The Position

Meg Wolitzer's novel, "The Position" includes a plot so richly layered and interesting, on can doubt that it consists of this novelist's best work to date. "The Position" revolves around the family of the Mellows, suburbanites who, in the middle of the 70's, write a sex manual where they serve as the models for the paintings. While the manual takes off, making the family wealthy and the parents famous, at home things change. One evening the Mellows four children, ages 7-15 find and read the manual. This moment turns into the seminal moment of their lives, the one which changes everything. After this initial event, the novel picks up in the present day, examining how the aftershocks of that day continue to reverberate in the each family member's life. Deftly using rotating perspective, Wolitzer shows us the family from each member's perspective. She also takes the opportunity to cover a great many modern subjects, from internet startups, to Viagra, to the war of Iraq, dealing with each in an interesting and engaging manner. To her credit, Wolitzer's characters never turn trite, and while the occasional clichés creep in here and there, this draw back does very little to lessen the novel's engaging flow. To a certain degree the author returns to the subject of her previous novel "The Wife," particularly as it relates to a wife who is misunderstood and whose depth is underappreciated by her spouse. This novel, however, benefits from deeper characters and also for Wolitzer's use of humor, something that previous work lacked. Indeed, more than a few scenes here provoke a hearty chuckle. Over all, readers will enjoy this work and be converted to Wolitzer fan's in the process. I have little doubt that, come the summer reading season, a paperback addition will find a welcome place in many a beach bag.

Meg Wolitzer's been steadily building strength over the course of her career, and I thought she'd really peaked with The Wife -- until I picked up this book. The narrative is so assured, and laugh out loud funny, that it's impossible to put down. With a steady hand she shifts point of view chapter by chapter, as if passing a relay baton from character to character, painting a complex and complete picture of one colorful family then (in the 1970s) and now, until the very end when The Position becomes more than just the portrait of one family or an era (or a sex act!). It's a crazy, beautiful meditation on how each of us, with our own unique dysfunctions, finds happiness.

This book has such an amazing premise. What happens to the children of parents who write a sex-tell-all/instruction-guide (think The Joy of Sex) after they discover The Book? What happens after their "so in love" parents get divorced? In 1975, the Mellow parents, Paul and Roz, write a book that celebrates their love, and their love-making. The international bestseller features the Mellows in various poses straight from the Kama Sutra in all their naked glory; including the Position they created themselves. Holly, 15, Michael, 13, Dashiell, 8, and Claudia 6, all sit down one afternoon after Michael finds The Book. And the discovery of The Book leaves the four young Mellows changed forever. What is interesting is how it changes them all in such different ways. This is a fascinating look at how sex, love, divorce, and marriage can effect the oldest and the youngest in such varied ways. At first, I didn't think I was going to like this book, but as I continued, I became to empathize with the characters and even grew to like them. Wolitzer writes with a deft hand, giving her characters sympathy but not becoming so over handed that it grates the nerves. No sentence out of place, no plot unturned, this book is highly recommended.

The book should get five stars for the nostalgia factor alone!!! Growing up in the seventies has ever been more unglamorously or accurately depicted as in Meg Wolitzers brilliant, funny, and touching saga of the Mellow family. Paul and Roz Mellow write a book akin to 'The Joy Of Sex' which they end up being the models for. The book becomes a massive bestseller, and changes their lives. However one evening the children pore over the pages of the book together, and witness their parents in poses that one never hopes or could even imagine their parents being in. The shock waves from this reverberates into each of their adult lives. I fell in love with these characters. They were all so real and so identifiable, you can't help see parts of your own family in theirs. I also found the book hard to put down, which is always, to me anyway, the sign of a really great book.

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