Name: The Friend: A Novel
ISBN: 9780735219458

Sigrid Nunez

The Friend: A Novel

Eli Alvah Huckabee

oh to love and lose an artist. devoured it in half of JFK->SFO am i crying because im on a plane or because of the book probably both it also made me laugh out loud. Winn Dixie for grown ups. 

Jules 

- originally read this in 2024, wanted to reread it this year

- a book about a friendship that was far from perfect but deeply valued. the friend (only ever labeled as “you” in the novel) is a narcissistic, womanizing, unfaithful man that seemingly every woman in this story is obsessed with. he is, by most standards, a piece of shit, but his death pulls lots of memories for the narrator & motivates all these fits of research on depression and suicide

- i’m glad i read this again at this time in my life. not to get too personal, but i’ve had my friendships tested in the past 12 months in ways i’ve never experienced at any other point in my life. it was easy to link the narrator’s actions and regrets with my own. what burdens are worth bearing for people who are out of our lives? is the burden only an extension of our desire to have them back? to love them the way we used to? (“[...] do i believe that if i love apollo—beautiful, aging, melancholy apollo—i will wake one morning to find him gone and you in his place, back from the land of the dead?”)

- while grief and loss and companionship are the first impressions, they’re not the lasting images. she has so many things to say about misogyny, and sex trafficking, and other traumas, and how we recover from that (or, in some cases, how we don’t). the core of this novel, really, is about writing, and being a writer in a world filled with too many artists and not enough activists. while these are important and necessary things to bring to light, it distracted me from the actual characters of the novel, which was what attracted me to 

- still not the biggest fan of the ending.... the twist was appropriate considering the role of writing in the novel, but it kind of felt like a cop out to me

smile??

- originally read this in 2024, wanted to reread it this year

- a book about a friendship that was far from perfect but deeply valued. the friend (only ever labeled as “you” in the novel) is a narcissistic, womanizing, unfaithful man that seemingly every woman in this story is obsessed with. he is, by most standards, a piece of shit, but his death pulls lots of memories for the narrator & motivates all these fits of research on depression and suicide

- i’m glad i read this again at this time in my life. not to get too personal, but i’ve had my friendships tested in the past 12 months in ways i’ve never experienced at any other point in my life. it was easy to link the narrator’s actions and regrets with my own. what burdens are worth bearing for people who are out of our lives? is the burden only an extension of our desire to have them back? to love them the way we used to? (“[...] do i believe that if i love apollo—beautiful, aging, melancholy apollo—i will wake one morning to find him gone and you in his place, back from the land of the dead?”)

- while grief and loss and companionship are the first impressions, they’re not the lasting images. she has so many things to say about misogyny, and sex trafficking, and other traumas, and how we recover from that (or, in some cases, how we don’t). the core of this novel, really, is about writing, and being a writer in a world filled with too many artists and not enough activists. while these are important and necessary things to bring to light, it distracted me from the actual characters of the novel, which was what attracted me to the friend in the first place

- still not the biggest fan of the ending.... the twist was appropriate considering the role of writing in the novel, but it kind of felt like a cop out to me

Lauren Shull

I tried and tried to finish this book. I made it half way before giving up. It reads like a stream of consciousness journal. It wouldn't have bothered me if it didn't seem so tedious. For only being 200pages it took a very long time for her to acquire the dog. It just felt annoying and I wanted to keep skimming because the narrator consistently over explained.

Melody Izard

What is love? How can we deal with grief of those we love? What is a life well lived?

Jason Porterfield

This is so beautifully written and evocative of of a friendship - or two friendships. There’s a touch of “kids these days” codgerism that I totally recognize from academia, but it’s forgivable here.

Olivera Mitić

Išla sam u biblioteku da pozajmim jedan drugi roman (koji nisu imali), a izašla sam potpuno spontano s ovim. Korice su mi u trenutku privukle pažnju i setila sam se da je Prijatelj ona jedna knjiga koju malo malo neko na internetu opiše kao "hidden gem".

I stvarno jeste. Uvukla mi se pod kožu i sad imam želju da napišem pismo Sigrid Nunjez da joj kažem hvala.

The Friend: A Novel

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