The Interestings--by Meg Wolitzer


The Interestings as a book title is like naming your child Perfect--you're really asking for it. The book starts out promising richness and depth with an artsy summer camp for teenagers where disparate characters from different social strata become initiated to puberty in 70s-style liberalism.

The central narrative is appropriately placed on the least talented and welloff Jules. Through her reflections and interactions with the other "interestings" we quickly grasp what drives each character.

A third of the way through the story a cathartic event that affects the lives of a few interestings occurs. Immediately after this, the story loses any little pull it had on me. The rest of the story crawls along with trying meditations on friendship, envy, class struggle, entitlements of the upper crust, and the usual cycle of betrayals, secrets, alliances, and faith in relationships.

While the scope of the novel spans several decades, the political and cultural milestones barely get a passing glance. Watergate, AIDS, Carter, Reagan, and 911 are all given newsreel highlights coverage without any indelible effect.

The narrative is keen on an HBO series style mix of drama and humor but lacks the deft touch in both. Unusual emphasis is placed on how ugly or attractive a character looks. A sizable portion of the narrative is spent on Jules' jealousy over her best friend. These passages drain the little goodwill that Jules had built until then.

So why spend all this effort on an unflattering review? I try to keep up with the best rated books every year and this novel garnered some high praise from the literary circle. I haven't been this disappointed reading a critic's darling since Jonathan Franzen's, "Freedom".

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