Sorry, cookie, I haven't read this book. Can you outline the 'story' please?

The first section of the book outlines six teenagers who meet at a summer camp for the arts. We get to know them and how they become close friends and begin life-long relationships with each other. This portion of the book goes slowly as a long set-up to what comes later. Everything starts to change with a serious, possibly criminal incident created by one, but affecting all, as they begin adulthood and their relationships become more complex. And love, marriage, careers, failures, successes, etc., continue to develop the relationships of these six. And, of course, not all ends well. The story is interesting, the characters mostly well-developed. I will say that some of the story suggests soul-searching and looking back at how our own relationships develop and transition, how much friendship plays roles in our lives. I liked the book but others really disliked it - big time!

So I outline the story. No responses. That's okay. I guess my question about rethinking opinions didn't spark anyone's feelings. Now I know why I just peek in here now and then. It sort of reminds me of adolescent times...you have to be IN the IN crowd. I won't trespass again.

Oh, cookie, you aren't trespassing! I, for one, very much appreciate you taking the time to start this thread and outlining the story of The Interestings. I should have said so in a post instead of just thinking it, though.

Unfortunately, I haven't read Wollitzer's book, but perhaps I will now that you've put it on my radar. I am very slow about keeping up with recently published books and authors new to me.

I have certainly rethought my opinion of lots of books, sometimes drastically. And there have been many times that I have been baffled when I really like a book but hardly anyone else seems to or I'm indifferent, or worse, to a book that many readers praise to the rafters. It's a conundrum! And one worthy of discussion, so please give us another chance, cookie. RPers drift in and out all the time and a thread may not get many responses immediately but can catch fire later, especially in the summertime.

cookie, as Frieda says RP moves very slowly and sometimes it takes days for people to get back in touch.
So I thank you, belatedly, for outlining the 'plot' of the book. My first thought was that it was similar to a younger aged Group by Mary McCarthy, if you remember that from the '60's.
As I live in England I have no experience of Summer Camps and the goings-on therein, but looked up the book on Amazon uk where the readers gave mixed revues as you mentioned, mostly that it was overlong, but most seemed to have found themselves enjoying it.
Please don't give up on RP. If you see signs of what appear to be an IN crowd it is because at the moment there are so few regulars; many folk just pop in from time-to-time.

It has been my experience in RP that IF someone has an opinion about a topic they'll chime in.
Otherwise, they won't.
Has nothing to do with the poster.

Like all public forums, it's topic-driven.

I have The Interestings somewhere in the TBR pile ... I haven't read it yet, so can't really add anything much.

As far as changing my opinion about books ... I have recently gotten to the point where I can grudgingly admire the writing or the structure of a story I otherwise loathed, but I've rarely changed my mind about books I've read. I'm either a stick-in-the-mud or maybe I just don't do enough re-reading. I've changed my mind about characters in books (e.g., Miss Jean Brodie -- adored that character when I read the book in high school, thought she was a truly horrible person when I re-read as an adult), but rarely about the book itself.

Cookie, as others have said, sometimes we just hit a bit of a lull here. It gets especially slow in the summer. I don't check in daily, and sometimes I just don't have time to craft much of a response when I do. Hope you'll be back.

Here are some salient reviews of The Interestings:

"The Interestings", a go even though I'd been disappointed by her last novel. I'm glad I listened to them! "The Interestings" is indeed interesting - AND well written, thoughtful and both witty and touching.

I can make the case that "The Interestings" can be considered a historical novel of the past 4 decades; I call that "recent" history because I can remember it! Reading about the 1980s for example, brought back memories of:

- the first cases of AIDS and how bewildering that was
- the first cordless phones
- mugger-full and dirty NYC
- the first soapy taste of the now ubiquitous herb cilantro
- the Moonies
- "Women's Lib" being the term to describe feminism

This novel is full of such memories because it's about six friends who meet in a summer camp for artistic kids in the 70s and it follows their lives into the present, touching on each decade as they make their way to adulthood. The novel moves quickly and is never boring or slow as many things happen to each of these people as they face their lives. It felt voyeuristic - in a good way - to follow their ups and downs. I could relate because I also "grew up" at the same time. There is a bit of jumping around in time and significant foreshadowing which I found to be an effective story-telling device here.

There are many "themes" in the novel; friendship, the nature of art, the meaning of "talent", loss of innocence, sexual attraction, and the relationship between art and money, to name a few. But I think the theme that interested ME the most, was the theme of envy and it's ugly and corrosive nature.
Let me get this out of the way right now: this is a tremendous book. I have a couple of criticisms, which I will get to, but hot damn. Meg Wolitzer has written an astonishingly clever, detailed novel, and the utmost respect must be given to that. Remember this book, because it will definitely be popping up again when people begin compiling best-of lists for 2013.

But let's talk about the novel, shall we? In 1974, six teenagers meet at a summer camp for the arts and jokingly refer to themselves as The Interestings--exactly the kind of ironic, half-kidding-half-hopeful joke that captivates them at that moment in time. The six run the gamut of the art world: a dancer, a musician, an animator; an actress who wants to further the cause of feminism in theater, a wannabe architect, and a comedic actress. The latter character, Jules, forms the center of our story. Significantly, she's also the outlier. Jules isn't an artist when she ends up at Camp Spirit-in-the-Woods. It's unclear how she found her way to a camp for artists when there were so many different options out there (one of those woefully nitpicky details that nevertheless irked me); she simply wanted an escape from her family and the grief they all feel after the abrupt death of her father from cancer. What's important is that she's an outsider in this world when...

Thanks for the review. It sounds like a novel worth looking into.

sheri, I had exactly the same reaction as you to the character of Miss Jean Brodie. As I have aged, I've found that often my opinion of both novels and characters have evolved, variously.