"The Friend", National Book Award Winner

As is true of any subjectively selected award winner, all minds do not agree on the winner. Some NBA winners have been stellar, in my humble opinion. In the last dozen years, some of my faves have been "Salvage the Bones" by Jesmyn Ward (I have a copy that I will carry forever) and "Let The Great World Spin" by Colum McCann and "Redeployment" by Phil Klay, to name a few.  Needless to say, I was hopeful about this year's winner, "The Friend" by Sigrid Nunez.

However, I was disappointed. It is wisely written and an excellent discourse on grief. Beautiful and spare, the narrator charts her road of grief with minimal lines, very few meanderings from that road. We learn about her connection to the dead man, her shock and yet acceptance of his suicide. All her feelings and the sharing of those feelings seem righteous. But perhaps it's because I am one of those people who don't wallow, one who likes to confront my sorrows and then who tries to move on, "The Friend" went on and on far too long for me.  And it's a very short book, so go figure.

Much has been said about the narrator's bond with the dead man's dog. Yes, there is a lot of dog-centric fiction these days and I like dogs and so that's not a problem for me. The dog in this novel seemed very cool and intuitive in that dog manner. But as large as the dog was (Great Dane) it seemed to take up a very small space in the narrator's emotional life until towards the very end. By then I was tired of her rambling about the dead guy and thus tired of her connection to the Great Dane. This is in no way a fault of that dog.

We aren't supposed to like the dead man, he didn't seem like a nice guy and I am grateful to the author for not making him seem honorable. Too many times the dead are forgiven for everything just because they are dead. Not in this case. But still, the narrator pines for him far too much.  The dog does the same but I can forgive that depression in a dog, they don't have rational thought like humans do. Dogs just want what they want and are sad when they can't get it.  Humans can want as well but at some point they need to realize the guy ain't coming back and deal with it.

That's my take. Harsh, perhaps, but I like to think of it as realistic.  Read it and we can discuss.

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