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Book Review of The Friend Who Got Away : Twenty Women's True Life Tales of Friendships that Blew Up, Burned Out or Faded Away

reviewed on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This book surprised me. I expected it to be exclusively about adult women's friendships with other adult women, but it explored a variety of friendships, including women's friendships with men and adult women looking back on friendships they had as children. The most interesting for me was two adjacent chapters, written by two different women, about their friendship with each other--it was amazing that I was most of the way through the second account before I realized they were talking about the same friendship! Then I had to go back and reread them both, and still it seemed like they were telling two largely unrelated stories. I was also surprised (and a little depressed) by the wide variety of ways in which friendships can end--it made me scrutinize my own friendships in ways that were not necessarily helpful. Overall, a real eye-opener, but not necessarily of the feel-good variety. Nevertheless, worth a read.