The Interestings

A Novel

By: Meg Wolitzer

Narrated by: Jen Tullock

Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

“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 New York Times best-selling novel by Meg Wolitzer that has been called "genius" (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 15 is not always enough to propel someone through life at age 30; 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 New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.

©2013 Megan Wolitzer (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Disappointing

Where does The Interestings rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Ultimately, this audiobook lands at the bottom of my total library audiobooks in terms of overall enjoyment. Although it started out sounding like it would be an interesting story by about halfway through it started to feel like it was too long and I found myself wishing it would end.. The narration became tiresome, despite the speed of the narrator's reading. She read it so fast that it took a few minutes for me to adjust to it but within a short while I no longer had any problem following the story,

Who was your favorite character and why?

The protagonist who is the main focus was an interesting enough character but rather predictable. Initially it was easy to relate to much of the friends and their subsequent lives from the summer they all met. As a teenager from the metropolitan New York City area myself, there were many references made that brought back memories from my own life.But after a while, there was simply too much predictable elements to the story and it became boring.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narrator sounded very rushed as if she could not read the words fast enough. But I quickly got accustomed to the fast pace although it was initially irritating. The irony is that by about halfway through the audiobook, I was wishing it would go faster! The narrator was still reading at the same speed, but the story was making it seem drawn out.

Any additional comments?

Perhaps the problem for me with this particular book is me and my personal opinion of this novel. Most people seem to have really enjoyed it but I just could not keep interested in the story or the development of the individual characters. I got impatient with it and simply lost interest. I do not want to give others who may read this review the idea that this was all that bad an audiobook. But frankly, the vast majority of the many audiobooks I have listened to in the last few months were on average, very enjoyable and quite a few have been outstanding. As my mother used to say "There's no accounting for taste". This book was not to my liking: "one man's meat is another man's poison" EB White said, I believe. It just was not for me.

A little talent may be an awful, plaguing thing.

My mother used to tell me that a little knowledge was a dangerous thing, and it seems as if a little talent may also be dangerous. The epigram by Mary Robison that Meg Wolitzer chose for The Interestings sums up the book perfectly, “That to own only a little talent … was an awful, plaguing thing; that being only a little special meant you expected too much, most of the time, and liked yourself too little." The Interestings explores the relationships and differentiation between talent and success, jealousy and envy, friendship and love, happiness and self-acceptance, and how luck, money (or the lack of it), and biology figure into our lives.

Six teenagers meet at a summer camp for the arts in 1974, where they can showcase and develop the talents (animation, acting, dance, and music) that make them special. In the self-centered way of teenagers, the group dubs themselves “The Interestings”, and this novel follows their paths for the next forty years. Much of the narration comes from Julie/Jules Jacobson, an aspiring actress, who attends the camp on scholarship and is self-consciously amazed at being included in the group of wealthier, cooler kids, even into adulthood. The lives of cartoonist Ethan Figman, theatrical Ash Wolf and her brother Goodman, musician Jonah Bay, and dancer Cathy Kiplinger intersect, head in different directions, and reconnect. Their secrets are explored and divulged. Jules marries an absolutely ordinary sonogram technician, Dennis, who provides some exceptional wisdom, despite or because of his ordinariness.

One of the best things about this novel is that Wolitzer writes her characters as human beings. Characters with genius, talent, and persistence are not completely perfect and completely ordinary characters have some moments of brilliance. I also love how she gives us insight into her characters’ intriguing thoughts, especially Ethan’s.

"Ash Wolf actually desired him. It seemed so unlikely, but then again, so did many things in life. Lying against her that first time, he started making a list:
1. The existence of peacocks.
2. The fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney just happened to meet each other as teenagers.
3. Halley ’s Comet.
4. Walt Disney's unbearably gorgeous Snow White.”

Because the novel has a large scope, there are many cultural details and references. The characters discuss sexist attitudes about rape, child labor, the Moonies, and TED-like conferences. Politics, HIV/AIDS, restaurants, finance, and September 11 are mentioned, but some of these seem to be gratuitous ways to mark the passing of time. Forty years and six main characters plus peripherals is a long time and a lot of people, and sometimes the plot becomes a little thin. Wolitzer writes all this non-chronologically, which I’m still a bit ambivalent about. Overall, this novel of how we all have to realign our expectations as time marches on is a worthwhile and dare I say, interesting read.

Way overhyped

Any additional comments?

Here was my experience of The Interestings.

1. I google "best books of 2013"

2. I click the Barnes and Noble link, and then click on something called "The Interestings"

3. I read "She's every bit as literary as Franzen or Eugenides" - ooh! that's me completely sold!

4. Initial excitement wanes quickly. I'm thinking "This is as literary as Bridget Jones' Diary" and then I just get more and more annoyed with the book and the characters. It reads more to me like an average Young Adult novel featuring teenagers who are smug enough and annoying enough to call themselves "The Interestings" (even if tongue-in-cheek).

5. Maybe a third of the way and finally start to get over the fact that Meg Wolitzer is not in the same league as Franzen or Euginedes by a long shot. I try not to let expectation be the sole destroyer of this book. I try to appreciate it on it's own terms but I'm still annoyed with a few things. Even if the way-overhyped quotes in best-of-the-year lists don't ruin it by high expectation alone, the title doesn't do it any favours either. They're not that interesting! And someone needs to tell Wolitzer about "show don't tell". She keeps *telling* us how funny Jules is yet she never made me laugh once.

I think the cruel truth here is that Wolitzer is a lot less interesting and funny than she thinks she is, which is just another bullet this book shoots itself in the foot with.

Despite all of the above, I didn't hate it - I enjoyed a lot of it but if it had a different title, and I stumbled across it in less magnanimous context, I might have enjoyed it a hell of a lot more.

The thirty something or boomers

This book made me miserable, BUT true to contemporary literary offerings, it gives alot to consider about the lives and times of these baby boomers. In the end, I'm glad I read it and glad Meg branched out and wrote it.

Here is the unlikely premise, which allows us to explore the thoughts and actions of this generation: Sad and ordinary girl meets the "it" brother and sister at summer artistic camp and is invited into their click of friends. One of them will eventually become the Bill Gates of a Hollywood Cartoon Empire, one will be accused of a crime, one will almost always do the right thing and end up marrying well but will have other sorrows, one will face being gay and get over a childhood trauma, and another will remain the source of comfort in her bitter ordinariness. But they will remain friends throughout the twists and turns of life.

Very entertaining

This was a great book. I don't know why it got so many reviews about being boring or predictable. I loved the characters and found the story to be quite entertaining.

The Interestings are Kinda

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Maybe, maybe not. The Interestings has the potential for some great character development but sorta disappoints with predictability.

Any additional comments?

With 60s being such a deep field of events, The Interestings could have opened up a little more to the pop culture relative to the characters lives. They seemed a little claustrophobic in their involvements...But hey, you don't see me writing any novels so I give kuods to all authors. And I did listen to the entire book to see what would happen. That is always a gold star for a writer.

Thoughtful

Lifelong friendships movingly depicted. Interest in the interestings never lags as the characters grow from adolescence into adulthood.

Fun book, not a great performance

While I enjoyed the book a lot and some of Wolitzer's observations about the 7o's, art, creativity, modern life--I found the reading to be excruciating at times. Nothing takes you out of an audiobook more than a mispronounced word (there are several); the transitions between chapters and sections are much too abrupt. Really not a pleasant listening experience. I don't fault the reader, who was basically find, but the production team on this one.

Great story. Not a fan of the narrator

Would you listen to The Interestings again? Why?

This novel is riveting. Love the plot that weaves back and forth through the decades and chronicles friendships that ensure over time. The pace of the narration is off, though, and is not emotive enough to match the plot.

What did you like best about this story?

Plot draws you in. Well written. Great character development.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Jen Tullock?

no

WONDERFUL

If you could sum up The Interestings in three words, what would they be?

Bildungsroman, relatable, nostalgia

What did you like best about this story?

I liked so many things about this story. But mostly I loved the way that the group was followed from idealistic teenage-dom into the first challenges of adulthood into meandering middle age. It was so relatable. We all think we're fantastically interesting until life kicks us around for a while and we realize we are just people who need each other.

Who was the most memorable character of The Interestings and why?

Ethan and Julz were by far my favorite. I loved their deep connection that went into a territory beyond romance. They were people who experienced life, but questioned it too.

Any additional comments?

I thought the narrator did an excellent job! The voices of each of the characters was so distinct and wonderful. i'm sure a movie will be made of this book, but I kind of hate to erase the characters created by the writer and narrator in tandem.