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A review by komet2020
The Friends We Keep by Jane Green
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Friends We Keep is a novel spanning the years 1986 to 2019. It's focused on the lives of 3 people - Maggie, Evvie, and Topher - who struck up what developed into a close friendship upon meeting as students during "Freshers Week" at Cambridge in 1986.
After graduation, each had pledged to remain close, come what may. But as often happens, their respective life journeys tended to pull them apart. Neither of them achieved the types of lives each had aspired to have during their university years. Maggie worked for a PR firm in London, where she met her future husband (whom she had fancied from her earliest days in university), and went on to lead a largely barren and cheerless existence. Evvie returned to New York, where she found work with a modelling agency, and eventually became a successful supermodel. But along the way, she developed a knack for getting into relationships with the wrong sorts of men. And yet, along the way, there was a man she - along with Maggie and Topher - had known from Cambridge days, with whom she had an encounter that would later have fateful consequences in the future. As for Topher, like Evvie, he moved to New York, where he carved out a successful career as a soap opera actor. He lived a bit of the wild life with a number of male lovers before striking up a special relationship with a man who gave him much happiness and contentment. And yet -- there was something out of Topher's childhood that hobbled him emotionally.
Evvie, Maggie, and Topher periodically kept in touch. But the closeness they once shared was no longer there. And yet, when they meet at a 30 year reunion at Cambridge, they begin the slow process of reforging what they once had as close friends. What results will lead the reader through a series of emotional ups and downs.
I think any middle-aged person reading this review will find much in this novel that may be relatable to their own lives. Plus, The Friends We Keep is very well-written and comes highly recommend
After graduation, each had pledged to remain close, come what may. But as often happens, their respective life journeys tended to pull them apart. Neither of them achieved the types of lives each had aspired to have during their university years. Maggie worked for a PR firm in London, where she met her future husband (whom she had fancied from her earliest days in university), and went on to lead a largely barren and cheerless existence. Evvie returned to New York, where she found work with a modelling agency, and eventually became a successful supermodel. But along the way, she developed a knack for getting into relationships with the wrong sorts of men. And yet, along the way, there was a man she - along with Maggie and Topher - had known from Cambridge days, with whom she had an encounter that would later have fateful consequences in the future. As for Topher, like Evvie, he moved to New York, where he carved out a successful career as a soap opera actor. He lived a bit of the wild life with a number of male lovers before striking up a special relationship with a man who gave him much happiness and contentment. And yet -- there was something out of Topher's childhood that hobbled him emotionally.
Evvie, Maggie, and Topher periodically kept in touch. But the closeness they once shared was no longer there. And yet, when they meet at a 30 year reunion at Cambridge, they begin the slow process of reforging what they once had as close friends. What results will lead the reader through a series of emotional ups and downs.
I think any middle-aged person reading this review will find much in this novel that may be relatable to their own lives. Plus, The Friends We Keep is very well-written and comes highly recommend