The Blurb: Bev Tunney is stuck in circumstances that would have barely passed for New York bohemian in her mid-twenties: temping, living in a shared house, drowning in debt. Her friend Amy Schein is a charismatic and fiercely impetuous Brooklyn media darling still riding the tailwinds of early success, but reality is catching up with her – her job, her lease and her relationship are on the brink of collapse. And now Bev is unexpectedly pregnant.
As Amy and Bev are dragged into their thirties and genuine adulthood, they are forced to contemplate the possibility that growing up might mean growing apart.
There is no better way to engage with me than to write a book about thirty-something women floundering about in their lives. I have a platinum membership card in life-floundering.
I’ve felt like I’ve been missing something since I was about 17, and no matter how many other pieces of the life-puzzle I slot into place, the bit labeled “what I should be doing with myself” is always lost down between the cushions of the sofa.
At 31 I am surrounded by pretty equal measures of people excelling in careers they have had since uni and will probably still have in one form or another come retirement, and those just starting to work towards possible careers they will be great at. The third wedge is filled with people who flit from one idea to the next, one job to the next, never feeling like they are anywhere near being in the place they should be, and not having the faintest idea what that place should be.
The image of the chattering sparrows on the cover couldn’t be more accurate in depicting Amy and Bev – it doesn’t matter how gregarious and outgoing you are, sometimes you just don’t get that far from home.
This book will probably end up with a comparison or twelve to HBO’s Girls, but whereas Dunham roots her themes of dislocation with twenty-somethings who still have a right (and the time) to a bit of indecision, Gould focuses on the fears of newly 30 year olds, wondering what it is they have been doing for the last decade. This is where Hannah (oh, how apt) and her ilk will be if they don’t get a grip.
But as the title suggests, this isn’t just a book about women full of career woes and baby questions, it is about getting to an age where you need to really know who your friends are. When these big life decisions are rearing their heads and clocks seem to start ticking, you need to be sure you have the best people around you with the right intentions for you.
How many of you may be somewhere else (good or bad) if it wasn’t for the advice of a friend?
I really enjoyed this book, it was light and funny, but still managed to raise important questions that directly affected my age and circumstance brackets.
My one main criticism would be that at times I couldn’t differentiate between Amy and Bev’s voices and had to keep reminding myself which character had the mic. But in the end that didn’t really matter too much, I related to both women and so they just kind of morphed into one über character. Probably not the greatest compliment you could pay an author, but perhaps its just me!
Friendship may not make you feel any better about your life and the parts that are missing, but it may make you tune your search a little better.
Book info:
- ISBN: 9780349004396
- Published by little, brown Book Group, July 3rd 2014
- Sent review copy through Netgalley
