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With Friends Like These: A Novel [Hardcover]

Sally Koslow
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 10, 2010
Have you ever been a less than perfect friend? To whom does your first loyalty belong—your best friend or your husband? With her trademark wit and empathy, Sally Koslow explores the entangled lives of women in this candid, fast-paced novel.
 
Quincy, Talia, Chloe, and Jules met in the early nineties after answering a roommate ad for a Manhattan apartment. Despite having little in common, the women became fast friends. A decade later, their lives have diverged, though their ties remain strong.

Quincy, a Midwestern introvert, is trying to overcome a set of tragedies by hunting for the perfect home; Talia, a high-energy Brooklyn wife and mom with an outspoken conscience, is growing resentful of her friends’ greater financial stability and her husband’s lack of ambition; timid Chloe, also a mother, is trying to deflect pressure from her husband, a hedge fund manager, to play the role of trophy wife; while Jules, a fiercely independent actress/entrepreneur with a wicked set of life rules, is confronting her forties alone.

 When Jules gives her new boyfriend the inside scoop on the real estate gem Quincy is lusting after, and Talia chases a lucrative job earmarked for Chloe, the women are forced to wrestle with the challenges of love and motherhood. Will their friendships and marriages survive? And at what price? Punchy yet tender, a high-five to sisterhood, this book will hit an emotional bull’s-eye for anyone who has had—or been—less than a perfect friend.
 


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sally Koslow on With Friends Like These

If we're lucky, we find caring friends who'll value us as much as we value them. They'll make us balloon animals if life throws a suckerpunch and don't secretly rejoice when we gain a chin and a second mortgage. Nor do they send us internet chain letters with apocalyptic threats should we fail to forward the news flash to 17 pals in the next hour. It's when such sterling friends disappoint us that north starts looking like south.

This is the theme--disappointment among friends--that I explore in my new novel, With Friends Like These.

We know not every friend is destined to be a perennial, the James Taylor or Carole King of our emotional road show. What brings a friendship to the Do Not Resuscitate point? The result depends on how bad we feel we've been had, whether and to what degree the evil one serves up remorse and plain old manners.

Here’s what got me going on writing With Friends Like These. A buddy tried to snatch an apartment I found and bid on. Afterward we didn't speak for many months. This wasn't exactly Draconian punishment, but I missed her enough so that once she sang her sorries, we moved on. I had a harder time trying to get past a very close (or so I thought) chum who "by mistake" copied me on an email whining about how she didn't want to go to my last book party. I was hurt at this and other passive-aggressive gestures I began to realize I could not overlook.

The slow erode of this friendship--which I thought would be a lifer--is more painful than the bruise caused by the savage apartment-hunter, because with my party-dissing friend I'd believed there was an unbreakable mutual regard. Realizing that you're not appreciated at a molecular level moves a relationship into the land of phony baloney, a place reached by sailing on the ship of fools--and truly, who's got the time? Do. Not. Resuscitate.

An early reviewer of With Friends Like These called its story line--about four once-close women--"achingly real." The characters don't set out to hurt one another, but reality gets in the way, and sooner than you can say steak tartare, four friendships turn raw.

The gaping hole in our lives left by the missing friendship can hurt like a phantom limb. Which is why With Friends Like These is also a story of forgiveness. Because is any aspect of friendship more important and profound than forgiveness? I don’t think so. If you can’t be a person who learns to forgive, you can’t be a good friend.


From Publishers Weekly

Koslow (The Late, Lamented Molly Marx) lifts a potentially trite story of friendship to a knowing, sharp-edged chronicle of ambition and acceptance that's smart, raw, and achingly real. Chloe, married to a Wall Street striver, and Talia, hitched to a teacher with a trust fund, share a copy-writing job while raising preschool boys. Ambition drives them apart, and devotion to each other, to their kids, to their less-than-perfect husbands--brings them back. Quincy and Jules, the childless women in the quadrangle of friends, are the cool ones until New York real estate comes between them. These imperious women are a handful by themselves, but a solid cast of husbands and lovers hold their own: Arthur, the oddball middle-aged lothario who adores Jules; Tom, the trust-fund scion who prefers to remain safely ensconced in an educational ivory tower while letting Talia get down and dirty in the real world; Xander, the ruthless hedge fund hotshot married to beautiful but insecure Chloe; and Jake, the anchor of Quincy's stormy life. Koslow packs a trove of wit and wisdom into a slick pink package.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (August 10, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345506227
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345506221
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #953,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sally Koslow is the author of THE WIDOW WALTZ, her recently released fourth novel, and SLOUCHING TOWARD ADULTHOOD: How To Let Go So Your Kids Can Grow Up, now available in paperback, which has been optioned by NBC for sitcom development.

Sally's second novel, THE LATE, LAMENTED MOLLY MARX, became a besteller in Germany (ICH, MOLLY MARX, KURZLICH VERSTORBEN) as well as a Book Pick by Target, who selected her third novel, WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE, as an Emerging Writer Book. Her debut novel, LITTLE PINK SLIPS, was inspired by her long career as the editor-in-chief of iconic McCalls Magazine, which was taken over by Rosie O'Donnell. Her books have been published in a dozen countries. Most are available on Kindle as well as in audiobook form.

Sally often writes essays and articles for magazine including More, O, the Oprah Magazine; Real Simple; Ladies Home Journal; Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest as well as websites including the Huffington Post, Next, and Grandpaents.com. She teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College's Writing Institute, helps to facilitate writing pitch conferences with New York Writers Workshop and works independently to help aspiring writers polish their manuscripts and book proposals.

To arrange a book club visit, inquire about independent writing coaching online or in person, or just to say hello, please contact Sally via her website: www.sallykoslow.com, on Twitter: @sallykoslow or her Facebook Author Page, which she hopes you'll "like."





Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading. July 2, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Before Bridget Jones burst onto the literary scene and the term "chic-lit" was coined to describe a genre of hapless females trying in their own inept ways to get a man, women were writing novels featuring intelligent, usually clever, women and their dreams and aspirations. From the recent past, Gail Parent, Olivia Goldsmith, Anne Bernays, Elinor Lipman, and Susan Isaacs all produced such novels. (And those are just the few I could list off the top of my head.) I'll add Sally Koslow to that list, after finishing "With Friends Like These", and having read and enjoyed her first novel, "The Late, Lamented Molly Marx".

"Friends" is the story of four women, all in their late 30's and early 40's, who've been close friends since they shared an apartment in Manhattan in their unmarried days. Three of the women have married, and of those three, two have had babies. The other married woman has had a series of miscarriages. The fourth woman is unmarried and doesn't want children. Koslow's novel takes a year in their lives where they each manage to subvert the plans of another "friend". Betraying confidences, taking job offers, and sabotaging real estate aspirations take their toll on the once-close friendships these women enjoyed. Koslow is a good writer; the nuances of life show up in these characters. The story is good and entertaining, and I never disliked a character, though I sometimes disliked what she did.

So, to call Koslow's two books "chic-lit" is wrong. Regular "chic-lit", which I sometimes enjoy, never reaches the story and personality depth Koslow does in her writing. Sally Koslow is an author to keep looking for.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars With a book like this, who needs friends? August 16, 2010
Format:Hardcover
I was blown away how this book got you frustrated with characters motives. Because you kept saying "how could she do that" and then a minute later be thinking "I might do that too"! The range of emotions with touches of humor really made this book jump out. I highly recommend.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic characters August 16, 2010
By Kspeedr
Format:Hardcover
This was such a delightful read. I've read all of Sally Koslow's novels and this one really blew me away. The four main characters are so vividly written. I felt like they were my own friends by the end of the book. It was a great read. Perfect for the end of summer or whenever. I can't recommend it enough.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Seriously?
I like chick lit as much as I like plenty of other genre fiction. Good writing and interesting characters set in a plot that holds my attention is all it takes for this sort of... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Marcy L. Thompson
1.0 out of 5 stars I Don't Get It
I was so excited to start this book after reading all of the rave reviews. I still just don't get it. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Loves to Read
2.0 out of 5 stars It's like a chick flick on paper
Ah, chick lit. Whether it's for twenty-somethings or "mature" women, you can expect lots of women, lots of personal tragedy, and lots of typical "woman" problems. Read more
Published 14 months ago by E. A Solinas
3.0 out of 5 stars Like a cheesy "Lifetime" movie
I liked the idea of this book - following four friends and the ins and outs of their friendship - but in the end, I really did not enjoy this book. Read more
Published 16 months ago by T. Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars with friends like this
I thought this was a great book and one I did not want to put down. Each chapter brought new interesting thoughts by one of the characters. Read more
Published 22 months ago by claire jarkovsky
1.0 out of 5 stars with friends like these
I bought this book because of a recommendation. It is so bad that it is almost unreadable. Believe me I tried and tried again. I doubt I will finish. Read more
Published on March 11, 2011 by Amanda Sawyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartening story, fast-paced read, and pulls you in
With Friends Like These tells the story of four women who lived together when they were fairly new to New York, and their lives were just taking off. Read more
Published on February 8, 2011 by Heather A. Teysko
4.0 out of 5 stars Really enjoyed it
I really enjoyed this book. The friendships where so believable. The only thing I didn't like was the way it ended, it kind of left you hanging with their lives and... Read more
Published on January 14, 2011 by Denise Wallace
5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT READ
This is a wonderful story about what it's like to live and work in New York City. The relationships -- the emotions and dialogue between the women and the men and women -- are... Read more
Published on December 20, 2010 by Leslie Jay-Gould
4.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
You know, it took me ten chapters to get into this book. The characters, in the beginning at least, were not well defined. Read more
Published on November 24, 2010 by Isadore Ann
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