Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What did you think of the title, The Interestings, and how did your understanding of it change from the beginning of the novel to the end?

2. Meg Wolitzer often explores themes of ambition, artistry, and female relationships in her work. How did you feel her treatment of these themes in The Interestings compared to other stories that explore similar ground, like Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends?

3. The novel’s structure follows the characters across nearly four decades, from the Watergate era to the 2010s. Did you find this decades-long perspective effective in exploring the characters’ lives and the theme of early promise versus adult reality? Which time period did you find most compelling, and why?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Spirit-in-the-Woods is a foundational place for the characters, a “utopia” that shapes their identities and expectations for life. Think about a time, place, or group from your own youth that felt similarly formative. How did that experience influence the person you became?

2. Jules Jacobson makes a major pivot from her dream of being a comedic actor to a career in social work after a teacher tells her the world doesn’t need to see her perform. How did you react to her decision to pursue a more practical, service-oriented path? Think about a time when you had to adjust a long-held dream in the face of reality.

3. The annual Christmas letter from Ash Wolf and Ethan Figman becomes a painful ritual for Jules, highlighting the growing disparity in their lives. This kind of curated sharing feels very relevant in our age of social media. How do you navigate feelings of comparison or envy in your own friendships?

4. What do you make of the friendships in the novel that endure despite major secrets, betrayals, and vast differences in wealth? Could a friendship like the one between Jules and Ash survive such pressures in your own life?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. The story opens in the summer of 1974 against the backdrop of the Watergate scandal, which the characters say has created a “world of fuckers” (5). How does this initial atmosphere of cynicism and disillusionment seem to shape the group’s worldview and their choices over the decades? Where do you see similar anxieties about authority and corruption in society today?

2. How does the story explore the connection between talent, money, and luck in achieving success within New York’s elite “creative class”?

3. The accusation against Goodman Wolf occurs in the mid-1970s, long before widespread public conversations about consent and assault. How do you think the events at Tavern on the Green, and the group’s reactions, might have played out differently if they had happened today?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. What is the effect of the novel’s nonlinear structure, which jumps between different decades? Why do you think Wolitzer chose to reveal the characters’ vastly different adult circumstances so early in the narrative?

2. How does the novel’s decades-long perspective on friendship and disillusionment differ from stories that capture a friend group at a single point in time, like in the film The Big Chill?

3. The story concludes with an image of a camp photograph where the friends’ body parts are misaligned in an “endless cartoon loop” (538). How does this final image drive resolution to Jules’s relationships with her peers?

4. Like King Sorrow by Joe Hill, Wolitzer’s novel features an ensemble cast of friends. What techniques does the novel employ to distinguish each of these characters and make them memorable to you?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Spirit-in-the-Woods is presented as a 1970s creative utopia focused on traditional arts. If you were hired to relaunch the camp for today’s teenagers, what kinds of artistic pursuits would it focus on? What core values would you try to instill in the campers to prepare them for the modern creative world?

2. Imagine you are a therapist, like Jules, and one of the other “Interestings” comes to you for a session in 2010. Who would you choose to speak with, and what underlying issues from their shared past do you think would be most important to address?

3. Ethan’s final gift to Jules is a storyboard that captures a key moment from their youth. If you could create a single, representative artifact for another character, like Jonah or Ash, that encapsulates their life’s journey, what would it be?