Books on Tap met virtually on Thursday, June 3 at 7 pm to discuss The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. A book written in second person (addressed to “you”) is rare enough, but Nunez adds an additional deviating factor by choosing to leave every human character unnamed. Our only named character, Apollo, is a huge Great Dane, who comes to live with the unpredictable and unreliable narrator after her friend of many years (Apollo’s master) unexpectedly commits suicide. 

It’s a novel that doesn’t read like a novel in many ways, because of the wandering discourse about “other things.” The novel does not plod through telling us “what happened” or chronologically transcribe character “action” or “plot.” Of course all of these phrases are being put in quotation marks because in the world of a novel, what isn’t plot, and what exactly is “other”? The interludes on dogs in heat, sex workers, and womanizing provided shock value; the discussions on the writing life and the seedy underbelly of status-obsessed writerly ambition provided bite and gristle (and aren’t these ingredients for an engrossing read?). It may be true that a majority of this book is words, sentences, and paragraphs that do not detail our narrator’s day-to-day life, but the conversational tone and fuzzy edges surrounding the “story” prompted one reader to say, as we were unraveling what the book is about, that the book is about storytelling, and all its roundabouts, and all its conflating visions, coincidences, and more. There is a story to tell, but you don’t tell that story, you tell another story. And isn’t that so often true in life, that we have something to say, but just can’t say it? 

The book, to many, was about writing. Many found the narrator’s voice on this subject to come across as pompous or showy: “look at me and all these books and authors I’m quoting!” Others rolled their eyes at the self-pitying tone: “oh, writing is such a challenge, but somehow I overcome!” On the other hand, we had readers who found the book, and especially the writerly quips and references, to be compelling and fun. We wondered if such a scorching assault on the writing life would discourage or otherwise dispirit any of our readers if they aspired to be writers themselves, but none of our members felt that way. We acknowledged that for every book that has a doomsday feel about writing, there is a hopeful book about writing (On Writing by Stephen King and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck were two examples mentioned). 

And somehow, the book is also about a dog. Mysteriously we simultaneously had more than enough information on the dog, but also wanted more of the dog. We discussed the size of the dog and how it impacted the entire atmosphere of the narrative; we dissected how the giant animal could have dominated the narrator, but yet the relationship between them appeared to be the first relationship of true equality the narrator had ever experienced. 

Because the book was like a treasure chest of curiosities (in turn funny, depressing, witty, snarling, truthful, deceptive, and more), we each seemed to focus on different aspects of what we found on the page. One reader was reading the book for the second time, and was interested to discover that what she honed in on this second time around was so different from her first reading. Some of us were drawn into the taunting question, “does something bad happen to the dog?” while others were fixated on the drama surrounding her landlord and impending eviction. Some meditated on each literary reference and took the time to cross-check quotes, drawing out more meaning that way. Others picked up every detail about the life of our narrator as a writer, and still others found the relationship with Apollo to be most memorable. It was in this fashion that we came to grips with the ending: half believing it was a remarkable twist that changed the entire book, and half believing it was just another layer of imagination stitched into a highly inventive book. 

Books on Tap will meet again virtually on Thursday, July 1 at 7 pm to discuss The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Please email kfarrell@jmrl.org for details on how to participate from your computer or phone.

Other books mentioned:

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

On Writing by Stephen King