Friendship: A Novel
Best pals Bev and Amy are about to hit 30, and neither woman is where she wants to be. When Bev and Amy met years earlier at a publishing house, their futures were bright. But then Bev followed a guy to Wisconsin only to have him cheat on her, while Amy gained notoriety as a blogger until she pissed off the wrong person and lost her job. Now Bev is temping and living with three roommates, while Amy is halfheartedly working for the Jewish blog Yidster and dating a sexy slacker artist. They’re pretty much coasting until Bev has a one-night stand and winds up pregnant. As Bev wrestles with her choices, Amy concocts a plan to persuade Sally, a woman she and Bev house-sat for, to adopt Bev’s baby but grows envious when Bev and Sally grow close. Gould follows her essay collection, And the Heart Says . . .Whatever (2010), with a savvy first novel that, in piercing prose, zeroes in on modern ennui and the catalysts that force even the most apathetic out of their complacency. --Kristine Huntley