This was a recommendation from the page-a-day calendar and I was really looking forward to reading it. Then I started it and and now I'm so happy these aren't my friends. There is a part of me that just wants to rag on how much I did not enjoy this book, but another part of me wants to be respectful to the effort that the author put into her creation. Someone liked it enough to not only buy it, but publish it. I'll be honest, I didn't even finish it. I got part way through, read the end, and felt no desire to go back and find out what happened in between.
The story is about the friendship between two New York best friends in their 30s. Wendy's life is ok. It's not overly exciting, but it's stable. It's made more stable and superior, by the crazy instability of her best friend Daphne. Wendy's life seems so much better when compared to Daphne's. Then just as Daphne's life take a series of improbable upticks, Wendy's starts going downhill. This is supposed to be a witty, insightful look at the reasons why some women stay friends. That was not my experience. The main character, Wendy, and I got off on the wrong foot when she used her low salary at work to justified her constant emailing, on-line shopping, and being late for work. Then there was her need to cement her BFF role with constant gossip and speculation. She touches on it briefly to say she really shouldn't do it and then proceeds to keep doing it. I couldn't decide if Daphne was just crazy or oblivious. Either way I didn't really care. I saw Wendy and Daphne as two sisters, with Wendy saying "But MOM, Daphne got one more present than I did!!"
It may be I have a different definition of friendship. The people in my life like Wendy and Daphne are not people I like to spend time with. They aren't people I call close friends and certainly not best friends. They are acquaintances, people I know. I trust my best friends. They're the ones who know and love me warts and all. A close friendship, for me, is about support and trust and a belief that my life is better by having this person in it. This was not the book for me.
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