|
Michael Mellow, age thirteen, discovers a book called PLEASURING (complete with realistic illustrations), which features his parents graphically enjoying their sexuality. He immediately shares his discovery with his siblings --- Claudia, Dashiell and Holly, ages six to fifteen.
PLEASURING becomes a national sensation, with Roz and Paul Mellow appearing on television, on the covers of magazines, and on lecture tours. The book makes the Mellows wealthy, but it also changes the family forever.
Michael reflects, "No one ever thought about how it felt to be Paul and Roz Mellow's children ... how it felt to have your parents display their bodies, their preferences, their most private selves."
Thirty years later, the parents (who divorced two years after PLEASURING was released) argue over whether or not to reissue the book. Roz recruits Michael to persuade his father to allow the anniversary edition, so Michael travels to Florida to talk to Paul. The trip becomes a prolonged respite from Michael's own life, which has focused lately on the sexually detrimental side effects of his antidepressant.
Meanwhile, the grown Dashiell finds an ominous lump in his neck. His illness gives him time to reflect yet again on the fact that his parents' book spoke slightingly of homosexuality --- a fact that continues to wound him in spite of his satisfying life with his partner, Tom, and his work with a senatorial campaign staff.
Holly, the Mellows' oldest child, has long left the family, first for a life of transience and drugs and later for marriage and motherhood. When she married, her primary emotion was relief at no longer bearing the name Mellow or having to hear, "You're not related to the sex book Mellows?"
Their little sister, Claudia, has lived permanently with self-hatred, based mostly on her short thick body. Thirty years after first seeing her parents' sensational book, she is just embarking on her first real relationship.
Paul, the father, is on his third marriage yet still considers Roz to be his true wife. Nearly thirty years after their divorce, he continues to obsess on the ending of their marriage. His motive for refusing to agree to a re-release of PLEASURING is spite for Roz's decision to leave him.
Roz, now a professor teaching human sexuality to college students, remains attractive at 67. However, she continues to long for the acclaim she experienced when PLEASURING was first published.
Meg Wolitzer is a master storyteller. In her hands, the lives of these six people are realistically interwoven and absolutely fascinating. A subtle mystery --- how exactly did the Mellow marriage end? --- threads through the plot. The answer manages to be truly surprising despite abundant clues. I highly recommend this intelligent and thought-provoking work, which offers readers subtle resolution and hope.
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (Terryms2001@yahoo.com)
• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
