The Friend

THE FRIEND

by Sigrid Nunez

 

Award: National Book Winner 2018


Nomination: Dublin Finalist 2020

 

Date Read: October 20, 2020

 

I had anticipated loving this novel much more than I did. Having come to the end, with the tables being turned unexpectedly, I was reminded of Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. I had predicted being completely moved about a woman falling in love with a dog since my heart’s desire for quite a while is to have a dog. I just wasn’t affected, although the heavy topics of death and suicide are handled with dexterity.

 

I found this more of an analysis of the art of writing itself – the pretentiousness, the questioning voice, the frustration of it all. Nunez spends a majority of this novel discussing what it means to be a writer, the jealousy among fellow writers and the academic competition for advantage and student affection. None of this resonated with me.

 

Nunez presents an interesting argument that writing is an elitist profession, often only a pursuit by the privileged, thereby often excluding minority voices. I find this argument somewhat inaccurate as many of the current published writers are diverse and vast. I’m thinking Tommy Orange, Colson Whitehead, Zadie Smith, Ocean Vuong. I could continue ad nauseum. What I would contend is that writing in academia is more exclusionary than mere authorship.

 

Yet, the tenderness with which she explored the relationship with the “inherited Great Dane” was sweet and lovely. The ability of “her” (was she ever named?) to open her life and risk her housing for this gentle giant was moving, as was her commitment to seeing him through to the end of his life. Just makes me want a dog all the more, but definitely not a beast of this magnitude. 

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