Book Review: Treat Yourself To ‘The Friend’

by | Mar 11, 2018 | Books, Featured | 0 comments

Becoming the guardian of her late best friend’s enormous Great Dane, a grieving woman is evicted from her no-pets apartment and forges a deep bond with the equally distraught animal in ways that initially disturb her friends. By the award-winning author of Salvation City.

Sigrid Nunez has a very unique and individual way of writing and I am completely taken by it. I have read literally thousands of books in my lifetime and I must confess that this one presents a story that dazzled me, made me sad, had me remembering lost friends, including dogs and cats, and laughter that was so personal, it was like having a love affair.

Our heroine loses her friend, mentor, and once only lover to suicide and she is hurting. As a teacher of literature, she has, of course, a thousand books to quote from and she does, a million inserts from her lover and thanks to wife number 3, her departed friend’s dog, a great Dane. The whole story revolves around this great Dane that takes over her apartment, her bed, and if the truth be told, her entire life.

I can’t sit here and give you an outline because to have an outline, you need substance in the middle and you don’t. She lets you in just now and again, a little peek into what is really happening, and then poof! She is gone again. You really need to treat yourself to this story, it’s a weeper but you won’t put it on a shelf, it will become a part of your soul and existence, but only if you open your heart and mind. Read it! You will enjoy every page, don’t read it, and you don’t want to know because I can’t put into words, what you will be missing. A great read.

Now available in bookstores

Ann McDonald