the interestings. meg wolitzer. (182)

*this contains some spoilers, so if this is on your to-read list, i will tell you where to stop reading. you can read my beginning if you like.

i picked up the interestings because buzzfeed recommended it based on my love of bridge of terabithia.  buzzfeed shared

At its core, Bridge to Terabithia is about friendship, especially the kind that is strengthened by shared creativity and imagination. In The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer explores that bond — focusing on six teens who meet at a summer camp for the arts — and looks at what happens when it extends into adulthood.

sounds interesting right?  no, the book title is a bit of a misnomer.    

to be honest, i should have judge a book by its cover.  when i saw that the book title played second fiddle to the author's name, i should have known something was up.  seriously who puts their name that large on their book?  it actually does give the reader a peak into the self-righteousness they will encounter with the protagonist, jules jacobson.  (ps don't let the jeffery eugenides' blurb fool you!)

the interestings is the story of a girl named jules jacobson, she is a middle (maybe lower-middle) class girl from new jersey that befriended a group of rich kids from new york at an artsy summer camp, spirit-in-the-woods, which she attended on scholarship.  the title comes from the name the kids, ash, goodman, ethan, jonah, and cathy gave their cliqué, the interestings.  the book opens with the group as adolescents at camp in the 70's and follows through their fucked up (seriously this is the best adjective) lives as adults.

*spoilers from here on out.

the only storyline i truly found interesting belong to jonah bay.  jonah was the son of a folk singer, who sadly lost his love of music when another folk singer fed him drugs and stole his songs.  seriously i hated barry for what he did to jonah.  i also enjoyed reading about his relationship with a HIV positive partner, something the naive 90s kid in me does not imagine possible.  i even enjoyed the cult story line though i was appalled that woltizer had jonah's mother stayed with the cult, but i guess she was happy.  

i could have done without the goodman storyline.  wolitzer actually should have killed him off (i was waiting for this to happen especially since i had bridge to terabithia in my head as a point of reference, thanks to the buzzfeed article.)  regardless of cathy's neediness, i believe he raped her.  i also could not believe that the wolf family supported goodman, when he obviously had issues.  they sent him money which just fueled his drug habit.  i also can not believe that after goodman made his parents go bankrupt, they turned to ash to send him cash.  he was such a horrible character and such a drain on the book, he should have been killed off early on.  though i guess wolitzer would not have had her crazy turn of events at the end.

and though i was happy for ethan and the success of figland, i did get tried of reading about the beginning of figland so many times.  actually before i can go on, i have to complain about how this book was so repetitive.  i know it spanned like 30 years, but it was like wolitzer assumed her reader was dumb and forgot what they had read and so she repeated things but instead of jogging the reader's memory, her statements were just annoyingly redundant.  the book was 468 pages, but i am sure if you cut out all the reminders that ash was beautiful and a feminist, jonah was beautiful and his mother was a folk singer, ethan didn't love his autistic son, larkin and rory were polar opposites, or all of jules' issues, it would have been a much shorter book.  there were so many times that i read something and was like okay!  i get it!

but what made this book the most uninteresting was jules' bitching.  i could not sympathize with jacobson because she was a sad shallow individual.  i was disgusted by her jealousy of ash and ethan's life.  sure ethan was in love with her first, when they were 15, but jules didn't love him and was fine with it until he turned into a millionaire.  i also think wolitzer did herself a disservice by having ethan in love with jules his whole life, it didn't help justify jules' envy.  i was literally disgusted as i read about jules' jealousy of her friends' wealth.  ash and ethan had not even made their money and here was jules assuming they would change.  i mean money does change a person but if their "friendship" was a strong as they all thought it to be, they could handle it.  i mean money has never been an issue with any of my friends, and i am in jules' position where my friends have more than me.  my friends aren't millionaires but i can't imagine that effecting anything.  i am not friends with people based on their income.  when jules' rant came in the middle of the book, i almost stopped reading at that point.  i couldn't image having to read from her self-centered point-of-view.  instead of being happy for ethan's success, all she could focus on was how she was inferior to them because of it.  i honestly do not know how her husband, dennis didn't leave her at that point.  her rant was a red flag that the bitch was going to be unhappy with everything in life, and dennis was suppose to be the one suffering from depression.  oh and after all of her complaining, jules ended up taking the money ethan offered (as a good friend) to help pay for an apartment for them because jules and her husband had outgrown their old apartment.  i mean if jules was worried about money changing their friendship she should have not accepted that money or started to allow them to pay for all of their meals.  and don't even get me started on the kids, i can not believe how much she contrasted larkin and rory, so unfair to rory.  seriously, jules was such a disgusting person, she made reading this book quite tedious.

i was glad when dennis finally put jules in her place, after the spirit-in-the-woods fiasco.  i loved how he finally told her that all of friends are "not that interesting."  he went on to tell her that there was nothing special about the camp nor was there anything special about them:

[spirit-in-the-woods] made you feel special.  what do i know--maybe its actually made you special.  and specialness--everyone wants it.  but jesus, is it the most essential thing there is?  most people aren't talented. so what are they supposed to do--kill themselves?

the later part seems extreme, but it is true.  the issue with jules was that she wanted to be "special", she couldn't be happy with what she had.

after i was done cheering on dennis for calling jules out, i realized that maybe the interestings is wolitzer's critique of the "everyone's a winner" rending of generations.  that by telling kids (myself included, i was/am totally part of this generation) that they are special, we are just setting them for a lifetime of self-righteousness and unhappiness.  we will always be unhappy with what we have because the "specialness" of our youth has brainwashed us into believing we are predestined for greatness, but that is not how life works.  kids that are told they are winners minus the work, grow up to be adults that expect greatness without the willingness to strive for it.  this is was jules' problem, she wanted to be an actress but didn't want to work for it so she dropped it the first time she was harshly criticized.  furthermore, i think reality tv has augmented this "specialness" issue because we see talentless people become rich and famous.  again people not willing to work but ending up success. (see:  any of the kardashians).

in retrospect, i realize that jules has the same problem as one of my favorite tv characters, hannah, from hbo's "girls".  hannah is a talented writer but when she took a "corporate" job from gq magazine, she worried that it will prevent her from becoming a successful writer.  her paranoia about never being "great" led to her not only creating a unnecessary drama in her relationship but her workplace.  instead of confronting her anxiety and focusing on not, she projected upon her co-workers critiquing them for having put their careers on hold.  none of them appeared to be suffering from this decision yet hannah was brutally harsh when calling them out.  the disgust i felt when reading about jules' bitching was the same disgust i felt when watching hannah attack her coworkers.  hannah's relationship with adam even mirrored jules' relationship with ethan.  as opposed to being happy for adam's first broadway show, hannah of course has to put the focus on her.  she stressed about how being broadway would change him and their relationship, she put all of these preconceived notion about how he cheat or she would have to end her career for him into her head and ended up pushing him away.  she was the one that pushed adam away not broadway.  it was the same for jules with ethan and his money as i mentioned before.  so why do i love hannah and loathe jules?  it comes down to the fact that i have seen hannah doing coke off of a toliet and dance all night to andrew andrew, i mean the girl is fun.  i can't say the same for jules.  i also enjoy hannah's self-depreciating humor, i mean jules was kind of sad with her desperation for cheap laughs.   i will also add, hannah is still a twentysomething, and i imagine her growing out of it, however jules was in her fifties still dealing with the same issues she had as a fifteen year old.  jules lacked personal growth which is why i couldn't handle her as a character.

but back to this critique of "specialness", if that was wolitzer's goal of writing this book, then i commend her.  this generation needs to read her book and get their shit together.  however, looking back at the title, i can't help but think that maybe she is jules jacobson and the anxiety of her life came spewing out via jules.

i also have to add, boo to buzzfeed for saying that if you like bridge to terabithia, you would enjoy the interestings.  the friendship in terabithia was so much greater than the ones in interestings and it is an insult to jess and leslie.   there are better books about friendship out there, though they are young adult novels maybe john green's "the fault in our stars" or markus zusak's "the book thief", even steinbeck's "of mice and men" would be a better choice.  i haven't come across a good friendship book in a while but once i do, i will recommend it!  well if it is worthy of jess and leslie.

the bridge to terabithia. katherine paterson.

i never read "bridge to terabithia" as a kid but i always saw it at the library.  i avoided it as a kid because it seemed too fantasy for me (which it turned out not to be).  however, now i regret judging a book by its title because i missed out on a great book as a kid.  

about a year ago, i came across the movie, it was on ktla, one of those sunday afternoon movies.  i watched it, primarily because zooey deschanel is in it, and it left me in tears.  i cried my heart out and realized that i needed to read the book.  i bought it at the goodwill but it sat on my bookshelf for a while.  while researching banned books for banned books week i noticed it on the list so decided to finally read it.

and before i go, zooey deschanel was the perfect person to play miss edmunds the music teacher.  miss edmunds was described as:

her long swishy black hair and blue blue eyes.  she could play the guitar like a regular recording star and she had this soft floaty voice that made jess squish inside.  lord, she was gorgeous.

totally, zooey right?

also, i loved annasophia robb as leslie but i wished they had made her hair a boyish cut and dressed her poor (even though she was rich), which is how it was in the book.  but other than that a great adaption.

if you haven't read "bridge to terabithia" please stop by right now and go read it.  there are spoilers ahead.

"bridge to terabithia" is the story of two fifth graders, jesse and leslie and their unlikely friendship.  leslie is a new kid at school and unconventional.  her parents are considered "hippies" by jesse's parents, they are both successful writers but they moved to the country to live off of the land.  at first, jesse was jealous of leslie because she beat him in a race.  he was also hesitant because she was a little different from the rest of the kids.  she didn't watch tv and was intelligent (sad how smart makes you different versus the norm) but he soon saw that she needed a friend and helped her out at school.  i should add, jesse is a little different from the other kids at school.  he is sensitive, well-mannered boy who secretly likes to draw and loves music class.  jesse saved leslie from the school bully, janice avery, and after that they became friends and started hanging out everyday afterschool (they are neighbors).

there is a woods near their home, and one day they crossed over the creek with a rope swing and created their own mythical land, terabithia.  leslie, who is well-read, likened their mythical place to nardia, and started sharing books with jesse.  leslie came up with all of these mythical creatures and areas and jesse felt less creative in contrast, but they still have fun.

they had typical kid adventures.  they get revenge on the school bully for stealing jesse's kid sister's twinkie, but then leslie befriended her and discovered that she was a bully due to abuse at home.  as a reader, you are happy for jesse and leslie and their friendship.

and then you are hit with a curveball.  i was prepared for it because of the film, but when i watched the film, it had me in tears.  jesse went to the museum for the day with miss edmunds (which in itself is creepy but i guess it was a different time?) and when he came back, he finds out that leslie is dead.  yes, dead!  it was raining and she had an accident swinging on the rope.  it was devasting reading about jesse dealing with her death.  he was uncertain about his feelings and how to mourn and what to do.  in the end, he does get closure, he created a bridge to terabithia and shared the kingdom with his little sister.

"bridge to terabithia" is a wonderful book but sadly, it is on the banned books list.  the reasons its listing are death and atheism (leslie doesn't believe in god or go to church).  two things that i think children should not be shielded from, i don't have kids but i was a kid and like i have seen in maurice sendak's books and his documentary, it's better to be honest.  

i first want to discuss the "atheism", which i actually read as being in support of spirituality.  leslie is an atheist and doesn't go to church.  but one day she joins jesse and his family.  jesse and his sister who go to church every week are bored at the service, jesse spends his worship time counting things.  while leslie, the atheist, finds the story of jesus beautiful even likens it to lincolm and socrates.  furthermore, more when leslie talks about the crufixtion of christ with jesse and may belle they focused on the gory details while she understood the higher meaning in it.  she even tells them, "you believe in it, but you hate it.  i don't have to believe in it and i think it's beautiful".  a pretty deep thought for a kid, but a demonstration of the importance of following rules of a church and being considered religious but lacking any spiritual (and i think more important) connection to god.  leslie's "atheism" then demonstrated the importance of finding the beautiful within god instead of going through the motions.

since leslie doesn't believe in god, may belle is frightened that she will go to hell for not believing when she died.  i thought this was an interesting topic because the reader knows that leslie was a good person and would not end up in hell.  again i think it reinforces the idea of its more important to have good works here on earth versus having blind faith in god.

this discussion on spirtuality may go unnoticed by a child, but the topic of death is a main focus and probably the main reason, this book is banned.  as a kid, i was frightened of death.  i used to pray at night for god to keep my grandparents alive.  i was also petrified of mankind's demise.  it must have been due to a science lesson but at night, i would imagine that the sun no longer existed and how mankind would eventually die out like the dinosaurs due to lack of food.  i never shared this with anyone but i would think about this all the time, as a 5th/6th grader.  furthermore, since adults treat death as a taboo with kids, instead of protecting them from death, it just makes death more frightening.  kids need to understand that death is a fact of life, there is no way to avoid it so we should not be frightened of it.  and if you scared of death, its okay because others are too.  

i learned online that paterson was inspired to write "bridge to terabithia" after her son's best friend was strucked by lightning and died.  this book was meant to help children deal with death.  it is supposed to explain to them something that even baffles adults.  it demonstrates that there is no one way to mourn and that you will experience maby different feelings.  it also shows that adults have a difficult time dealing with death as well.  i can admit that even with my thirty years of life, i never know what to say when someone loses a loved one and am still scared of those around me dying.  however the only difference is that now as an adult i understand i am not the only one who has these worries.  

i am glad i read this as an adult but really wish i read it as a kid.  i also hope that kids do read this book.  by reading "bridge to terabithia", the reader learns an important life lesson and if read as child, it will last them their lifetime.

ps food for thought:  many children's books are banned because of death as a topic.  however, every disney movie has a dead parent especially in the recent years.  in "lion king", we see mufasa's death.  "finding nemo", scene with nemo's mom was intense for me and i was an adult when i saw it.  however there is never a ban on them and parents normally buy movie merchandise and take them to disneyland to ride rides based on the movie.