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

Enjoyable book

I liked listening to this book. I found the narrators voice nice to hear and added to my interest in listening. She uses voices for the characters and I found it to be a plus, whereas as with some other audiobooks I’ve found it annoying. There’s a lot of detail and musings and I liked the story.

Great Book Terrible Narrator

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Only if they were going to read it, not listen to it.

What didn’t you like about Jen Tullock’s performance?

She just "read" the book. Very flat voice but what I found most distasteful was the speed she read at. It was as though she couldn't wait to finish!

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

yes

Any additional comments?

Great story following a group of friends through the years from teenagers to their fifties.

I was entranced from start to finish.

What did you love best about The Interestings?

How well the aging of the characters was portrayed believably.

What other book might you compare The Interestings to and why?

A Happy Marriage, except there are many more characters in this book than there were in Rafael Yglesias' book.

Have you listened to any of Jen Tullock’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. Her voice was resonant and pertinent.

If you could rename The Interestings, what would you call it?

Camp, deconstructed.

Any additional comments?

This was a long book that took me through our trip to France & The Hamptons. It's versatile and easy to appreciate & enjoy in a casual, summer way.

great narrator

What about Jen Tullock’s performance did you like?

She had a great range of voices for the characters, which made everyone very easy to identify during the story.

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

Ethan and Jules were the most fully-drawn, and Ethan was probably my favorite.

Great narration, enjoyable

Really some of the best narration I've heard. Good writing but wraps up a bit quickly at the end losing some opportunity to develop character and relationships.

Loved it!

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

I have recommended it to several friends. I enjoyed the character development, the plot twists and the setting. I actually was saving the 2nd half for a return 10 hour drive in the car, but couldn't wait til the end of our vacation to finish it. Had to get a different book by the time we headed home!

The evolution of friendships

I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this when I started and I really wasn't sure what it was going to be about. It turned out to be an in-depth and relatable examination of how childhood friendships grow and change throughout life. Though I have almost nothing in common with characters as they are described in the beginning (children at a camp for the arts in the 1970's) their issues and struggles became relatable throughout the telling of the story. I like the writer's style as well as the performance of the audiobook.

Loved this story.

Loved this!!!
Great characters, beautiful story. Good performance. He characters were very realistic and very interesting!

wonderful character development

Nostalgic., beautifully written covering a range of topics. I grew up at camp and am the age of the characters in the book. I too live a life in the arts and believe that the period, people and passions were deeply and beautifully reslized. will read more by wurlitzer and soon.

Absolute Perfection

I love this audiobook so much! I re-listen to it at least once a year. Jen Tullock’s narration is exquisite. Each character has a unique voice and her performance breathes life into the dialogue so that you feel like you are there, present in each scene. The writing is so wonderful, so clear. I feel like I know these characters, with all of their flaws and through all of their ups and downs. The story spans many decades and covers such timely and universal themes as friendship, talent, wealth and privilege and how they influence a life. Every time I listen to this book I get something new out of it.