Kinsella (aka
Madeleine Wickham) is advocating the domestic side of women versus
the career driven. As funny and wonderfully entertaining as this
novel is, at the heart of it, I think, is the search for balance.
There are men and women both, who become obsessed by career.
Samantha was only 29 and she was obsessed by work. She's never had
a real relationship and hadn't been on a vacation in seven years.
As Iris, the wise matron said, you only get your youth once. Do you
really want to waste it in office buildings? Do you want to be the
sort of person who doesn't even bother to look out the window?
I think career is important. You need goals and a way to support
yourself. Yet, you need to make sure that it's something that's
going to make you happy in the long term. Fine, you want to be a
lawyer, be "a full equity partner," but you need to be sure that in
this lies your happiness and future. Samantha never thought beyond
making partner. She never though beyond work. In the end, she
discovered that she wanted to look out windows and have weekends
off. She wanted balance.