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 Interestingsexplores 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.
After finishing this book the thing that struck me the most, was how normal it was. For me, it was a nice novel about a group of friends growing up, learning about themselves and each facing struggles along the way. It just felt real, it didn't sugar coat things and promise that everything will magically turn out in the end (like some novels do to make everything wrap up nicely at the finish).
The characters were flawed and damaged, and very well written.
Nostalgia was a common theme throughout the story and at times it could get a little melancholy, but it is a good reminder to appreciate your history but keep looking forward.
There were ups and downs in the plot, but they weren't over dramatised. Having said that if you like dramatic novels then you might find parts of this a little mundane.
