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The Interestings Signed Edition

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The Interestings Signed Edition Cover

ISBN13: 9781594488399
ISBN10: 1594488398
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From bestselling author Meg Wolitzer a dazzling, panoramic novel about what becomes of early talent, and the roles that art, money, and even envy can play in close friendships.

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 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.

Review:

"Wolitzer follows a group of friends from adolescence at an artsy summer camp in 1974 through adulthood and into late-middle age as their lives alternately intersect, diverge and reconnect....Ambitious and involving, capturing the zeitgeist of the liberal intelligentsia of the era." Kirkus (Starred Review)

Review:

"Like Virginia Woolf in The Waves, Meg Wolitzer gives us the full picture here, charting her characters' lives from the self-dramatizing of adolescence, through the resignation of middle age, to the attainment of a wisdom that holds all the intensities of life in a single, sustained chord, much like this book itself. The wit, intelligence, and deep feeling of Wolitzer's writing are extraordinary and The Interestings brings her achievement, already so steadfast and remarkable, to an even higher level." Jeffrey Eugenides

About the Author

Meg Wolitzer's previous novels include The Wife, The Position, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Uncoupling. She lives in New York City.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:

zac, April 30, 2013 (view all comments by zac)
I just finished the galley of this book and if I could give it 100 stars, I would. I tell people it reminds me a little of The Corrections meets The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay but, truthfully, it's better than both. The story begins with six friends who meet at a summer camp for the arts in the mid-seventies and follows them throughout most of their lives. It touches on pretty much every important issue of the decades it covers-from drugs and the folk revolution to the AIDS crisis to 9/11 to the political landscapes of our times....all without feeling contrived or info-dumping. You care about these characters, and you're frustrated by them, and you pity them and root for them. It's seriously an astonishing book. Worth everyone of the many minutes it'll take you to read it. (Because, yes, it's long. And I was happy that it was!)
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
zac, April 30, 2013 (view all comments by zac)
I just finished the galley of this book and if I could give it 100 stars, I would. I tell people it reminds me a little of The Corrections meets The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay but, truthfully, it's better than both. The story begins with six friends who meet at a summer camp for the arts in the mid-seventies and follows them throughout most of their lives. It touches on pretty much every important issue of the decades it covers-from drugs and the folk revolution to the AIDS crisis to 9/11 to the political landscapes of our times....all without feeling contrived or info-dumping. You care about these characters, and you're frustrated by them, and you pity them and root for them. It's seriously an astonishing book. Worth everyone of the many minutes it'll take you to read it. (Because, yes, it's long. And I was happy that it was!)
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
brookbrook, April 17, 2013 (view all comments by brookbrook)
While reading this book I kept asking myself whether we really do change from adolescence, or whether there are characterological traits informing who we are and ultimately creating the circumstances that shape us; traits defining us throughout our entire lives. I'm not sure that is a question Meg Wolitzer was asking herself; regardless, The Interestings had me hooked from page one. It swept me away!

To me this book speaks brilliantly about the intersection and meaning of family and friendship. It is a coming of age story; a story about class, values, gender and sexual politics, and NYC itself. And it felt much smaller than this, too. A story where characters grow and as a reader i am given insights to their minds and motivations in a truly thoughtful and psychologically engaging way.

I also need to mention that it screams to me "i am better than jonathan franzen, i am better than the Corrections!" in that same way Jennifer Egan did with a Visit from the Goon Squad, and i can't help thinking about gender and "success" of the american (or NY, rather) novelist. Funny thing is, this thinking feels like it would come from a character in Wolitzers novel, leading me to feel like i am stuck in her narrative. I suppose there are far worse places I could be.

Point being, I want recognition for Meg Wolitzer and The Interestings, in a prestigious book award kind of way.

The Interestings is as timeless as it is uniquely written. The characters will stay with me for a long time to come, and I thank Meg Wolitzer for writing such an unbelievably beautiful book.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781594488399
Author:
Wolitzer, Meg
Publisher:
Riverhead Hardcover
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Literature-Contemporary Women
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Hardback
Publication Date:
20130409
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Pages:
480
Dimensions:
9 x 6 in 1 lb
Age Level:
from 18

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The Interestings Signed Edition New Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$27.95 In Stock
Product details 480 pages Riverhead Hardcover - English 9781594488399 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Wolitzer follows a group of friends from adolescence at an artsy summer camp in 1974 through adulthood and into late-middle age as their lives alternately intersect, diverge and reconnect....Ambitious and involving, capturing the zeitgeist of the liberal intelligentsia of the era."
"Review" by , "Like Virginia Woolf in The Waves, Meg Wolitzer gives us the full picture here, charting her characters' lives from the self-dramatizing of adolescence, through the resignation of middle age, to the attainment of a wisdom that holds all the intensities of life in a single, sustained chord, much like this book itself. The wit, intelligence, and deep feeling of Wolitzer's writing are extraordinary and The Interestings brings her achievement, already so steadfast and remarkable, to an even higher level."
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