The best word I can find to describe the book is exactly that used to describe its characters: interesting. In a way, the book is unremarkable. But on reflection and conversation with a fellow reader, that is just what makes this book so rich.
My initial comment to a friend regarding the book involved the lack of a traditional story arc. Instead, the tale feels more of a mere glimpse into the lives of a group of friends over the course of their lives, from their barely-beyond prepubescent teen years into growth on the other side of midlife. Things happen, but those events are peppered throughout.
Then again, isn’t that regular life? Isn’t that all of our arcs? Most of us do not have some major climactic event that builds over our lives then is resolved. We have peaks. We have valleys. We have years of turmoil that leave lasting impacts, and we have quiet years that we simply live through.
The farther I am from my time reading this novel, the more fondly I look upon it. “The Interestings,” as a self-named, collective group of teenaged friends, might be interesting, but it’s their ordinariness that stays with me.