Archive for the ‘friendship’ Tag
Just as the title, My Friends, implies Fredrik Backman’s novel is about friendships both those in the past and an emerging one.
Louisa has grown up in foster homes and just turned 18. Her best friend, Fish, has recently died leaving her completely on her own.
Through a random, and hard to believe, encounter with a famous Artist in the back alley of an art gallery, they graffiti a wall together. She learns he’s the artist she’s long admired; he sees she’s a talented artist. Before he dies shortly thereafter, he instructs his friend, Ted, to find Louisa to give her the painting that first brought him worldwide attention. It’s one she’s been obsessed with most of her life.
That chance meeting changes her life and thus begins a journey to learn more about the artist and herself. Despite’s Ted’s reluctance and discomfort to have Louisa as his companion, they embark on an adventure that occurs simultaneously as he shares the story of how he, the Artist and two other friends spent the summer they turned 15.
Backman, through Ted, details how the painting came to be, illustrates the close bonds the friends shared and describes their unprivileged backgrounds. Louisa easily relates to having never had much and still carries memories of Fish close to her heart.
Backman injects humor in this often poignant, predictable work. It’s about the strength of friendship, perseverance and the ability to survive through unlikely circumstances.
This is a story about friendship, perseverance and survival.
My Friends
Four Bookmarks
Astoria Books, 2025
436 pages, includes acknowledgements
Four bookmarks
Set in 1960s in a northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., Marie Bostwick’s novel, The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a misnomer– at least by today’s standards.
The housing development where the women live is new, so none of the neighbors know one another well. After visiting the local bookstore, Margaret Ryan decides to form a book club. She invites three other women to discuss Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, which has just hit the shelves. The group calls itself The Bettys.
Bostwick ascribes interesting attributes to each woman. Marilyn, Viv and Charlotte are all married with children. Charlotte is brash and creative unlike anyone Marilyn has ever met. Bitsy, the youngest and married to a much older man, is desperate to get pregnant.
The novel focuses on the personalities and friendships, which are initially in line with the times in which they live. This is primarily focused on the sexism they face in their marriages and outside their homes. Slowly, and predictably, as the women grow closer they begin to change by challenging the norms of the day.
There’s plenty of humor and nostalgia, even for those who weren’t part of that era. The women’s frustrations at not being taken seriously are palpable, but so is their joy when they are.
The final chapter takes readers to the early 2000s. As for the title, these women aren’t troublesome; rather they’re brave, progressive and evolve to become defiant. There’s little that’s unexpected, but it’s a fun read nonetheless.
The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Almost four bookmarks
2025, Harper Muse
371 pages, including acknowledgements and Discussion Questions
Years ago I gave myself permission to stop reading if I couldn’t get into a book. I should have heeded my own consent with Among Friends by Hal Ebbot. I finished it, although with effort. I felt obligated because it was a book group selection.
The novel focuses on the long-standing friendships between two families: Amos, Claire and daughter Anna; Emerson, Retsy and daughter Sophie. Although from different social backgrounds, the men have been best friends for more than 30 years. Emerson and Claire, both come from privilege, have known each most of their lives. The teen girls have grown up together.
They’re together at Emerson’s country home in upstate New York to celebrate his 52nd birthday. Yet, something’s off; there’s an unstated, and apparently unusual, competition between the men.
Later, when Emerson finds himself alone with teenage Anna, something occurs that has the potential to change all their lives. Anna initially doesn’t tell her parents, but when she does they’re torn as to not only what to believe, but more importantly who.
The narrative then gets bogged down with too much about their pasts and it’s easy to question why they’re even friends.
Although Ebbott creates credible tension both with Anna and her parents, along with the adults’ responses, who care?! Retsy and Amos believe Emerson is capable of Anna’s claims; Claire’s ready to dismiss her daughter’s accusation and Emerson is certain he can manipulate the truth.
The characters aren’t people I’d want to know; reading about them was enough.
Among Friends
Two-and-half bookmarks
Random House, 2025
320 pages
College dropout and drug addict Hai, is about to jump off a bridge in East Gladness, Conn., when he’s talked down by Grazina, an elderly widow, who then invites him into her nearby, rundown home. This is the beginning of Ocean Vuong’s novel The Emperor of Gladness. What ensues is a look at how creating a family can evolve from unlikely relationships.
Hai has lied to his Vietnamese mother about still being in school and, among other things, his sexuality. In fact, he elaborates telling her he’s in medical school. As his friendship with Grazina evolves, he becomes her unofficial caretaker, ensuring she talks her medications and helping her as she relives traumatic flashbacks from when she escaped the war in Lithuania. Nonetheless, she sinks deeper into dementia.
When it becomes clear the pair needs money, he joins his cousin Sony, like the electronics brand, who works in a fast casual restaurant with a group of misfits.
The characters, like the novel itself, are both sad and funny through their distinct personality quirks. Their desperateness is palpable. Sony, who is otherwise not exceptionally bright, is a Civil War savant. Sonny’s mother is in jail and he believes his father is living in Maine.
Vuong’s descriptions are vivid but occasionally longwinded. Despite the author’s colorful details, it’s easy to visualize the desolate town of East Gladness.
Hai’s co-workers at the restaurant are equally adrift, each with their own feelings of loneliness while they unknowingly search for connections.
The Emperor of Gladness
Four Bookmarks
Penguin Press, 2025
402 pages
When Phoebe Stone abruptly leaves her Midwest college teaching job at the beginning of the semester, she heads to an upscale hotel on the Rhode Island coast. It’s a place she’d always dreamt of going with her husband, but he’s left her for another woman and Phoebe needed to get away; she’s had enough.
Alison Espach’s humorous and compassionate novel, The Wedding People, is as much about self-discovery as it addresses misplaced emotions, chance encounters and probable bad decisions.
The hotel is booked for a weeklong private affair and Phoebe is easily mistaken as a wedding guest; albeit without any luggage. It’s a large group of family and friends. No one takes particular notice until the bride, Lila, realizes Phoebe’s presence has the potential of ruining the festivities. Lila has planned everything, while sparing no expense, practically down to the minute. The unanticipated presence of a stranger could ruin everything.
Yet, Phoebe intrigues Lila, who spends time in the older woman’s room regaling her with the efforts involved in planning the wedding. Phoebe learns how Lila met her fiancé, the relationships she has with her mother, her sister-in-law to be and many of the (invited) guests.
Phoebe assures Lila that she has no intention of being a disruption: she plans to stay at the hotel one night and not interact with anyone. This soon goes awry.
The engaging, well-paced narrative, full of nuanced characters, leads Phoebe to a better understanding of herself, an acceptance of others, new friendships – and more.
The Wedding People
Four Bookmarks
Henry Holt and Co., 2024
367 pages, includes acknowledgements
Louise Erdrich seamlessly weaves together a fast-paced, engaging story of young love, manipulative relationships, the environment and secrets in The Mighty Red.
This novel is rich in well-developed characters beginning with Kismet is a bright, sensitive yet impulsive high school senior with plans to leave her small town in the rural Red River Valley of North Dakota. Her best friend is Hugo, a brilliant home-schooled social outcast is in love with Kismet. Gary is the son of the wealthiest family in town and star quarterback. He’s not an enigma but carries a dark secret, and is also in love with Kismet. He’s desperate to marry her believing that she can help him forget that which haunts him.
Yes, there are adults, but the actions of some are less mature than the teens. Gary’s mother and Kismet’s father have their own (unrelated) agendas, which alternate between the comical and sad. Only Crystal, Kismet’s mother, seems to have a logical take on things, until she briefly doesn’t.
The tragic humor Erdrich interjects throughout the narrative is not limited to the relationships, but also to the over-cultivation of the land, land that once belonged to Native Americans and now makes a lucky few rich through sugarbeet farming. There’s no mistaking the irony that Crystal and Kismet are Ojibwe; with the mother driving the crops to the sugar refinery and Kismet as the farmer’s son object of desire.
As critical as the characters are to the storyline, the land is also a significant element.
The Mighty Red
Four Bookmarks
Harper, 2024
372 pages
Repression, redemption, acceptance and truth are the themes of The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne primarily set in Ireland.
Catherine, a 16-year-old, girl from a rural community, is physically kicked out of the church and her community by the parish priest for being pregnant and unwed. She makes her way to Dublin, gives up her newborn son for adoption and moves on with her life. The boy, Cyril, is adopted by Charles and Maude Avery, a wealthy couple whose idea of parenting doesn’t include affection. Nonetheless, he lacks for little else. The narrative follows Cyril for seven decades.
Cyril is introspective. He’s told to call his adoptive parents by their first names and is frequently reminded he is “not an Avery.” When, at age seven, he meets Julian he is immediately enthralled. Later, they become best friends but couldn’t be more different: Cyril is gay and Julian loves (all) women.
For most of his life, Cyril hides the truth about himself. This haunts him and destroys the most important relationships in his life. There are rifts, disappointments and more lies until Cyril finally leaves Dublin in spectacular, yet shameful, fashion.
This beautifully crafted novel is rich with complex, interesting characters. Boyne injects humor, joy and sorrow into all of them, especially Cyril. He is someone to embrace and shake by the shoulders. He’s intelligent, funny and serious, and it takes years for him to recognize all his life holds. The abundance of which surprises the reader as much as him.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Five Bookmarks
Hogarth, 2017
585 pages, includes reader’s guide
It’s 1966 and young men are going off to war in Viet Nam; except they’re not alone. Young women go, too, which is the topic of The Women by Kristin Hannah.
Frankie McGrath volunteers for the Army Nurse Corps soon after learning her brother has been killed in the war. She is part of a field medical unit treating wounded soldiers. Many of whom can’t be saved. As her nursing skills get stronger so does her friendship with fellow nurses, Ethel and Barbara. She also falls in love with a naval pilot.
Dealing with the natural elements, seeking safety from enemy bombardments and never getting used to the carnage wrought by war is almost nothing compared to Frankie’s return to the States following two tours of duty.
Hannah’s descriptions of the attitude toward Viet Nam vets are heart wrenching because of their truth. This is compounded by the mindset held by many, including other vets, that there were no women in Viet Nam. Even Frankie’s father refuses to admit to his country club social circle that his daughter served in the war.
The novel is divided into two parts. The first focuses on Frankie’s naiveté and gradual realization that the situation in Viet Nam is uncompromising for those in its midst. The second section deals with her reintroduction to society vehemently opposed to the war without acknowledging its toll. Thankfully, Frankie’s nursing friends provide unending love and support as she fights her inner battles and struggles to move forward.
The Women
Four Bookmarks
St. Martin’s Press, 2024
470 Pages, includes Author’s note and acknowledgements
I haven’t kept up with Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, but picking up the latest, From a Far and Lovely Country, is like reuniting with an old friend: Perhaps not a close companion, but a buddy nonetheless.
Mma Ramotswe still helms her detective agency and is married to mechanic Mr. J.B. Matekoni. Mma Makutsti remains her faithful, albeit meddlesome assistant.
There are two cases in which Mma Ramotswe is involved, one directly and one more casually since she’s decided Charlie, who splits his time between working the agency and the garage, is ready to oversee a case.
The first comes about when Mma Ramotswe is approached by Julia, an American hoping to locate relatives she’s never met. It’s complicated; her grandfather left Botswana many years ago with no information on the family that stayed. However, the lady detective is not perplexed by the assignment. She is concerned, though, that all may not be what Julia expects.
The case Charlie works on grows to be more problematic than anyone anticipated, thanks to Mma Makutsi’s unsolicited involvement.
A third storyline is a belated birthday gift for Mma Ramotswe, which results in a comedy of errors on the part of the dress seller, gift giver and the recipient.
What’s engaging and humorous about the series is the formality with which all the characters direct to one another. Rarely are first names used. For example, Mr. J.B. Matekoni is always identified by his full name, even by his wife.
From a Far and Lovely Country
Three-and-a-half bookmarks
Pantheon Books, 2023
239 pages
The way Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story, as in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, is cinematic. And it’s not just because the namesake character was a Hollywood movie star and much of the narrative is set in Tinseltown.
At 79, having outlived her fame, friends and husbands, Evelyn is ready to give an interview after years of avoiding the media. However, the only person to whom she will meet with is Monique Grant, a young, unknown writer. The younger woman is, understandably, surprised. Evelyn has several stipulations. First, Monique will not be writing an article, rather a book about the actress’s life story, and it can only be published upon Evelyn’s death. Such a book is destined to earn the writer fame and wealth.
The novel moves between the past (initially the 1950s) to the present (2017), with Evelyn relating how she came to be in the limelight, her years in and out of favor as a beautiful woman. Readers also learn about Monique in the process.
Monique has two important questions: why me and who was Evelyn’s one true love? After all, who has seven husbands?!
The assumption, of course, is one of the many spouses, but there’s no spoiler here. This big reveal comes well before the end. However, that’s when Monique’s other query is finally answered.
The engaging storyline and characters provide the diversion that comes with a good book. Sexuality, treatment of women in the film industry, friendships and, of course, marriage are underlying issues.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Four Bookmarks
Washington Square Press, 2017
389 pages
The Blue Page Special 