I’ve known quite a few people who felt that their parents’ professions placed an unfair burden on them, like the son of a Methodist minister I dated in college. In fact, with a professor of clinical psychology for a dad and a piano teacher for a mom, I may even have complained about it myself on one or two occasions. ;-)

Never again.

The Position is a novel about parents who are the co-authors of a bestselling sex manual. An illustrated bestselling sex manual. Illustrated with pictures of them. And the novel’s title refers to a sex position that they invented, tee hee. And their four children, who ranged in age between 6 and 15 when they discovered the manual in their family room, stuffed between a book about golden retrievers and Diet for a Small Planet, have to deal with it.

The Position takes place both in the mid-70s — and oh the wonderful period details: troll dolls, sea monkeys, shag carpet — and in the present day, as the now-divorced parents are thinking about re-issuing the book and the four children are still, in various ways, trying to come to terms with its existence. This book is hilarious, witty, and very well written. Even if love, marriage, and family dynamics isn’t your usual cup of tea, you could do a lot worse than The Position, especially for a vacation read.

One of the things I liked best — at the risk of sounding like an English major — is the way the author handles the third person narration. Did you ever see the movie Stranger than Fiction? In it, this guy (Will Ferrell, ugh, but anyway) hears a voice in his head that sounds like an author is narrating his life. He goes to various shrinks, etc., and none help. Finally in desperation he goes to see an English professor (Dustin Hoffman, yesssss!) who doesn’t believe him either, until Will Ferrell quotes the voice in his head with a sentence that begins with “Little did he know…” Dustin Hoffman gets all excited over this example of third person omniscient narration and instantly believes that Will Ferrell’s life really is being narrated by an author. No regular crazy person would hear voices in the third person omniscient. (That one scene lifted the entire movie from the ridiculous into the sublime, in my opinion.)

That was kind of a big digression but my point is this: I love third person omniscient narration. I love the feeling of power it gives you, because you get to know EVERYTHING. However, too much of the “little did he know” can get annoying, because it’s just so… cheesy. Meg Wolitzer never stoops to “little did he know” — and yet she tells us everything. We get to delve equally into the lives of all four children and both parents. No one character dominates the book; it’s a true ensemble cast. All six characters are equally likeable, equally interesting, equally sympathetic. A real treat.

Question: did you ever feel embarrassed or burdened by your parents’ professions?