The Interestings Allusions and Cultural References

Literary and Philosophical References

• Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, All the President's Men  (1.11)
• Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1.23)
• Günter Grass (1.33)
• Anaïs Nin (1.34)
• John Knowles (1.40)
• William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1.40)
• Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess" (1.125)
• Edward Albee, The Sandbox (1.177)
• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1.197)
• Euripides, The Trojan Women (3.39)
• Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (4.1; 13.104)
• The Moonies/Unification Church (4.29; 12.12)
• Constantin Stanislavski (4.154)
• Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (5.76)
• Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (6.60)
• Norman Mailer (7.30)
• John Updike (7.30)
• William Styron (7.30)
• Joan Didion (7.30)
• Edna St. Vincent Millay (7.64)
• T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (8.70)
• Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (8.116)
• Robert Frost (8.132)
• Grimm's Fairy Tales (8.163)
• Agatha Christie, Curtain (9.72)
• John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (10.16)
• Herman Wouk, Marjorie Morningstar (10.36)
• Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child (10.171)
• Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts (11.115)
• Hare Krishnas (12.12)
• Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods (13.77)
• Günter Grass, The Tin Drum (14.63)
• Euripides, Hecuba (16.47)
• Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (18.11)
• William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (20.21)

Historical References

• Nixon (1.12, 1.22; 4.24; 14.64)
• My Lai massacre (1.61)
• John F. Kennedy (1.174)
• Ronald Reagan (4.24; 11.25; 12.67; 16.4)
• The Holocaust (4.86)
• Chairman Mao (4.173)
• The Russian Revolution (5.91)
• Vietnam (6.31; 7.127; 8.14)
• George McGovern (7.34)
• Take Back the Night marches (8.43)
• Jimmy Carter (8.142; 16.48)
• General Norman Schwarzkopf (13.105)
• The Iraq War (15.63)
• Al Qaeda (15.93)
• Osama bin Laden (15.129)
• Mikhail Gorbachev (16.4)

Pop Culture References

• Gepetto, Disney's Pinocchio (1.43)
• "Amazing Grace" (1.89)
• Disney's Nine Old Men (1.118)
• Snow White (1.120)
• "What Have They Done to the Rain" (1.168)
• Cass Elliot, the Mamas and the Papas (1.180)
• Silver Screen magazine (2.11)
• Rastafarians (4.104)
• David Hockney (4.153)
• Glamour magazine (5.1)
• Charles Bronson (5.1)
• Steamboat Willie (5.24)
• The Three Stooges (5.94)
• Hayley Mills (7.67)
• Scott Joplin, "Solace" (7.73)
• Bob Dylan (7.78)
• The Rolling Stones (7.82)
• Cream (7.82)
• The Kinks (7.82)
• Joseph Haydn, Surprise (7.84)
• The Marx Brothers (7.95)
• Behind the Green Door (7.109)
• Marilyn Chambers (7.109)
• Herbie Hancock (1.128)
• Dick Clark (7.140)
• Taxi Driver (8.14)
• Neil Young (8.29)
• Rashomon (8.57)
• Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law (8.94)
• Zsa Zsa Gabor (8.140)
• All the President's Men (the film) (8.142)
• Skedaddle (8.168)
• Pink Floyd (9.14)
• Led Zeppelin (9.14)
• A Clockwork Orange (9.14)
• The Exorcist (9.68)
• The Beatles, "I'm Looking Through You" (10.62-64)
• Talking Heads (12.98)
• B-52s (12.98)
• Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music (13.94)
• James Earl Jones (14.120)
• Bertolt Brecht, Threepenny Opera (15.1)
• The Bee Gees (15.79)
• My Fair Lady (15.98)