All I can conclude after reading Among Friends by Hal Ebbott is that Hal must be among friends in the editing and publishing industry because I’m unsure how this novel has got as far as it has.
Reasons why I thought it was dire:
1. The similes. All the similes. In every paragraph. And they made no sense.
He flung a few strands of hair away from his face with a snap of his neck. He was like a reptile, born already with the memory, the knowledge of violence.
Was he ashamed? Of course, all the time. But his father was dead and his mother, like a stray thread on a sweater, had been clipped from his life.
2. Weird details that also made no sense. Was there an editor involved in this book?
Retsy laughed. Her dark hair was drawn up, her neck bare. She was smiling in the broad, dissolute way that could make her legs not feel like the achievement they were.
A basin sink, porcelain, deep enough to wash fruit.
She stood over her suitcase. He held her shoulders and watched as she lifted her neat, precise things. Linens, wools, slacks of deep blue. The sight made him feel safe in a sprawling, impenetrable way.
…this boy who not only knew the right way to hold her arched back, but who spoke in easy, pretensionless metaphor, observing once that a man at a party looked like a dog being brushed…
The air smelled of floorboards and spruce and, faintly, women’s hair.
Emerson looked down at his desk. The stapler sat in its place. Through the window, the light fell in shards. The papers waited for what few notes he might make.
3. The responses of the various adult characters to the sexual assault of a teenage girl, Anna, were astounding. Anna’s mother describes her daughter –
And here was the thing about Anna. She was sly, composed as weather, as trains. It was how she had always been. One felt her arrogance in the way she might rearrange flowers or look up from a book: utterly within herself…
I can’t even…
This novel is positioned as a story about male friendship but what propels the plot is the rape of a teenage girl. And actually, we don’t need Hal Ebbott (a white, educated male) writing about the rape of a teen (especially given that the perpetrator is let off the hook by the victim’s parents, on the basis of their long friendship). Revolting on so many levels.
4. The father-daughter ‘coincidence’ in their history was lazy and stupid (they were both kleptomaniacs – and yes, that’s a spoiler, so sorry if you plan on reading this book).
5. The conclusion – let’s just say that Anna is going to spend a lot of time at a therapist when she becomes an adult and all of that time will be spent discussing how her mother let her down.
I’ll spare you the sex scene. Gross.
The best bit? The gorgeous photograph on the cover (Cocktail Party, Wellfleet, Massachusetts by Joel Meyerowitz). Go and admire it on the shelf at the book shop, and then move on.
1/5
“She was smiling in the broad, dissolute way that could make her legs not feel like the achievement they were” – I’m sorry, what?? 🙂
You might think I hadn’t transcribed the quote accurately… but yes, I did :-O
I see what you mean! 🤷♀️
Dire.
‘The light fell in shards’? Good grief. I think the editors need a course in editing, or a new career.
I could have picked something from every page in the book. It begs the question, why did I keep reading? The answer – I simply could not believe the book had got as far as it had and thought I must be missing something. By finishing, I’m confident in my opinion!
I was going to pick out the same quote as Cathy – horrendous! This is definitely not for me, much as I enjoyed your review 😊
Unless you ever feel like a rage read…
Yikes! No, thank you.
x The Captain
One to send overboard…
‘A basin sink, porcelain, deep enough to wash fruit’ made me laugh. What type of fruit, watermelons, apples, cherries?
I stopped laughing when I got to Point 3. Not funny.
The sink bit is one of dozens of examples.
Point 3 – I didn’t deep-dive into aspects of the assault, short of saying that it is poorly written about and the characters (including the mothers) fit into an extremely misogynistic point-of-view. Certain that this book would fail the Bechdel test miserably.
I’m glad you didn’t go into details of the assault, but from your examples it would certainly have been poorly written, and the other character’s views abhorrent.
I didn’t know what the Bechdel test was, so looked it up. Sad but not surprised that this exists.
I would NEVER quote from the assault scene. There was a sex scene between one of the couples in the book and again, the similes were so bad. Really, really bad.
Now that you’re aware of the Bechdel test, it’s hard to unsee it!
I see why, an account of the assault would be unpleasant for some and traumatising or triggering for others. A good reminder to all bloggers to think about what we post.
Yes, I agree. There’s lots of debate around trigger warnings but I always ask the question about what purpose something serves eg. including a quote shows style (that I have criticised in this instance!) but including any detail about the sexual assault serves no purpose. It’s enough to know that it occurs. In fairness to the author, the actual scene of the assault is brief.
All I can say is, Yikes.
What sink isn’t deep enough to wash fruit?
IKR?! 😀
😉
Oh dear. Glad I didn’t purchase this one a few weeks ago when, like you, I was heavily attracted to the cover!
Twice a year I go into the bookshop and buy books that I know nothing about – so really choosing by the cover. This was the result (but one data point does not make a trend! I’ve found some excellent books the same way).
That’s generally how I buy *all* my books! And it’s multiple times a month 🥴
I can’t avoid reading bloggers’ reviews or my Readings Monthly newsletter or social media posts from publishers about upcoming titles… it generally means that when I go to the bookshop, I have some knowledge of most of what’s there, and therefore picking something blind is tricky.
I do that too. But I always love buying books that I’ve never heard of; that’s what makes book shop browsing so wonderful for me. I’m always looking for those hidden treasures that I can promote to a wider audience, which may partly explain why my blog features a lot of obscure books 🥴
Thank you for taking one for the team:)
Oh my. Did you really read it till the end? So many reasons to DNF. But thanks for letting us know where we shouldn’t waste our time and money.
I commented and got “nonce verification failed”. Who knew I needed my nonce verified.
I don’t get notifications of your posts but instead receive emails of all the comments, so this past couple of days while I was away working I’ve been reading a constant stream of reactions to this terrible book and to your review – I love negative reviews.
Totally agree with your point 3.