Sweet tributes to time-tested girlie friendships
I’ve been thinking about friendships recently. In part, it’s because I’ve been missing a lot of my old friends, but it’s also because I’ve indulged myself in a little Sex And The City marathon, where I’m rewatching all the episodes from the beginning.
So, I got to thinking about books about friendships, in particular girl friendships, which are so much deeper than male ones (oh, come on. I know boys share, but there’s not that emotional leaning into thing that women do.) I tend to be drawn to a certain kind of book about female friendships-usually beginning with the women as little girls and following them through decades of being together and evolving as a group. And today, I thought I’d talk about a few that have stuck with me.
The Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is perhaps one of the more obvious ones. It became a series, with lots of books dedicated to the same characters, but this one was the one that focussed most on the Ya Yas, a group of four, now old women, who had been friends since they were tiny. Told half from the point of view of one of their daughters, and half through memories in a scrapbook, this book went on to be a major movie. What I liked about it though was the simpler things, the way just a hug was described, and the easy camaraderie between four women, with none of the fights or anger that real life unfortunately brings upon us. A little unrealistic? Yes, sure. But still a sweet ode to friendship.
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume was one of her (not so good) books for adults. Now, I love Judy Blume. She is one of my major influences, but I thought she was much more real when writing for children than for grown ups. Luckily, Summer Sisters is saved by beginning at when Vix and Caitlin are 12 and Vix is first asked to go away for the summer by Caitlin. What follows is Vix’s story about how she gets drawn into this other life, and the tempestuous Caitlin (who is a girl we have all known at some point) who depends on Vix more than Vix depends on her. I like the story set in the summertime, I like watching how Vix grows and later, how thanks to Caitlin’s family, she becomes the women she shows glimpses of, at the beginning of the novel.
And finally, Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants. I don’t know why all books about women’s friendships have to have the word “sister” or “sisterhood” in the title, perhaps to signify that they are more than just friends to each other? This series of four books is set mainly among young people, starting with four 16 year olds and a summer they had to spend apart, and ending with how they all felt they were growing apart, but came together anyway. Growing up stuff. Life stuff.
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