Customer Reviews

Best of Friends

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gina and Laurence have been best friends since they were teenagers. Gina marries Fergus, and Laurence marries Hilary, and the two couples and their families are the best of friends. But the emotional fallout that occurs when Fergus leaves Gina is the subject of this book. That event is like a stone dropping into a lake, with the ripples of effect on the other three adults and their children beautifully and sensitively told by this English author in a most understated way. This book is about love in all its guises and about the loss of love. Most touching of all is the description of the love relationship between Vi, Gina's eighty year old mother and a neighbor, Dan. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. Read it.

This was my first Joanna Trollope book and I enjoyed it--read it in two sittings. Trollope writes beautifully, and this will not be the last book of hers I read. However, I would have liked a bit more character development.

The most understandable character is Gina's daughter Sophy, who seems to be a bit like her grandmother Vi. (Sometimes when parents are not emotionally available, a child is lucky enough to live near a loving grandmother.) To obtain full development for the major characters, Trollop would have had to double the size of her book, and then it might have been more like "The Shell Seekers" (Not storywise--I use this book as an example where I as the reader had fuller understanding of the motivations of the main characters.)

The story centers on two old friends, Gina and Laurence who live in the town where they grew up, though both have acquired spouses elsewhere. One day, Gina's spouse Fergus leaves her, and moves from the village to London. This action devestates Gina and Sophy her daughter. Gina goes to stay with her friend Laurence and his wife Hillary at their small hotel, while Sophy moves in with her grandmother Vi. After three weeks at the hotel, Hillary suggests that Laurance tell Gina to leave, so Gina finally moves home. But Laurance continues to see her as he always has--as a friend. One day, their relationship slips over the line. The rest of the book is about the effect of that action on the lives of the other characters-Vi, Sophy, Hillary, and the three boys of Hillary and Laurance. The father Fergus is told by his daughter Sophy that his action has lead to a ripple effect that he could not have forseen when he decided to move away.

I don't think Gina is a villan(ess). Trollope is depicting real people, and real people for the most part are complex. Most individuals want to be loved, but sometimes they do not behave in loveable ways. Love is unconditional, however, we don't love someone because they behave as we wish, we just love them. And, it's difficult to understand what goes on between two people, even when we are the observer with an author to give us clues.

Over the years, I've observed a number of relationships evolve between two people who are married to other people. In some cases, the man or woman or both were looking for excitment outside marriage. On the other hand, sometimes decent people stray. This doesn't mean it's morally okay, just that it happens, even when the individual was not expecting or intending it to happen. I think this is the case for Laurance. He says he loves both Hillary and Gina. Of course, the repercussions of his behaviour are hard to bear, particularly for the children, though they are awful for Hillary. It's such a shock to discover the person you loved, and yes took for granted, may be very human and vulnerable.

I can't say very much about how things turn out in this book, except, from my perspective it is for the best, although frequently, that is not how I personally have seen it turn out. And, I am not sure that the woman who ends up with Laurance in the end is the happiest.

This author was highly recommended to me by a friend with whom I share many similar reading tastes. Imagine my disappointment when I had to force myself to finish this book.

The characters were not likeable and I could not care about them. Only Hillary evoked any sympathy from me. Gina and Sophy and Lawrence and Fergus all left me cold. I cannot imagine a group of more unlovable characters all assembled in one novel. How could anyone feel for the spoiled, self-centered, uncaring Gina? And how did she become this way? She certainly did not grow up pampered and her mother Vi seems to be a caring person. Lawrence came across as dim-witted and totally controlled by his feeling-of-the-day. Because I could not care about these characters, I could not care about the repercussions of their adulterous shenanigans and will not be inspired to read anything else by this author.

I had heard of Trollope before and when I got a gift certificate last summer for my birthday, I thought I would give her a try since I am enamored of all things English. I am slightly disappointed that this book is just ok ~~ not as riveting nor as compelling of a read as I had hoped. It's entertaining enough to get through the whole book ~~ but it leaves with more questions than it's worth.

This book is about one marriage that falls apart, leaving the daughter in the center of the marital storm. Then her mother decides that she's in love with her best friend, Laurence, whom she has known since she was a teenager. Laurence then embarks on an affair with Gina, leaving his family behind in a mass of confusion ~~ which also left me, the reader confused.

I understand about affairs, love affairs, romances dying and marriages ending ~~ but this book barely skimmed the emotions of the characters involved. It barely even touched upon the damage of trust and the brokenness of promises and dreams. Even the affair between Gina and Laurence barely had any substance to it ~~ Sophy's story was more relevant in this book and she's just a confused daughter trying to find her place in the world. This book also has a touch of unreality to it as well ~~ a dreamland and so vague.

It's an ok novel ~~ I mean, I finished it, didn't I? But it's not enough of an opportunity for me to try Trollope again. Others might find this book riveting and compelling enough to read ~~ and I hope so. It's just not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

6-1-04

I loved this book. I found it extremely true to human nature. Scenes I loved included Vi's unreasonable irritability when Dan becomesill and Hilary's response to her husband's infidelity--she asks him to think about whether their marriage is actually over. I disliked Gina, but understood her fear and her grasping of another man to take care of her when her husband abandons her. i just loved this whole book. Trollope lives up to her heritage.

Having never read Joanna Trollope before, I had no idea on her writing style or sense of story-telling. However, after having just completed, "The Best of friends" Joanna Trollope illustrates a keen observation on the complexities of love and friendship. This novel focuses on the lives of two friends, each married to other people, whom after some eventful circustances begin an affair. The result of this relationship is quietly told by Ms. Trollope who carefully allows us to observe each character without making judgements on whether their behavior is justified or not. What we are left here is a novel that shows us the effects of what happens when friends take a leap into being lovers and what effects this relationship takes upon family members and children. Joanna Trollope, a #1 best-selling novelist in England, writes with the aura associated with the British - quiet, dignified, restrained, and in the end, ulitamtely satisfying.

I thought this book had a slow start but I did get in to it after about 30 pages. I don't think that the stories were always developed in it. I agree that the characters were selfish but that is how people can behave when these things happen. It was worth reading but I don't know that I would recommend it.

Gina and Lawrence are the main characters of the book. The were best friends in childhood and that friendship continues into adulthood. Both are married to other people and when Gina's marriage ends she ends up in at Lawrences house being comforted in his arms. His wife is somewhat understanding but feels that Gina often outstays her welcome. Gina goes through every "poor me" emotion from the divorce and it gets obnoxiously annoying! Will someone please write a book where the betrayed women moves on and becomes strong without having to virtually distroy her teenage childrens' lives too?!!!

I won't go into detail of what happens next in case you decide to read this boring novel but let's just say that it's predictable, yet boring, with no really likeable characters. Very flatly written! I give it 2 stars...

Once again, Joanna Trollope manages to evoke the most sensitive feelings by drawing the reader seemingly effortlessly into the minds and hearts of her main characters.

"The Best of Friends" catches up with university buddies Laurence and Gina, some 20 years after they have each happily married other people. Laurence and his wife Hilary run a charming inn and have three teenaged sons; Gina and Fergus live a highly upscale life mostly devoted to Fergus' antiques business. They have a teenager as well, their only child, Sophy. The book begins with Sophy in some sort of crisis. As only Trollope can do, we gauge the depth of Sophy's adolescent pain by watching her, almost literally, childishly suck on a blue bead she wears on a leather thong around her neck. It is these tiny details, almost too subtle to notice, with which Trollope captures the reader's attention and heart.

It turns out that Fergus has suddenly and cruelly decided to leave Gina. Sophy and her mother are devastated, each in her own way. Sophy acts out in increasingly childish and pouting behavior; the reader doesn't know whether to slap her or hug her (and anyone who has teenagers can relate to this feeling!) Gina simply falls apart. And in her crumbling state, she turns, of course, to her best friends Laurence and Hilary.

The domino effect of one person's selfish decision to leave his wife causes anguish and pain he could not have anticipated. Trollope's message is clear, although she does not judge--nobody lives in a vacuum, and one IS accountable for one's actions.

This theme is further played out in the subplot: the story of Gina's elderly mother Vi (who had Gina after an impulsive fling with a boy who deserted her upon finding she was pregnant) and her dear friend and neighbor Dan. Again, the smallest of details bring these people to life. Vi is an exuberant soul, full of strong color, both in her clothing and in her garden and home. She has a parakeet (of course!) and her messy house matches her divine personality. Dan is her polar opposite. We come to love him for his meticulous tidiness, his strict ways (learned many years previously in the military) and his total adoration of Vi. They are so happy together, and it is so lovely...until the actions of a busybody who righteously feels she is "doing the right thing" destroys the elderly couple's lives completely.

The ending of this book, as always, is true and real. I won't give it away, but suffice to say that as in real life, nothing in the end is "clean and perfect." But it all makes perfect sense. This is one of Trollope's more depressing novels, but so worth the read, if only to cherish the wonderful characters she creates so very well.

It was an okay book, but I had a hard time getting through it. I felt like I was slogging through mud going nowhere fast hoping that the book would pick up pace, but it didn't seem to. I think it was mainly because it seemed as though none of the characters were ever truly happy. It's not like it was a tear-jerker or anything, but it was one upheaval/disappointment/tragedy/issue after another. In the end, all the characters kind of settled back down to live with the decisions they had made, but when the book ended, it still felt as though it would take many months (or even longer) for people to get their lives back on track and regain even some semblence of complacency.