On My Bookshelf: The Interestings
Last month when I posted my Spring (more like summer) reading list, I had only read a few chapters of The Interestings. Now I'm back with my full review & thoughts!
Amazon.ca, Chapters Indigo, Good Reads, Amazon.com
From the publisher:
It was...interesting? In full disclosure, I didn't buy this book. My book blogger friend Brenna won it for me on Twitter (#penguinexpress) and I was genuinely interested to read it after I read the description. Having gone to university for the arts, I definitely have a fascination with what happens as artists of all skills get older & how that transition works. Who makes it, who gives up, who surges later in life - that aspect of this book I did enjoy.
The trajectory of each character was very different, and was in ways fascinating to watch. And that's maybe where my enjoyment of the book ended. (I did enjoy seeing NYC through the years - that was definitely neat.)
Without spoiling anything, the characters all go through a lot of crappy stuff. Things that I didn't really enjoy reading about. I finished the book to see what happened to them all, but I was left feeling a little 'blah' about the whole thing.
I know this hasn't been the most positive of reviews, but sometimes that happens. There are definitely people that will really enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me in the end.
You should pick it up if: 1 // You have any interest in the arts/the careers of artists. It is fascinating from that standpoint.
2 // You love the backdrop of New York City. I need to visit!!!
3 // If you liked The Goldfinch. They are definitely very different books, but I feel like people that enjoyed the one would enjoy the other.
Have you read The Interestings? Does it seem like a book you'd pick up?
xo, B
ps, what are you reading right now? Always need some good recommendations :)
From the publisher:
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.
Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores 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.
It was...interesting? In full disclosure, I didn't buy this book. My book blogger friend Brenna won it for me on Twitter (#penguinexpress) and I was genuinely interested to read it after I read the description. Having gone to university for the arts, I definitely have a fascination with what happens as artists of all skills get older & how that transition works. Who makes it, who gives up, who surges later in life - that aspect of this book I did enjoy.
The trajectory of each character was very different, and was in ways fascinating to watch. And that's maybe where my enjoyment of the book ended. (I did enjoy seeing NYC through the years - that was definitely neat.)
Without spoiling anything, the characters all go through a lot of crappy stuff. Things that I didn't really enjoy reading about. I finished the book to see what happened to them all, but I was left feeling a little 'blah' about the whole thing.
I know this hasn't been the most positive of reviews, but sometimes that happens. There are definitely people that will really enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me in the end.
You should pick it up if: 1 // You have any interest in the arts/the careers of artists. It is fascinating from that standpoint.
2 // You love the backdrop of New York City. I need to visit!!!
3 // If you liked The Goldfinch. They are definitely very different books, but I feel like people that enjoyed the one would enjoy the other.
Have you read The Interestings? Does it seem like a book you'd pick up?
xo, B
ps, what are you reading right now? Always need some good recommendations :)
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