IMPORTANT – This could be the end of my relationship

[Gutkin]

There was a book I don’t know the name or author. It was either based in Canada or written by a Canadian but it was about a woman that left her perfect family to become a waitress and for the first time in her life she was doing what she wanted to do. She didn’t literally leave them to become a waitress I think she wanted to travel but the point was that she was happier with this simple life then living the perfect life with a husband that adores her and kids that love her.
This is extremely important to me if anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it this book would save my relationship.

[JBI]

That motif is common in second-wave feminist literature. I'de need to get a little bit more specific, since there are really countless working woman novels, as they are called.

The only particularly famous one of these was "The Diviners", but that has somewhat different details than the one you provided. I would need a little more help if I were to find it. The motif has been done to death, from Ibsen to today.

[Virgil]

Yeah sounds like Kate Chopin's The Awakenng, though that's set in Louisiana I think, not Canada. JB, you make a distinction of different waves of feminism. What years would you approximate for the various waves?

[JBI]

This one comes out of the late sixties and ends early to mid 80s. It is marked by the beginning of women entering the workforce is large numbers.

Generally in these books, women end up making a choice between family and career, between sex or career even. They can go either way - some end with the woman giving up her career for a family, others giving up the family.

That's rather rough though - many good novels were written about the subject, particularly in Canada, the Diviners. I am just at a loss, because this motif is even common in 19th century Canadian literature, though in a different context. Also, for all I know this is some text by an American appropriating the Canadian setting.

[Gracewings]

This is not the Canadian book that you were asking about but seems like a very similar story of a woman who literally walks away from it all: Ladder of Years (http://books.google.com/books?id=bPxpcQ-1UUIC&dq=inauthor:Anne+inauthor:Tyler&lr=&pgis=1) by Anne Tyler This link gives more feedback: Ladder of Years/Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202948.Ladder_of_Years)