Fiction Friday (140)

 

In my continuing exploration of contemporary literature, I recently read the National Book Award Winner for 2019. This was the last book that I'll be reading for the Book Club I've been hosting at my current job, as I'm moving to another library at the end of the month. I really appreciated the exposure to the so many compelling current fiction over the course of the year, but am certainly looking forward to getting back to reading books of my own choosing.

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

(Riverhead Books, 2019)

When the unnamed narrator of the story loses her longtime friend to suicide, it begins a journey of grief in which she tries to comes to terms with both the actions in her own life and those in his that may have led to this painful incident. The novel is presented in the form of confessional letter written to her dead friend in which she explores their relationship, his relationships with past lovers, and the experience of writers, both herself and the deceased. 

The books is fragmentary, with no real defined narrative or plot. It reads like a diary in that it's a series of thoughts, sometimes connected, sometimes independent. As a writer, I found the insight on the life of a writer, and the publishing world, to be profound and truthful to my own experiences. It's exploration of deep friendship and how it works in waves of intense closeness and periods of distance, are also exceptional and honest.