Quick answer
Short answer: Meg Wolitzer’s 2013 novel The Interestings is the book that inspired Sara Bareilles to begin composing a full score for an official stage adaptation. The novel also resonated with Bareilles’s personal work on her album Good Grief, and she has spoken publicly about managing anxiety—including starting Lexapro at age 46—and how those experiences shaped her creative outlook.
New angle: What a coming-of-age novel taught a pop songwriter about grief and presence
Rather than a standard celebrity profile, this piece focuses on the artistic cross-pollination between Meg Wolitzer’s sweeping novel and Sara Bareilles’s evolving voice as a composer. The connection is practical (a stage musical in development) and personal (the book helped Bareilles process grief, infertility, and the limits of control).
Why The Interestings mattered to Sara Bareilles
Sara Bareilles — the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter behind hits like “Love Song” and “Brave,” and the composer of the Broadway score for Waitress — has described The Interestings as a catalytic read. The book’s four-decade scope and its portrait of ambition, luck, and friendship opened a musical and emotional language that Bareilles had not yet fully explored.
How the novel translated into music
After adapting Waitress, Bareilles was actively looking for a new story to make into musical theater. When she encountered Wolitzer’s novel, she says it immediately suggested a style of music she hadn’t written before and became the basis for a stage adaptation she is composing with Wolitzer and a director.
Personal context: grief, infertility, and mental health
Beyond its professional impact, The Interestings reflected aspects of Bareilles’s internal life. She has talked about long-standing anxiety and sensitivity, and has described how being prescribed Lexapro at 46 was a turning point for her ability to function and create. These experiences informed the emotional territory of her album Good Grief, recorded at Dreamland Studios in upstate New York.
On letting go of control
Bareilles frames acceptance of mortality and the reality of loss as a route to being present. That stance—acknowledging grief rather than denying it—becomes a source of material and resilience in her songwriting and theatrical work.
Characters and the idea of “enough”
Of the ensemble in Wolitzer’s novel, Bareilles identifies most with Jules Jacobson, who seeks to be seen as exceptional while wrestling with insecurity and envy. Bareilles reads Jules’s eventual career pivot not as failure but as an embrace of a life that is, in its ordinariness, sufficient.
Why Good Grief grew from these themes
The album Good Grief channels the messiness of loss—broken expectations, the deaths of friends, and the smaller, quieter departures that shape a life—into songs that balance sorrow with hope. Bareilles credits those life moments for shaping the record’s tone and honesty.
Key takeaways from the conversation
- Presence over perfection: Accepting uncertainty and mortality can free creative focus for the present rather than speculation about the future.
- Being “enough”: Worth doesn’t always require visible exceptionalism; steady, ordinary life has its own value.
- Grief and love are intertwined: Loss often follows deep attachment, and processing grief can fuel authentic art.
As Bareilles puts it, “Great love and great loss are just… they’re braided together. But they are. They are one.”
Where to watch or listen
Prefer video? The full interview is available on the Books That Changed My Life YouTube Channel. For audio listeners, the conversation is also in the show’s archive on the main site and on Spotify. A related playlist appears in the official podcast directory: music.youtube.com playlist.
About the original book and guest
About the book: Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings (2013) follows six friends who meet at an arts summer camp in the 1970s and traces how talent, luck, and class shape lives over decades. The novel centers on Jules Jacobson and explores the gap between youthful expectation and adult reality.
About Sara Bareilles: Sara Bareilles is a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and composer known for hit singles and her Broadway work, including the Tony-nominated score for Waitress; she has also acted in projects such as Girls5eva. Her official site: sarabmusic.com.
Further reading and related links
- Sara Bareilles official site
- The Interestings (Walmart listing)
- What Is the Optimal Sleep Duration for Biological Aging?
- Gen Z Dating App Burnout: Why Young Adults Prefer Hobbies
FAQ
Q: Which book inspired Sara Bareilles’s upcoming stage musical?
A: The stage project grew out of Meg Wolitzer’s 2013 novel The Interestings; Bareilles has said the book sparked the musical direction she is now composing.
Q: Which character in The Interestings does Sara Bareilles relate to the most?
A: Bareilles has described a strong identification with Jules Jacobson—Jules’s mixture of awkwardness, yearning, and sharp self-awareness felt personally resonant to her.
Q: What is the title of Sara Bareilles’s album exploring personal loss?
A: The record is called Good Grief, and Bareilles recorded much of it at Dreamland Studios in upstate New York.
Q: What practical advice does Sara Bareilles offer artists about backup plans?
A: She recommends finding ways to cover living expenses—often through temporary or odd jobs—so creators can continue building their art instead of feeling forced to abandon their practice entirely.
Final reflection
At its core, the interplay between Wolitzer’s novel and Bareilles’s work demonstrates how a single book can change an artist’s priorities and methods. Whether through adapting a sprawling story for the stage or turning private grief into songs, the creative payoff comes from willingness to lean into discomfort and remain present.
To watch the full conversation, stream it on the Books That Changed My Life YouTube Channel or find the episode in the show archive at booksthatchangedmylife.org.
Related reading on funzalo.com: Victoria Aveyard on Tolkien’s Lasting Influence This Year; This Book Gave Margaret Cho a Bold New Rock Culture View.
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