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A review by kadbee
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
The Friend is in a difficult spot for me, as I don't know if I enjoyed it or not. The writing captures the grief and loss of a friendship beautifully and with wit, however I cannot bring myself to like the characters.
The friend who has passed is characterised as being a serial cheater and a person who takes avantage of unequal power dynamics to have sex with his students. There is a lot of sequences in this book which make this friend out to be a rather immoral person who just happened to leave his dog with a supposed friend (or questioned ex-admirer). The idea that his suicide was spurred on by the fact younger women did not find him attractive enough or that his womanizing was not brought into question by the writer makes it feel as if his actions were not important or were easily forgiven, in a post me-too era this does not feel right.
The chapters with Apollo are the best in the book, they're engaging and relate to the blurb (the reason I bought this book) and deal less with the implication that writing is a tedious, sisyphean task (which is compared to human trafficking at one point). If I was told that the book would be extensively about the act of authorship I may have not bought it. I am not well versed in classic literature so many of the quotations littered throughout the book weren't as impactful as they should have been. I could have done with less about the man who was attracted to his dog.
I think this book was just a bit disappointing, I enjoy the message and the ending, however large chunks of this I could have done without.
The friend who has passed is characterised as being a serial cheater and a person who takes avantage of unequal power dynamics to have sex with his students. There is a lot of sequences in this book which make this friend out to be a rather immoral person who just happened to leave his dog with a supposed friend (or questioned ex-admirer). The idea that his suicide was spurred on by the fact younger women did not find him attractive enough or that his womanizing was not brought into question by the writer makes it feel as if his actions were not important or were easily forgiven, in a post me-too era this does not feel right.
The chapters with Apollo are the best in the book, they're engaging and relate to the blurb (the reason I bought this book) and deal less with the implication that writing is a tedious, sisyphean task (which is compared to human trafficking at one point). If I was told that the book would be extensively about the act of authorship I may have not bought it. I am not well versed in classic literature so many of the quotations littered throughout the book weren't as impactful as they should have been. I could have done with less about the man who was attracted to his dog.
I think this book was just a bit disappointing, I enjoy the message and the ending, however large chunks of this I could have done without.