The Forbidden Notebook

A woman buys a notebook and secretly begins to keep a journal of her life. Her children are grown and in college, but the time is Italy in the 1960s and the woman still is responsible for all of the day-to-day household tasks. She also holds a full-time job outside the home. As she writes, the woman begins to realize truths about her family and her life and herself.

Recommended. This is a story of a middle-aged woman who is starting to want to live out some of her dreams for the first time...a story I do not often hear.

The gradual awakening of a housewife and mother in a very patriarchal mindset of 1940s Italy triggered through the reflective act of writing a diary. Her husband calls her ‘mamma', her son affectionally receives all the favors he asks for, while her daughter despairs her with her modern attitudes. Their small apartment has no space she can call her own, only in her diary she finds a refuge for her thoughts, as she slowly starts to question her role in her values and her relationships. Working in an office to contribute to the slim household income, she takes pleasure in feeling appreciated for her contributions. That, and her children starting adult lives of their own, contribute to her burgeoning desire for a self that's more than just wife and mother.

I'd say this book is a perfect execution. It shows how small transformative steps are, and how there's a constant push and pull between the old and the new, her internalized misogyny and her new sense of independence. Which is especially present in the way she treats her own children and their love stories.

Wonderful audiobook narration.