THE UNCOUPLING: MEG WOLITZER

I heard Wolitzer being interviewed on NPR a couple of weeks ago, saw this book on the new E book list, thought it was the book being talked about, took it out, started reading it and when I finished, I realized it was the wrong book, that the book being discussed was her newest novel, THE INTERESTINGS.  I have to admit I did not much like this book, though it's premise was intriguing, like something out of the Greek Aristophanes play, LYSISTRATA.  It's set in a small New Jersey town, the main protagonists are Dory and Robby, both English teachers in the local high school and their daughter Willa.  The major action revolves around an explained spell, a cool breeze, that infects the town's women, turning them away from their men, from sex.  Unlike the Lysistrata, where the women consciously withhold sex until the men stop war, the women in this town are puzzled by their loss of Eros.  Coincidentally, the local high school just happens to be putting on the Greek play, LYSISTRATA, directed by the new drama teacher, Fran Heller.  As the town's women, of all ages, turn away from their men, the males react in various ways, from anger, to indifference, to infidelity.  It reaches a climax, no pun intended, when in the midst of the performance of the school play, the local males charge up on stage, making clear their unhappiness with the situation, feeling that they have been demonized.  This seems to be just what's been needed, as a breeze enters the theater, the women begin to walk up on stage, and all the adults start making out, to the amazement of the kids.  A ridiculous deus ex machina, no doubt, but it led to the ending of the book, thankfully.  We learn towards the end that the drama teacher has orchestrated this sort of metamorphosis in a number of other towns like a wandering gadfly, shocking the towns out of their dull, monotonous, indifference towards each other, helping them to recapture what they felt when first courting.  The novel had some interesting possibilities but they were destroyed by the silly scene during the performance of the LYSISTRATA.  Let's hope THE INTERESTINGS is more interesting, pun intended.