THE INTERESTINGS: MEG WOLITZER

This is the second book by Meg Wolitzer that I have read and the best by far.  It's gotten quite a bit of publicity the last few months, well deserved I might add.  The novels main focus in the beginning is sixteen year old Jules Jacobson.  Unhappy with life in her small town, she talks her mother in to sending her to an exclusive summer art camp called Spirit-in-the-Woods, with a cast of campers quite different from her New York suburb.  There she teams up with four other campers, Ash and Goodman,  two beautiful and wealthy New Yorkers, Ethan Figman, a fledgling genius, and Jonah, son of a famous folk singer, damaged and gay.  The five of them make up a group of 'special' campers, nicknamed themselves 'the interestings.' And so the novel begins, with their summer of introduction to each other, their attempts at some art form, Jules takes up acting, Ethan draws cartoons, and Ash also acts.  Jules never quite figures out why she's included in this group, what there is that they find special about her but she accepts it.  Eventually, she and Ash become 'bosom friends', their friendship lasting all their lives.  Little exciting happens over the the summer, though Ethan, talented but unattractive, falls for Jules who turns him down.

The bulk of the novel then follow their friendships, through high school, college, and eventually their careers and marriages.  Through it all, the bond they started at the camp continues to hold them together, especially Jules, Ash and Ethan.  Ethan ends up becoming famous as a creator of a popular TV series, much like The Simpson's I suppose and he marries Ash, to Jules surprise.  Ethan and Ash's life takes off, and they become fabulously wealthy from Ethan's TV series, with houses all over the world, vacations taken to exotic places.  In contrast to them, Jules struggles with her life, realizes she is not an actress, finally, and becomes a therapist, listening to other people's problems most of the day.  She falls for Dennis, a sturdy, broad shouldered ultrasound technician, who plays football with his buddies on weekends.  We them struggle, with Dennis's depression and Jules disappointment with her work, her life, and her marriage.  To her, it all seems so humdrum, so different in contrast to the Figman's wonderful life.  But to the Figman's credit, they stay friends with Jules and Dennis, help them buy an apartment and take them with them on these exotic vacations.  Things change somewhat when Jules second child is diagnosed with autism, a blow to both Ash and Ethan.

Both couples continue on, till Ethan is diagnosed with cancer, which brings them all together, making them forget their troubles, their middle class lives.  Both couples are in their fifties when Ethan is diagnosed, and he dies a year later.  Dennis sums up what Jules finally understands towards the end of the the book: “Specialness — everyone wants it,” he tells her in frustration, fed up with her invidious comparisons to her childhood pals. “Most people aren’t talented. So what are they supposed to do — kill themselves?”  Jules finally decides to live with herself, with her sturdy but unspectacular husband, and their seemingly uninteresting lives.  In other words, they are like the rest of us, not special or interesting.  All of us can identify with Jules; we have all been envious of others lives, wished we were someone else, better at some things.  With Jules, however, this envy lasts into her fifties.  For the rest of us, we gave up on our 'specialness' much sooner, for better or worst, I don't know which.