Well, not all books can appeal to all people and unfortunately The Friend just wasn't for me.
I thought this was going to be a story about a dog. And it was but just not enough for what I was expecting. It was a novel about grief and suicide (lots of suicidal references, so note to those who might find this upsetting) and writing. I should have liked it. It's full of components that I would normally find no trouble delving into and even welcome, but I just couldn't connect to the storytelling.
The book is written as a letter/book/memoir - even the format isn't very clear - to a writing teacher's mentor who had died by suicide. She is left to look after his Great Dane. The dog is depressed. He's clearly sad, but the narrator does her best to make him comfortable. She muses a lot about human/animal relationships, about grief and how both humans and animals process it and, because she is a writing teacher herself who is writing to a writing teacher, there is a lot of philosophizing. And lots of quotes by other authors. In some sections, quote after quote after quote after quote to the point where I got tired of reading other authors' quotes and just wanted to read an original thought. (Sixteen quotes within seven pages at one point until I stopped counting - because books are for reading, not counting.)
The flow was off for me at various points as well. Much of it felt like author's notes that she wanted to include in a book, but that hadn't been formed into cohesive paragraphs. By the end, however, the book pulled together a bit more for me. There was more about the dog and more of a story. I wasn't mad at the end. It actually tied up very nicely.
My absolute favourite part is about two-thirds of the way through when the author discovers the dog likes being read to, that he finds it soothing. He picks up a Knausgaard paperback and places it gently by her side. A giant gentle dog that personally selects Knausgaard? That's the exact moment when I too fell in love with the dog.
But ultimately not even a Knausgaard-loving dog could make me connect to this book.
Book cover rating: 4/5
I thought this was going to be a story about a dog. And it was but just not enough for what I was expecting. It was a novel about grief and suicide (lots of suicidal references, so note to those who might find this upsetting) and writing. I should have liked it. It's full of components that I would normally find no trouble delving into and even welcome, but I just couldn't connect to the storytelling.
The book is written as a letter/book/memoir - even the format isn't very clear - to a writing teacher's mentor who had died by suicide. She is left to look after his Great Dane. The dog is depressed. He's clearly sad, but the narrator does her best to make him comfortable. She muses a lot about human/animal relationships, about grief and how both humans and animals process it and, because she is a writing teacher herself who is writing to a writing teacher, there is a lot of philosophizing. And lots of quotes by other authors. In some sections, quote after quote after quote after quote to the point where I got tired of reading other authors' quotes and just wanted to read an original thought. (Sixteen quotes within seven pages at one point until I stopped counting - because books are for reading, not counting.)
The flow was off for me at various points as well. Much of it felt like author's notes that she wanted to include in a book, but that hadn't been formed into cohesive paragraphs. By the end, however, the book pulled together a bit more for me. There was more about the dog and more of a story. I wasn't mad at the end. It actually tied up very nicely.
My absolute favourite part is about two-thirds of the way through when the author discovers the dog likes being read to, that he finds it soothing. He picks up a Knausgaard paperback and places it gently by her side. A giant gentle dog that personally selects Knausgaard? That's the exact moment when I too fell in love with the dog.
But ultimately not even a Knausgaard-loving dog could make me connect to this book.
Book cover rating: 4/5
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