Given the glowing accolades plastered all over the back cover and \\\"The New York Times Best Seller\\\" stamp of approval, I expected more.

The Interestings is an ironically titled, quintessential character-driven novel that follows the intermingled lives of individuals who are inexplicably tethered to each other from the time they meet at an arty summer camp. Each character is a deeply thought-out and fully realized person. The author\\\'s passion for her creation is evident - yet I was hard pressed to care about a single one of them or their relationships. From the first sentences I got the sense that this was a book with which I was supposed to become enraptured, but instead had an immediate disconnect.

We\\\'re introduced to The Interestings (this is the name they bestowed upon their collective) when they\\\'re teenagers at an arts summer camp in Belknap, Massachusetts. Plain, borderline homely, timid Julie Jacobson is folded in the corner of a teepee, mute. Baffled at having been picked by the oh-so-beautiful Ash Wolf to come hang with them, she doesn\\\'t want to draw undue attention to herself. Ash\\\'s spoiled, handsome brother Goodman, ugly-yet-confident Ethan Figman, voluptuous drama-queen Cathy Kiplinger, and delicately handsome, introspective Jonah Bay comprise the rest of The Interestings.
This first night together is filled with pedantic conversations, fueled along by booze and weed. Julie, who never felt right as Julie, transforms to Jules after she blurts out something quasi-humorous and Ash quips, \\\"See? I knew there was a reason I invited her in. \\\'Desemenizing\\\", go Jules!\\\" Julie she is no longer.

After this, the majority of the their story doesn\\\'t follow a linear timeline, but jumps between their adolescence, college years and different points of adulthood. And it\\\'s mostly centered on Jules and her relationships with Ash and Ethan. Ethan and Jules try having a relationship that fizzles because Jules isn\\\'t interested. Eventually Ethan and Ash become a successful with a capital S couple (although Ethan continues to carry a torch for Jules). Ethan creates a hugely successful animated show and Ash directs feminist plays. Jules\\\' attempts to become a comedic actress fail and she becomes a therapist and marries Dennis, a very nice ultrasound technician who\\\'s medicated for depression.

While we are offered glimpses of their lives, and a horrible event occurs that send Goodman and Cathy packing, the other Interestings exist on the periphery, referenced regularly between the core trio and occasionally popping in for some interaction. A section of the story focused on Jonah, his brainwashing by a cult, his rescue from it by Ethan, Ash and Jules prompted by his mother is far-and-away the most interesting thing that happens.

For the most part, Jules seethes with jealously about Ethan and Ash\\\'s success, while simultaneously hating herself for it. The love she feels for them I found rather desperate. Even with a husband and child of her own, only if her relationship with them is okay, can she deal with her ordinariness. There is a period of time, though, when Dennis\\\'s depression comes raging back, he is unable to work and is a rather morose life-suck, which Jules soldiers through this admirably.

Despite monumental wealth and success, Ethan and Ash don\\\'t have a completely sunshine-and-roses existence, each keeps a dark secret from the other - Jules knows both secrets. There is a point when Ash\\\'s secret is exposed and they separate. While separated, an incident occurs that Jules tells Ethan he needs to talk to Ash about, and when he does, he also needs to tell her his secret. They reconcile, but have a precarious situation to conquer.

With the foggy vision of the characters\\\' future and the hammy way of working in the book\\\'s title to \\\"wrap everything up\\\", the ending was perturbingly prosaic. Even so, I am glad I read the book - but I won\\\'t be rushing out for another of Meg Wolitzer\\\'s offerings any time soon.