Customer Reviews

The Uncoupling

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This story moves the plot of an ancient play (Lysistrata) to modern suburban New Jersey, where it becomes magic. I thought the idea was incredibly clever when I read the review and I still do. The plot of Lysistrata is that the women of ancient Greece agree among themselves to deny any sex to the men until the Peloponnesian war is ended. Here, the same cooling effect by the women comes back in the modern suburb involuntarily, in the form of a spell when the play (edited to be more age appropriate) is staged by the local high school. The spell takes all local women one by one - cooling the ardor of teenagers, both in the passion of a first relationship and as well as those sexually active but not really sure why or whether they enjoy it. It also takes young mothers with happy relationships in spite of their weariness, women in later stages of long,happy marriages, and even middle aged women who've 'let themselves go' and were celibate or nearly so within their marriages. The way that these emotions are expressed by all of these various women as they experience the spell and the change in their desires and in their views is masterful. The reaction among the men to the loss ranges among anger, patience, sadness,fear, and barely noticing. Wherever your stage in life and whatever your experience you are overwhelmingly likely to identify with someone in this fictional town.

I was disappointed by the way that the spell was resolved, with a highly dramatic, very quick ending. It felt deflating after all of the good work and good writing that had been done to understand and express the complex emotions of these women and men. It would have been more rewarding to continue the individual perspectives in more detail and explore the emotions more fully as they recovered. Possibly it would have been a longer book, however it is a good book so you'd be happy to read it.

My other criticism is a plot line that seems half baked. Lysistrata is an expression of anti-war sentiments as well as an exploration of relationships. Uncoupling pulls the anti-war element in with a character that had recently been a local high school student, went off to war, and returned home with a life changing injury and a failed relationship. This character makes a brief appearance, something to the effect of war is bad/people get hurt/we shouldn't have war is expressed in a few pages, another character stages a protest, and the war veteran character falls out of the story shortly thereafter. Serious consideration of this topic requires moving beyond slogans and protests and individual tragedies however awful, to understanding the principles of just war, even if you choose to reject them entirely, as well as analyzing every situation. This would have been a better book if the author had fleshed out this analysis more fully or skipped this Lysistrata hook entirely.

Muriel Rukeyser said that if one woman told the truth about her life the world would split open. I was hoping this would be one of those books that might, if not split open the world, at least illuminate a bit of the fault line. And to its credit, it does shed some light on the mysterious sexual chill that takes women of a certain age, in particular, by surprise. The spell, the central conceit of the book, is such a great metaphor for the exploration of women's sexuality and desire. I really wanted, was hoping for, more complex characters and more insight into that mystery.

I was eager to read this book, given the possibilities of the premise as set in contemporary society. Sadly, there were no real character insights or any new ideas explored here, in my opinion. And while I won't reveal the ending, let's say that it's pretty much a cop-out. (and you will probably have figured it out as well)

The way the story is set up and revealed pretty much limits the outcome, from the start. And, unlike say Practical Magic, which had me believing in some pretty implausible situations and outcomes, this story just left me shaking my head in disbelief as it progressed (you can't have it both ways; it's either a magical/mystical tale or real life. This is neither.)

The only upside for me is that it created the desire to reread Lysistrata.

It left me feeling empty and wishing there had been more, as in more of what the characters, male and female, were really thinking and feeling.

I had high hopes for this book (there have been lots of reviews that make it seem magical and insightful) but though it was a fast read, it was also rather banal. No real insights into the females (or men) here and very little real reflection on the impact of the sea-change. And the "how" of the sea-change really didn't work well as written.

This could have been so much more. I admire the author for attempting to bring light to a topic that does resonate for contemporary women--what happens when desire seems to have disappeared. And for calling attention to Lysistrata (but even that got short shrift in the book!)

I read this book pretty quickly...not because it was so good, but because I couldn't believe that this was really all there was.

Here's a book about women who have a spell cast over them, that forces them to not want to have sex with their husbands, or their boyfriends, and the author simply refuses to delve any deeper then that. She absolutely skims the surface of relationships without sex, and this was an annoyingly quick read because there was nothing to it. This should have been insightful and controversial. This should have had something to it, some angle, however much we, as the reader disagreed. But it's as if the author wasn't really interested in writing this story at all. And the outcome? - SPOILER ALERT - The spells lifted and everyone's fine and the wrapping up?....Sometimes relationships get old, and you need to stir things up. Oh the clarity.

Reading a borrowed copy, I thought from the dust jacket, what an interesting idea.

But it's not an interesting read. The main problem is, it's far too expository. It reads like a first time novelist's first draft, as if no one has mentioned "show, don't tell," and "scene, not exposition!" to the author. Nothing engaged me except a few lines that made me think, "probably teaching in a high school is like that." But other expository bits: musing about we spend too much time on the internet, for instance, were more platitudes than insights. It's hard to believe this author has this many novels--none of which I'll read. I'll give it above one star because at least the grammar is right (and for some reason, you really can't count on that any longer from the major publishing houses, so I'm feeling a need to reward that in reviews)and the idea was clever. I flipped through the last half of the book, scanning but never getting engaged.

What would you do if you were suddenly placed under a spell that made you no longer attracted to the opposite sex in an intimate way?

That is the exact question that every woman is faced with in Stellar Plains, NJ in Meg Wolitzer's latest book The Uncoupling. The main characters in The Uncoupling are The Lang's, a couple with a strong marriage, and even a stronger love for each other. Robby and Dory Lang have a relationship that is envied by all of their peers. Both Robby and Dory work as English teachers at Stellar Plains High School. Dory is one of the first people affected by the spell, but soon the rest of the female population of the small New Jersey town are under enchantment. No one understands what has caused this spell or how they can get their lives back to the way they once were. Women everywhere are disgusted at the thought of being touched by their significant other or any man in general for that matter.

While the entire town is in a state of confusion about the sudden abstinence, a new drama teacher at Stellar Plains is directing the play "Lysistrata" which is a Greek play based around the idea of women turning men down sexually in order to end a war.

During the play's opening night, men stop the play to make a plea with their wives to be intimate with them once more. Once this happens the spell is broken and the town goes back to normal.

While I love the idea around the spell and the fact that it is suppose to teach the townspeople to appreciate the love that they have with their spouse, I found the book very predictable. I did, however, enjoy the fact that Wolitzer told the story of many characters being struck by the spell. It made me look at relationships in a different light and realize that intimacy can play a very important role in marriage.

Review originally published at BookGateway. This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.

In search of light read, The Uncoupling, by Meg Wolitzer seemed like a good choice.

Dory and Robby Lang, English teachers from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Stellar Plains, New Jersey. They seem like the couple who has everything going for them. In their 40's, married fifteen years, and they are happy with their life, until one night when Robby's amorous advances send ice cold chills trough Dory's once responsive body. When this happens again and again, she doesn't understand what is happening to make her feel this way. She finds herself apologizing to Robby for the way she has been acting.

It's not long before Dory realizes that she is not alone. Her lack of interest in sex has hit other staff members at the school as well. It seems that this sudden disinterest in sex all began around the time students at the school began practicing for the school play, Lysistrata.

The book is an off shoot to the Greek play Lysistrata, where Greek woman had withheld sex in the hopes of ending the Peloponnesian War. I liked the way the author made this not just Dory and Robby's problem, but one that affected other staff members as well. To me this added interest to the sometimes funny, but other times flat writing. And, while I liked the message the novel drove home, about the importance of nurturing relationships, the ending, without giving spoilers, just didn't work for me, and in the end this novel fell short.

"The Uncoupling" isn't a bad book, just a poorly finished one. I don't want to give anything away, but the story begins to disinegrate halfway through and tops it off with a cop out ending. I love mysteries, so I didn't mind a few red herrings, but the end was like Pam Ewing waking up on "Dallas" to see Bobby stepping out of the shower- it was all a dream! That would've been a better ending than the author's final solution.The story's ending is one third realistic, one third fantasy and one third "what the hell- that's it?"

I realize this is fiction and the author would like to make a statement (which I don't disagree with), but why didn't her editor do her job and rein her in for the ending? I would've preferred the "no ending" ending- where you have the reader's imagination paint the picture. Why end the story with a premise so weak that it's the first one I thought of and threw away as having no creativity. I'm going to put this one in the deep freezer next to the frozen brussel sprouts.

The Uncoupling is a good book that could have been a great book.

It has some perceptive and provocative insights into the nature of desire itself: what is desire, anyway? How does it change between the heady times of first love and the more mundane times of adulthood? Can a relationship sustain itself when desire flees?

The book unfolds around the classic and comic play Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes - a tale of women of Greece who determined to withhold sex as a way to end the lengthy Peloponnesian War. Around the same time that the new drama teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School chooses the play, the women of Stellar Plains, New Jersey mysteriously and suddenly turn from their husbands, boyfriends, and lovers, no longer wanting to engage in sex.

The "stunning bolt of cold air" -- which is the harbinger for the lack of desire - the enchantment and spell - is somewhat evocative of Alice Hoffman's writings. One by one, the women succumb to it - Dory Lang, who suddenly begins making excuses to her cherished spouse...Bev,an overweight guidance counselor who is smarting over a careless weight-focused remark by her husband...Leanne, a beautiful and definitely non-monogamous school psychologist who loses all interest...Ruth, the ex-lesbian gym teacher and harried young mother who feels sex has become an obligatory date...and last of all, Willa, Dory's daughter, who is the throes of first love.

Had The Uncoupling focused on the question asked by Bev ( "I keep thinking, how did this happen? For a long time, it wasn't like this) or Leanne (""Is the choice in life to either have some overly intense and basically impractical relationships with men or else to settle down?") or even the musings of Dory (""Maybe sex doesn't even belong to us anymore. It belongs mostly to the kids, and we're just hanging around too long"), this might have been a stronger book.

But Ms. Wolitzer chooses to go with a magical realism overlay, distancing the reader from the characters and adding a layer of comedy to the very real issues of adults and teenager struggling to maintain intimacy in the wake of young family obligations, perimenopause, and day-to-day stresses. The boundaries of believability are stretched at the end in ways that will become apparent to a new reader. The Uncoupling is built upon an irresistible premise and written in a breezy tone that somehow, falls a little flat.

A disappointing book....kept hoping it would get better but really never did. I was bored reading it at times. Nothing really exciting ever happened and the characters were fairly dull. The story wasn't that great. I read a review of this book and thought it sounded like a neat idea but the book doesn't really deliver.