Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Interestings

I was always going to love this one; that much was obvious from the start. The story of six friends who meet at a Jewish summer camp for the arts in 1974, it’s about the ways in which their destinies diverge as adults, even while individual bonds between them largely remain strong. If I had to review it in six words I’d write “For fans of The Dutch House” and leave it at that.

At the centre of the story is aspiring actress Jules Jacobsen, whose presence at camp in 1974 was made possible by a scholarship. She becomes best friends with beautiful, wealthy Ash, and soon draws the attention of homely Ethan, but can’t reciprocate his feelings for her. Later, after an initial struggle to make it as an actress in New York City, she resigns herself to a more pedestrian career path; Ethan and Ash go on to become incredibly successful.

Some of the more negative reviews I’ve read dismiss The Interestings as being about an unlikeable character’s unlikeable bitterness, but that’s not how it reads to me. To me it’s about how life happens to people – how we open and close doors and how doors are opened and closed to us by talent, perseverance, ecomics, biology, trauma. How having any kind of specific hope or dream for your life is taking an emotional risk. While this absolutely isn’t a comprehensive consideration of all of the factors that make or break artistic success, it is a nuanced and complex one.

Is it perfect? I suppose that depends on your point of view, like everything else. It’s messy, and the characters say insensitive things and behave in ways that real people behave, which won’t always equate to the reader’s own ethical or moral boundaries. Occasionally it rams a point home a little too hard. But it’s also sympathetic, and often relatable, and surprisingly epic in scope. I don’t often feel that I know fictional characters in the same way I know actual humans, but by the end of this I did.

Content Warnings

unicornweasley's review

Go to review page

emotional reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

More...