I took The Position a book authored by Meg (not Hilma, her mother) Wolitzer, to Washington DC the week before Thanksgiving. I started reading it at least three times and I could not get past the first page. It just did not grab me. Maybe I was tired because of my travels, maybe the museums were stimulating such that I could not get stimulated by a book. Who knows. I could not get to page two.
When I returned home, I thought I would give the book another shot. I read a few pages, thumbed through to see how long the first chapter was, saw it was 20 pages, and almost gave the book the heave-ho. Then I determined to plow through the first chapter and then make a decision.
This experience is a good example of why one should give books a genuine chance. The Position is a very good book; exceptionally and vividly written. In brief (and this occurs on the first few pages) one of four siblings discovers a book the parents have written about sex. The book is called Pleasuring and it not only includes descriptions of sex acts, but also has pictures of the parents engaged in the activity. The kids are stunned. The rest of the book describes each of the four children's reaction to the book and their subsequent development. Also, the parents'--the authors of Pleasuring--evolution is described. In some cases, the partners of the characters are described as well.
I think the author was not quite certain how the book was going to end or even how all the characters would evolve. This, if you have read my reviews before, is not to my liking. However, in this book Wolitzer does such an extraordinary job of depicting each of the characters that I can still recommend the book enthusiastically. I'm not sure if I buy how the children reacted, or that the publication of the book could have been as jarring as it apparently was to the kids. The saga of the oldest child seemed particularly unrealistic, and the ease with which some characters eased from one relationship to another was atypical at least to my experience.
Still, I recommend the book. The title refers to a sexual position that the authors of Pleasuring claim to have "invented" The position itself is not described until the very end of the book. It's not a position that is likely to "work" at least for an extended period of time. About halfway through the book, before the reader knows what the position actually is, a woman friend of the female author of Pleasuring comments to the author that she tried "the position" and found it exciting, but the problem was "it kept popping out." Sexual and romantic connections are difficult to maintain and endure. They are initially, and can even be in the long run, exciting and bonding, but the reality is we keep popping out.
I've read two other books by Meg Wolitzer. The Interestings and The Wife. Neither was as good as The Position. Looking for a good read? Give this a chance.
