Among Friends

[Anonymous]

Am about to finish the book Among Friends by Hal Ebbott. I think I heard about it on the NYT book podcast. It is just so good. Starts out slow but then—wow. There are certain passages that should be studied by both writers and psychologists because they are such fascinating depictions of how a mind turns things around. I’m hoping someone else has read it so we can discuss it.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. It gets a really low rating on GoodReads (2.82) so I'm pondering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. It gets a really low rating on GoodReads (2.82) so I'm pondering.

But great reviews from actual book critics. It’s not an easy read. Sometimes it’s worth it to read more complex material.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I wrote about it in the January thread and found this book appalling and disgusting. Even putting the material aside, the writing, structure and pacing were terrible.

I really feel that this book is such an awful thing to put out into the world.

[Anonymous]

Might be the worst book I've ever read, and I am in my fifties and I was an English major, so that's a lot of books.

The language is stilted and pretentious. This guy knows NOTHING about mother-daughter relationships, or women's friendships and the plot and dialogue shows that.

And finally, I am sick of sexual assault being used as a plot to device to reveal some man's character or lack thereof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Might be the worst book I've ever read, and I am in my fifties and I was an English major, so that's a lot of books.

The language is stilted and pretentious. This guy knows NOTHING about mother-daughter relationships, or women's friendships and the plot and dialogue shows that.

And finally, I am sick of sexual assault being used as a plot to device to reveal some man's character or lack thereof.

This and the immediate PP's post are good descriptions of how I felt too. I didn't find the writing fascinating at all. Sure, like one of the PPs said, it's complex. But complex does not mean well done in this case. This was a slog. This is the sort of book that critics praise because they feel like praising something so faux pretentious makes them a part of an elite club. I'm not a beach reads kind of reader either, but this is the sort of book that thinks being esoteric automatically makes it refined.

[Anonymous]

I also intensely disliked it. I wish I had had OP’s reaction because I really hate it when I don’t enjoy a book!

[Anonymous]

This book was truly awful. Unrealistic, unsatisfying and poorly written.