I have, for basically as far back as I can remember, had more guy friends than girl friends. I don’ know why and usually I don’t care why. Sometimes an offhand comment will be made (“She’s one of those girls who doesn’t have girlfriends”) and I get all paranoid. What is one of those girls??? I never want to be that girl!
In reading The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship, I’m not sure I want to be the kind of girl who has a lot of girlfriends, either. Certainly not the types described in this book. The friendship that Zaslow goes into great detail to describe sounds fine enough. These women obviously have a great support system that they have developed for each other and, to some extent, I think that is all of the point he desires to make. But the way the circle of friends works, well that just plain old didn’t sound appealing to me. Sorry. He tried to show that they were clique-y in high school but not anymore but I read about it immediately reverting back to my high school self and feeling excluded.
Zaslow’s book read less like a novel, which I suppose it wasn’t, to me than a PhD dissertation. But who wants to read a PhD dissertation?! It was mostly written in story form with some facts and citations of scholarly journals thrown in. The facts inspired him to write the books, to learn more about the power of female relationships and how those relationships will effect his daughters’ and wife’s lives.The potential behind this research is important, especially for ladies like myself not in large friends circles of women. If I had better friend sources I would be happier, live longer, have a better marriage … all powerful stuff. But still, in The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship, pretty boring stuff to read about.
I chugged my way through this book, completing it in time for a monthly book club deadline. Here’s the thing. I don’t recommend it to you, internet, and I won’t recommend it to other people. But at one point in the book I did cry. CRY. I don’t think my crying was because the book was so good but more because it was detailing the death of someone and the death of my grandmother is still so fresh. But regardless I sat on my couch weeping. Most books don’t leave me with emotional reactions. So I offer you up a review of this book — not the best but maybe the fact that it did touch some part of my emotional core means there is something more here I missed.
Book club is later this week so I can report back if other people liked it.
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