The Position

The Position (2005) by Meg Wolitzer. The position referred to in the title is a sexual position called Electric Forgiveness, described and illustrated in Paul and Roz Mellow's book Pleasuring: One Couple's Journey to Fulfillment. The book is a compendium of every sexual position the Mellows could fit in, illustrated with drawings, and it is a tremendous hit with the book-buying public. It is not a hit, however, with the Mellows' four children, who discover a copy of it and recognize their mother and father. The children range in age from teens down to age 6, and they all are affected profoundly, if in different ways, by the book. Wolitzer's novel follows the lives of the children and their parents as they grow from the '70s, when Pleasuring was published, to the present day, when they all must deal with each other as adults. Wolitzer does a competent job of describing the family dynamics and the lives of the Mellows as they advance into the 21st century, but there's something lacking in this novel. None of the characters really grabbed me as somebody I might want to know, or somebody who I could care about if they were real. All the right ingredients are here for an absorbing novel, but they just didn't gel for me. Grade: B