Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer

The new and eccentric drama teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School makes a radical choice and announces the school play will be Lysistrata, a Greek comedy by Aristophanes in which women withhold sex from men until war is over. As the play is rehearsed in preparation for the only performance, a spell is cast over the citizens of the small New Jersey town. The spell leaves no one's sex life untouched as women lose all interest, and not even the perfect couple, favorite English teachers, Robby and Dory Lang, are unaffected. With the demise of female sexual desire men and women, both young and old, have to reexamine their relationships and the role sex plays in their lives.

During the performance of the play, unhappy men take over the stage to try to put back together the fabric of their relationships. No one in the audience will remember later what happened on the stage when the spell is undone. But their relationships have changed and they must take the restoration of desire and sex and forge new bonds of love and intimacy both physical and emotional.

This book befuddled me. I was anxious to pick it up each time because it was interesting, but I'm not sure what I found interesting about it. In one word the book is about sex but without any juicy sex scenes. The plot was uncertain though I wanted to know what would happen next. The main characters seemed one dimensional, not quite teased out, and not even likeable except maybe Dory. The conclusion was a little confusing and unfinished, but I had already guessed how it would end. It was entirely bewildering. However I think it was the way it was written that kept me going. Wolitzer's writing was wonderful and I appreciated the style all the way through.