Where to begin? The Interestings took me a little while to get through, but I enjoyed it.  While, it wasn’t a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat or even demands that you pick it up every day, I was okay with that. It’s not that it was dull by any means, either.  How do I explain it… the book takes place over 30-40 years and the story sort of reflects that.  Life isn’t always exciting, but it meanders along with ups and downs and twists and turns here and there, and the flow of the book definitely imitated that.  It was fitting and also satisfying.

The story follows the lives of 6 teens who meet at a summer camp for the artistically inclined and manage to maintain their friendship through adulthood. While there isn’t much of a plot, I found myself caught up in the characters and wondering where life would take them. I have nothing in common with any of the characters, but appreciated the way in which Wolitzer makes them feel realistic. The main character Jules could be a tad exasperating at times with her constant envy of her friends who have lots of money and whose artistic careers flourished while she wallows. It was hard to get past her whining, at times, but even she managed to have a few redeeming qualities.

One of the aspects I really enjoyed is that the story starts out in the mid-1970s in New York and Wolitzer does such a great job using words to place you in that time and place. Wolitzer’s writing is descriptive, sometimes poetic, and sometimes harsh. I had no trouble picturing the characters and places in my mind and despite the pacing, found myself picking it up day after day and slowly devouring it.  I wanted to know what happened to the characters and just when I’d think I’d be disappointed because of how other writers have handled situations in other stories, I’d be pleasantly surprised that Wolitzer chose not to do the same. I feel like the way she handled her character’s emotions reflected better on how people in the real world might react… people who aren’t actually all that interesting.

I found myself thoughtful throughout the book and sometimes nostalgic for my own childhood, much like Jules.  Despite passing time, all of the characters reflect often on their experience at camp and one takeaway is just how important it is to stop looking backwards and look ahead.  Nostalgia is just one of many themes along with friendship, love, jealousy, sexuality, art, deceit, and mental illness, all of which Wolitzer writes well. This may have been my first of her novels, but it will not be last.

My reading has slowed down a tad due to various things popping up, but I thought I’d share my thoughts on ‘Eleanor and Park’ by Rainbow Rowell, which I finished reading not too long ago. You may have heard the name due its growing popularity, and honestly it’s for good reason. I typically don’t read a lot of YA fiction, but after reading many reviews I thought it might be worth the time.  I don’t have anything against YA fiction, but (and this is a huge generalization considering I haven’t read much… since I was a teen) so often the dialogue and story feel “dumbed down” for younger readers.  I think I’ve just read too many YA novels wherein the dialogue didn’t feel real and the writing itself seemed to be missing depth.  This was not the case with ‘Eleanor and Park.’

I really enjoyed Rowell’s writing style and felt the interactions and dialogue between the characters was fairly realistic.  Eleanor and Park get off to a rocky start, but end of forming an unlikely friendship, which in turn becomes an even more unlikely romance.  Both are somewhat outcasts, though Eleanor so much more. While I couldn’t necessarily relate to either character in full, there were definitely moments that transported me back to high school (unfortunately).  I wasn’t sure what to expect when I turned the first pages, but if you’re hoping for something light-hearted and happy, this isn’t really it.

I think Rowell accurately captures the awkwardness of being a teenager and the heartache of young love.  On the one hand I felt their emotions towards each other switched rather hastily (and in reality this relationship as well as others in the book would have been improbable), but the part of me that cheers for the outcasts and losers liked that these two teenagers found each other, especially Eleanor.  While at times Eleanor was so exasperating to me, I did feel bad for her character and the extremely dysfunctional background she came from. You can’t really blame her for her extreme lack of self-confidence and cynicism.

This book isn’t perfect by any means, but I did feel it captured many teenage emotions accurately as well as the fact that teenagers can be a tad frustrating and selfish at times (I was a teenager once, so I can say this). I’m not an expert in terms of racism or what Ohio was like in the mid 80’s, but I have a feeling that some portrayals of racism or the lack thereof, are somewhat inaccurate and sort of brushed over.  The ending was also somewhat anticlimactic and open-ended, which was somewhat annoying because it would have been nice to see certain storylines wrapped up.  Even with the little things I didn’t like, I couldn’t help but keep reading.  I got sucked in and that’s always a good sign.