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sydyoungstories 's review for:

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
5.0

I read this on the recommendation of an indie that this was a beach read.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A BEACH READ! THIS WILL NEVER BE A BEACH READ!!!

Except for the fact that the beach may be the only place you can read this and not want to kill yourself. Ok, yes, I rated this a five, but Lord it's dreary. Writer existential angst over being a writer and death of writer bff and all of a sudden you inherit his dog. Brilliant writing, but I'm with Elizabeth Gilbert. If I felt that way about writing, I wouldn't do it.

Anyway, it's a great literary book. So many writer truths in it. Such perfect structure. So brilliant.

But this book is not, and will never be, a beach read. Nor am I going to hand it to everyone I meet as the book to read. That will pretty much guarantee they'll stick to current trends and not read, ever again.