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A review by petersonline
Friendship by Emily Gould
4.0
Emily Gould spent the majority of her twenties in the middle of intense Internet backlash. She started out at the now-defunct blog Gawker, which led to a TV show appearance where Jimmy Kimmel told her she was "going to hell" for the creation of the Gawker Stalker Map, which allowed people to know where their favorite celebrities were in New York at any given time. It was a gross protection of celebrities, a strange defense of an attack on the rich and famous that Emily Gould was made out to be responsible for. Later on, she left Gawker and wrote a cover-piece about it in The New York Times Magazine, once again sparking backlash, but eventually landing a book deal for her first essay collection, "And The Heart Says Whatever." The essay collection flopped, and the Internet vitriol directed at Gould continued to pour in. She became known to her detractors as an oversharer, sometimes a navel gazer. However, to her fans, Emily Gould is a writer filled with a certain amount of New York coolness and charm, a self-awareness that feels alive whenever you read her. Emily Gould seems untouchable because she's always in on the joke.
Her novel Friendship, which also sparked backlash for the aforementioned reasons, but also backlash involving her friend Ruth Curry, who wasn't pleased about being the inspiration behind Bev, one of the characters in the novel. Curry and Gould are still best friends though, and are the co-owners of feminist publishing start-up Emily Books, an imprint of Coffee House Press that publishes "weird books by women." The books on the Emily Books imprint, like Temporary by Hilary Leichter and Problems by Jade Sharma, are fun, funky, and slightly off-kilter. Emily Gould's novels, however, are a bit more straightforward. Very little in her books could be considered off-kilter or weird.
Friendship is the story of Amy and Bev, two best friends living in New York who have just hit 30 and are at two different stages in life. Amy lives in a sunny one-bedroom and has an asshole-artist boyfriend who acts like your typical Art Man, Bev lives in an apartment with roommates. Amy works at Yidster, a blog that looks at contemporary issues through a "Jewish angle" (Amy, much like Gould, left her previous blogging job and became the target of lots of Internet vitriol), Bev is stuck in an endless temping swamp, working mindless and unfulfilling jobs.
Pretty early on in the book, Bev gets pregnant, and obvious complications ensue. There's not a lot I can say about this book without giving too much away, but the way Gould tracks this friendship and these women is extremely compelling. This is, as the title suggests, a deep portrayal of the ins and outs of friendship, and how being a good friend takes work. Gould's writing remains, like her other books, pretty simple throughout. Straightforward prose with cutting social observations scattered throughout. For a woman who once received death threats for being too judgmental on the internet, Friendship is a remarkably non-judgmental book.
Friendship falters in the sections where Gould's personality seems to fade. Sometimes the narration can feel stale, immobile. Friendship is narrated in the third person, and while that works for this story, it also makes some of the more emotional parts of the book feel less three-dimensional than they should. I was impressed, however, by how well Gould was able to weave this story together. There was a proper, not overindulgent use of backstory that added a lot to the story (unlike the needless backstory used by authors who write about similar topics, like J. Courtney Sullivan), and I appreciated how, in the end, it was clear who the better friend was, but Gould still gave you reasons to root for both Amy and Bev. Some may find that corny, but I felt it was necessary for a book that aimed to depict the nuances of a friendship.
I've enjoyed everything I've read of Emily Gould's, but this is easily her best book. A page-turner, but also a novel where the reader is guaranteed to see parts of themselves in both Amy and Bev. For a book that primarily seeks to write about friendship and its many trials and tribulations (a book that has definitely been done before by other authors, though none as strong or as down-to-earth as Gould), Friendship ultimately shines.
Her novel Friendship, which also sparked backlash for the aforementioned reasons, but also backlash involving her friend Ruth Curry, who wasn't pleased about being the inspiration behind Bev, one of the characters in the novel. Curry and Gould are still best friends though, and are the co-owners of feminist publishing start-up Emily Books, an imprint of Coffee House Press that publishes "weird books by women." The books on the Emily Books imprint, like Temporary by Hilary Leichter and Problems by Jade Sharma, are fun, funky, and slightly off-kilter. Emily Gould's novels, however, are a bit more straightforward. Very little in her books could be considered off-kilter or weird.
Friendship is the story of Amy and Bev, two best friends living in New York who have just hit 30 and are at two different stages in life. Amy lives in a sunny one-bedroom and has an asshole-artist boyfriend who acts like your typical Art Man, Bev lives in an apartment with roommates. Amy works at Yidster, a blog that looks at contemporary issues through a "Jewish angle" (Amy, much like Gould, left her previous blogging job and became the target of lots of Internet vitriol), Bev is stuck in an endless temping swamp, working mindless and unfulfilling jobs.
Pretty early on in the book, Bev gets pregnant, and obvious complications ensue. There's not a lot I can say about this book without giving too much away, but the way Gould tracks this friendship and these women is extremely compelling. This is, as the title suggests, a deep portrayal of the ins and outs of friendship, and how being a good friend takes work. Gould's writing remains, like her other books, pretty simple throughout. Straightforward prose with cutting social observations scattered throughout. For a woman who once received death threats for being too judgmental on the internet, Friendship is a remarkably non-judgmental book.
Friendship falters in the sections where Gould's personality seems to fade. Sometimes the narration can feel stale, immobile. Friendship is narrated in the third person, and while that works for this story, it also makes some of the more emotional parts of the book feel less three-dimensional than they should. I was impressed, however, by how well Gould was able to weave this story together. There was a proper, not overindulgent use of backstory that added a lot to the story (unlike the needless backstory used by authors who write about similar topics, like J. Courtney Sullivan), and I appreciated how, in the end, it was clear who the better friend was, but Gould still gave you reasons to root for both Amy and Bev. Some may find that corny, but I felt it was necessary for a book that aimed to depict the nuances of a friendship.
I've enjoyed everything I've read of Emily Gould's, but this is easily her best book. A page-turner, but also a novel where the reader is guaranteed to see parts of themselves in both Amy and Bev. For a book that primarily seeks to write about friendship and its many trials and tribulations (a book that has definitely been done before by other authors, though none as strong or as down-to-earth as Gould), Friendship ultimately shines.