The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer

The Interestings

ByMeg Wolitzer

  • Release Date: 2013-04-09
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature
Score: 4
4
From 1,217 Ratings

Description

“Remarkable . . . With this book [Wolitzer] has surpassed herself.”—The New York Times Book Review "A victory . . . The Interestings secures Wolitzer's place among the best novelists of her generation. . . . She's every bit as literary as Franzen or Eugenides. But the very human moments in her work hit you harder than the big ideas. This isn't women's fiction. It's everyone's."—Entertainment Weekly (A) From New York Times–bestselling author Meg Wolitzer comes a new novel that has been called "genius" (The Chicago Tribune), “wonderful” (Vanity Fair), "ambitious" (San Francisco Chronicle), and a “page-turner” (Cosmopolitan), which The New York Times Book Review says is "among the ranks of books like Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom and Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot." The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge. The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken. Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing...

Reviews

  • Brilliant characterizations

    5
    By wideread
    Excellent writing, very engaging.
  • Complete

    5
    By 4488662
    Finally a story that felt visceral, real and in a way an American story. It touched me as if I knew the characters as they were both generic yet unique, as we all are.
  • Interesting

    5
    By Joseaadc
    I loved it! The reading isn't easy sometimes, but it's worth it.

    I recommend it!
  • The Interestings

    5
    By Tara A. H.
    Excellent, warm, and funny.
  • UNinteresting

    2
    By SirMontyDad
    The book started off ok but by about half way I began to realize I was totally uninterested in the story and characters. I had kept reading for a while thinking that it would get better/interesting but it didn't and I decided I would rather not waste any more of my time reading it. There are so many better books in the world to read. Why waste any more of my time on this one?
  • Not very interesting

    2
    By KristaMurphy
    I don't know why this novel received critical acclaim. The characters are unlikeable and frankly not as interesting as they, or the author, seem to think they are. It's like being stuck at a dinner party with a bunch of conceited people who drone on and on about themselves. A good beginning, and a few good subplots, but the ending was bad and overall the book is unsatisfying.
  • Most satisfying novel I have read in years

    5
    By ufytsn
    I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While I was never a camp kid, I felt very drawn in by each character's story. I was curiously grateful for the honesty on which situations were experienced, resolved, unresolved, expressed, etc. The frankness of the writing ensnared my attention and affected me which I think is quite an accomplishment.
  • The Interesting's

    5
    By Danny9.0
    YOU HAVE TO READ THIS!
    This is such a RARE TREAT of human beauty in ALL of its forms. This is one of the best written and told stories I have read in such a long time. I laughed, cried, related to, and found myself utterly immersed.
    ENJOY!!!!!
  • Generous and true

    5
    By Emy07030
    I never write positive reviews for books because they always leave me in some state of disappointment. This is stunning portrait of what it means to love: is selfish, is unkind and basically what you make of it. What I can say about it is this: I am changed after reading it.
  • Mostly wonderful

    4
    By Jbrahms
    I really liked the characters, especially Jules and Ethan. The ending and the final section, though, seem contrived somewhat, hence the less-than-stellar ranking. But on the plus side, this was a captivating read for most of the book, and the writing was terrific. All in all I'm very glad I read it, and overall thoroughly enjoyed it.

About "The Interestings"

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