Book #9: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

I feel like I have seen a LOT about this book, lots of reviews and people talking about, enough that I decided that I really had to just get around to reading it. The cover is so distinctive that you recognize it when you see it, which is probably why I think I've seen so much about it. Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was interesting reading it so soon after Crossing to Safety because it's about kind of the same topic--how friendships last and change over decades. The Interestings throws in the aspect of one set of friends becoming really, amazingly successful and wealthy and famous while the rest just stay as normal, struggling financially people. The group of friends meets at an arts camp while they are in high school, and they all believe that their life calling is in the arts and in making art--and they ironically name themselves "The Interestings." But only two of them (who marry each other) actually make anything of themselves in the arts world, while the rest have to put aside their dreams and make money to survive in the real world. Jules, the main character, becomes a therapist, and is eaten with envy while watching these friends (who she loves) being feted and making tons of money while doing what they'd dreamed they would do. It makes you want to shake her, to say, "You have a good life!" but when she constantly compares it to what they are doing, she feels inadequate. But you also get into the heads of several of the other Interestings and you get to see what's really going on for everyone and how they really feel about their lives and what secrets they're keeping and who they're telling them to. So it's all in all a very interesting book, and it seems so real and all the characters seem so human and flawed and striving in some ways (except Ash--she kind of seems fake and I never really quite got her). I especially liked how it seemed so ambitious for Wolitzer to try to cover four decades worth of time in American history and in her characters' lives, but it really worked well for me. The characters stayed the same over the years but they also grew up and changed a lot too.

I really enjoyed Wolitzer's style. She gave you great insights into the minds of her characters and I loved how she interspersed flashbacks into the current action. It seemed like they were all seamlessly integrated into the full story, with very smooth transitions back to the action instead of making there be a jump or a chapter break or something, and I really liked that part of her writing. I also liked how there was a kind of layered reveal of the secrets and things that happened over the years--you might find out something bad had happened here but weren't sure what for a few chapters, etc. All in all I really enjoyed this book and even though it was 450+ pages, I sped through it in a couple of days without even noticing how fast I was going because I was so absorbed in it.