Friends Like Us

October 31, 2011
Fox’s funny and bittersweet new novel tackles the fragility of friendship. In high school, heroine Willa was best friends with Ben, but the two drifted apart after their freshman year of college. The adult Willa is now best friends and roommates with Jane, who is like her in every way. After Ben and Willa reconnect at a high school reunion, he confesses that he was in love with her when they were teenagers. Though they fail to begin a romance, they do resume their friendship. But when Ben meets Jane and they start dating, a love triangle forms, with Willa serving as the essential, but confused third wheel. As Ben and Jane’s relationship becomes more serious, the attraction between Ben and Willa grows, and all three must cope with the consequences. Instead of making Willa’s story maudlin and clichéd, Fox (Still Life with Husband) steers her characters toward a surprisingly realistic and complex conclusion. A thoughtful, delicate book.

April 30, 2012
In Fox’s latest novel, Willa Jacobs and Jane Weston are best friends and roommates. But when Willa’s high school pal Ben comes back into her life, he becomes romantically involved with Jane. Willa tries to support her two best friends as they find happiness together, but she begins to feel increasingly left out and soon realizes she too has romantic feelings for Ben. Should she stay silent? Should she make a move and risk losing Jane’s friendship? Amy Rubinate’s narration brings Jane to life, capturing her goofy humor, awkwardness, and conflicted feelings. She also deftly voices the book’s other characters; her rendition of Willa’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, Declan, is a standout. And while the pacing of this audio edition drags a bit at times—particularly during scenes in which Willa inwardly frets about the emerging love triangle—Rubinate ably conveys the book’s lovable protagonist and its themes of friendship, love, and confusion. A Knopf hardcover.