Welcome, Virtual Book Clubbers! Last month, we invited you to join us in reading Meg Wolitzer’s The Uncoupling, and now it’s time to tell us what you thought! Check out our resident bookworm Molly Donovan’s take on the book, then leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below!
After reading Meg Wolitzer’s The Uncoupling, it strikes me how much I can relate to her characters. Like the women who undergo the anti-sex “spell” that serves as the main trope of the story, I feel slightly chilled. Like the husbands and boyfriends who fall equal victim to the spell, I also feel a bit confused.
Wolitzer’s novel, based more-than-loosely on Aristophane’s famed comedy Lysistrata, centers on the community of teachers, students, and parents at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in a small, unassuming New Jersey town. The novel’s central spell coincides with the arrival of a quirky new drama teacher, who—in a spurt of questionable decision-making—decides to produce Lysistrata as the school’s winter play.
The women of the original play make an informed decision, a rational choice, to withhold sex from their husbands in order to put an end to the Peloponnesian War. The power and humor that these ancient characters display make the play one of the earliest instances of literary feminism. Yet the characters in Wolitzer’s novel succumb to their own sex strike completely passively—the spell happens to them, and not for a reason as noble as bringing peace to a war-torn nation, nor even for the purpose of uplifting the women.
The Uncoupling has such potential. Wolitzer writes beautifully, crisply, succinctly—her chapters follows various female characters’ sexual exploits (or lack thereof) with a humor and an insight that kept me interested throughout the course of the text. More than a novel, The Uncoupling is a series of interwoven vignettes, individual portraits of women of various ages and sensibilities who struggle with a full gamut of relationship issues.
And yet I find the characters somewhat underdeveloped. I particularly think of the young girl just experiencing the thrills of first (physical and emotional) love, the overweight woman who feels nothing but disdain from her husband, and the happily married couple who, because of the spell, suddenly stop having what was once intimate, caring sex.
Wolitzer has so many opportunities for depth that she misses. The novel could have been a political commentary on the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or on the condition of young girls who, sped along by social media and peer pressure, grow up too quickly, or on the plight of the working mother who feels too tired and too underappreciated. The sex strike could have had a purpose to empower women, and yet, it happens to them, and it ends just as quickly and mysteriously (and anti-climactically) as it began.
Am I alone in wanting something more from The Uncoupling? Did you anticipate much from Wolitzer’s well-crafted prose, but feel that the story itself fell somewhat flat? Or did you have a different take? Weigh in below and share what you thought about the book!
2 Comments on "Virtual Book Club: Weigh in on The Uncoupling!"
Molly, you are not alone in your thoughts on this book. I too was excited to start reading “The Uncoupling” and intrigued at how characters were going to react to the lack of intimacy in their relationships with their significant other. Wolitzer started her story off strong but ended up spending too much time developing the “spell” and why/how it came to affect the women in the story. By the time of the play, the anticipated “climax” of the story, I was confused at what message the author was trying to send. The conclusion was not at all what I had expected and I no longer became interested with the story. I would have liked her to take a stronger stance on the point that was trying to be made, as well as making it clear to those reading.
I started the book the day you guys began discussing it so pardon the delay!
When I first started reading the book, I was worried that it would be overly feminist for me, that it would anger me more than anything (perhaps I anticipated reacting the same way a majority of the men reacted at the actual school play towards the end.) I was happily surprised though. As I read I was intrigued even lured into Wolitzer’s story and the different storylines she had started. I loved that all of the characters were tied together in one way or another, but I still agree with Molly and Katie.
There was a lack of depth and I found myself wanting more of an ending. I think I was caught off by the fact that Fran Heller was so aware of the play’s impact on the town and that her sole goal was to move around to place after place to disrupt lives and relationship complacency. I was also startled by Bev’s loss of empowerment at the end of the novel. I’m not sure how a relationship/marriage comes back from that kind of comment made by her husband, but it seemed all too easy. I was equally disappointed that Eli was completely out of the picture. I think I identified the most with Willa. A teenager learning to cope with self-confidence issues, first love, and at times over-prying/over-bearing parents. I felt that her character had the most potential in Wolitzer’s book and it was never completely fulfilled.
On a brighter side, it was a good read and I enjoyed it. At certain points, I was so eager to find out if the women ever gave in to their men again that I kept reading and reading. Not all books have the power to turn pages. This one did.