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Meg Wolitzer

The Uncoupling Hardcover – April 5, 2011

by Meg Wolitzer (Author)

3.5 420 ratings

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From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Ten-Year Nap, a funny, provocative, revealing novel about female desire.

When the elliptical new drama teacher at Stellar Plains High School chooses for the school play Lysistrata-the comedy by Aristophanes in which women stop having sex with men in order to end a war-a strange spell seems to be cast over the school. Or, at least, over the women. One by one throughout the high school community, perfectly healthy, normal women and teenage girls turn away from their husbands and boyfriends in the bedroom, for reasons they don't really understand. As the women worry over their loss of passion, and the men become by turns unhappy, offended, and above all, confused, both sides are forced to look at their shared history, and at their sexual selves in a new light.

As she did to such acclaim with the New York Times bestseller The Ten-Year Nap, Wolitzer tackles an issue that has deep ramifications for women's lives, in a way that makes it funny, riveting, and totally fresh-allowing us to see our own lives through her insightful lens.

Read an essay about writing The Uncoupling from the author, Meg Wolitzer.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Riverhead Books
Publication date

April 5, 2011
Dimensions

6.75 x 1 x 9.75 inches
ISBN-10

159448788X
ISBN-13

978-1594487880
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest from Wolitzer (The Ten Year Nap) is a plodding story with a killer hook: will the women of Stellar Plains, N.J., ever have sex again? After new high school drama teacher Fran Heller begins rehearsals for Lysistrata (in which the women of Greece refuse to have sex until the men end the Peloponnesian War), every girl and woman in the community is overcome by a "spell" that causes them to lose all desire for sex. No one is immune, not Dory Lang and her husband, Robby, the most popular English teachers at Eleanor Roosevelt High School; not Leanne Bannerjee, the beautiful school psychologist; or the overweight college counselor Bev Cutler, shackled to a callous hedge-fund manager husband. The Langs' teenaged daughter, Willa, who eventually lands the lead in the play, is also afflicted, wreaking havoc on her relationship with Fran's son, Eli. Despite the great premise and Wolitzer's confident prose, the story never really picks up any momentum, and the questions posed—about parenthood, sacrifice, expectations, and the viability of long-term relationships in the age of Twitter—are intriguing but lack wallop. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Life begins to imitate art when Stellar Plains� edgy new drama teacher decides to stage Lysistrata as the high school�s annual production. Faculty, administrators, and students alike are literally enchanted by Aristophanes� mordant antiwar comedy. Women and girls who are otherwise happily married or in a blossoming relationship suddenly decide to withhold their affections from their husbands, lovers, and boyfriends. The once passionate sex life of popular English teachers Robby and Dory Lang abruptly ends, as does the nascent relationship of their daughter Willa, who sharply breaks up with her first boyfriend. Most affected of all, however, is Marissa Clayborn, the charismatic young black girl cast in the play�s lead, who decides to stage her own �bed-in� sex strike in protest of the war in Afghanistan. When Marissa fails to appear on opening night, all hell breaks loose as spurned men storm the stage demanding the resumption of normal relations. While zestfully exploring the nexus between complacency and desire, Wolitzer�s hip, glib, impish scenario shrewdly examines the intricate connections between war and sex and perceptively illuminates the power of timeless literature. --Carol Haggas

Review

"While zestfully exploring the nexus between complacency and desire, Wolitzer's hip, glib, impish scenario shrewdly examines the intricate connections between war and sex and perceptively illuminates the power of timeless literature."
-Booklist (starred) "Wolitzer's new novel, after The Ten-Year Nap and The Position, is another well-written and engrossing tale. And this one is definitely more of a tale than a story. In the town of Stellar Plains, NJ, a new, bohemian drama teacher arrives at the local high school. She selects as the school play Lysistrata, Aristophanes' comedy in which the women decide to stop having sex with their men to convince them to stop fighting in a war. As the actors rehearse, a cool wind of a spell passes through the women of Stellar Plains. It touches other teachers and students alike. The chill makes the women want to abstain from sex. So what happens when an entire town of women start to push away their men for no apparent reason? Otherwise happy couples break up. The novel flits from English teacher to gym teacher to the lead actress in the play and on and on. It reads and infects like a dreamy fairy tale with beautifully expressive and strangely enticing writing. VERDICT Wolitzer again tackles a complicated and provocative subject, female sexuality, with creativity and insight. Her fans and readers of women's fiction that's smart and snappy will want this."
-Library Journal (starred)

"Wolitzer makes it work, thanks to sharp characterizations and acute observations on everything from the digital generation gap to the accommodations made in a long marriage. . . . A risky strategy pays off for a smart author whose work both amuses and hits home."
-Kirkus

"A high-school performance of Lysistrata has a mysterious effect: The women of a New Jersey town become increasingly disinterested in sex with their partners. In the alternately hilarious and poignant events that follow, couples reexamine their relationships."
-Ms.

"Meg Wolitzer, like Tom Perrotta, is an author who makes you wonder why more people don't write perceptive, entertaining, unassuming novels about how and why ordinary people choose to make decisions about their lives....The Uncoupling is a novel that can't help but make you think about your own relationship--about what it consists of, what would be left if sex were taken away, how far you'd be prepared to go in order to keep it in your life somewhere, and so on."
-Nick Hornby, The Believer

"Wolitzer writes of a spell cast upon a town-but she superbly casts it upon the reader as well. This deftly written tale of bewildered women (and their men) is always surprising and always engaging, both funny and serious at the same time, a wonderful read."
-Elizabeth Strout, New York Times-bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge

"In this fiercely funny, playful and always tender novel, Meg Wolitzer glories in the drama and the magic of falling in and out of love... and bed. The Uncoupling is, happily, a very sexy fable about sexual ennui."
-Cathleen Schine, New York Times-bestselling author of The Three Weissmanns of Westport

About the Author

Meg Wolitzer is the author of eight previous novels, including The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. Her short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize. She lives in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books; First Edition (April 5, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159448788X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594487880
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1 x 9.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,610,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #50,104 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #68,141 in Contemporary Women Fiction
- #164,060 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.5 420 ratings

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Meg Wolitzer

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Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. Her new novel, The Female Persuasion, has been named a most-anticipated book of the year by Time Magazine, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, and more. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and lives in New York City.

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bookkook

clever premise and a fun read

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2011

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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.

17 people found this helpful

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Jill I. Shtulman

"Just Say No" -- a look at desire

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2011

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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.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

J M C DAVIES

Another winner from Meg Wolitzer!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Book arrived in very good condition. Really enjoying.

jl walker

Witty and fun to read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2017

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A well written and great read. A modern moral tale.

Paola

A funny portrait of generational gap

Reviewed in Italy on September 8, 2016

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After reading "the interestings" in less than two days I wanted confirmation that this author really has it and immediately bought "the uncoupling". Witty, smart, fun, it makes you rethink of the whole generational gap. Loved every bit of it!!!

Tibor Timar

Complete rubbish

Reviewed in Italy on January 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

In the beginning you think you are reading a normal novel, around the middle you start to fear that you are wasting your time. At the end you feel robbed.

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