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The False Friend
From the bestselling author of Bee Season comes an astonishingly complex psychological drama with a simple setup: two eleven-year-old girls, best friends and fierce rivals, go into the woods. Only one comes out . . .
Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One afternoon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened.
The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia’s unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they’ve been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both.
Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don’t believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can’t blind him to all that contradicts Celia’s version of the past.
Celia’s desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become—leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.
Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One afternoon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened.
The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia’s unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they’ve been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both.
Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don’t believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can’t blind him to all that contradicts Celia’s version of the past.
Celia’s desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become—leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
90 people are currently reading
1563 people want to read
About the author
Myla Goldberg
29 books386 followersMyla Goldberg is the bestselling author of Bee Season, Wickett's Remedy, and The False Friendas well as a children's book, Catching the Moon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 711 reviews
June 7, 2020
i love the words of myla goldberg.
and i love stories about childhood mysteries.
this is a quick one, but well worth it.
when i went to the "RIP, borders" sale, this was the only book in my head on my "look for it" list. and i saw it and squealed, and it helped to dispel the black cloud of gloom over the staff and other shoppers.
it did.
the basics: celia, at eleven, was best friends with a girl named djuna, with whom she had a volatile and competitive relationship. their gang was completed by three other girls who were clearly only satellites, "additions", background girls.
one day, djuna goes missing in the woods and celia tells everyone she saw her get into a stranger's car. twenty years later, she realizes "shit, i totally made that up! i saw her fall in a hole and vanish"
so, feeling intensely guilty, she returns home to confess to her parents, track down the other three girls, and come to terms with her memories, her lies, and her current troubles with her boyfriend.
but no one believes her.
it's complicated.
and she learns/remembers some things about her past that were better forgotten.
this is the second book i have read recently in which a central female character is blissfully unaware of what a bully she is/was. at least in this book, twenty years have passed in between and so it is more realistic that she would completely blank out her own behavior, but it makes me wonder and worry. was i a bully?? would i even know it if i was?? i mean, i know i am a little bit of a bossy bear now, but i don't think i am particularly bullyish. but it is food for thought. because kids are little monsters, and i was one of them. she puts it well:
yep. little emotional reactors turning every moment into the most important moment of all time and taking names...
but this has positive consequences, too:
she describes childhood very well. she also describes the return to the nest well.
having just returned from a weekend "home," i am quite familiar with the parent/adult child dynamic. i am quite nostalgic as a result.
this was not ultimately the most convincing psychological study, but there was so much to enjoy in this book, i would recommend it. so i am.
come to my blog!
and i love stories about childhood mysteries.
this is a quick one, but well worth it.
when i went to the "RIP, borders" sale, this was the only book in my head on my "look for it" list. and i saw it and squealed, and it helped to dispel the black cloud of gloom over the staff and other shoppers.
it did.
the basics: celia, at eleven, was best friends with a girl named djuna, with whom she had a volatile and competitive relationship. their gang was completed by three other girls who were clearly only satellites, "additions", background girls.
one day, djuna goes missing in the woods and celia tells everyone she saw her get into a stranger's car. twenty years later, she realizes "shit, i totally made that up! i saw her fall in a hole and vanish"
so, feeling intensely guilty, she returns home to confess to her parents, track down the other three girls, and come to terms with her memories, her lies, and her current troubles with her boyfriend.
but no one believes her.
it's complicated.
and she learns/remembers some things about her past that were better forgotten.
this is the second book i have read recently in which a central female character is blissfully unaware of what a bully she is/was. at least in this book, twenty years have passed in between and so it is more realistic that she would completely blank out her own behavior, but it makes me wonder and worry. was i a bully?? would i even know it if i was?? i mean, i know i am a little bit of a bossy bear now, but i don't think i am particularly bullyish. but it is food for thought. because kids are little monsters, and i was one of them. she puts it well:
The unadult mind is immune to logic or foresight, unschooled by consequence, and endowed with a biblical sense of justice.
yep. little emotional reactors turning every moment into the most important moment of all time and taking names...
but this has positive consequences, too:
What struck Celia most about young children was the intensity of their passions, life too new to be modulated, perspective a possession not yet acquired. At that age friendship was a continuous present based on proximity and the shared fact of being alive. Heartbreak and betrayal were commonplace, authentic and ardent each time, forgotten within moments.
she describes childhood very well. she also describes the return to the nest well.
Celia was seduced by the simplicity of her relationship to her meal. It was too much food, really, a plate filled according to a mother's concern and not a daughter's appetite.
having just returned from a weekend "home," i am quite familiar with the parent/adult child dynamic. i am quite nostalgic as a result.
this was not ultimately the most convincing psychological study, but there was so much to enjoy in this book, i would recommend it. so i am.
come to my blog!
January 26, 2011
This book failed on so many levels. The characters were one-dimentional and dull. I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to care about any of them. It seemed as if Goldberg tried to add something slightly unexpected to each of them (Celia - econonmist/poet, Huck -teacher/druggie, Becky - best friend/Hasidic Jew etc.), but unfortunately it only made them feel more contrived.
Adding to the artificial feel of the prose was the author's clunky way of switiching between past and present. I may have been forced to re-read sections to figure out when it was, had I cared enough.
In addition, much of the dialog and descriptions felt meaningless:
"I slept fine, Mom. See you soon, all right?"
"There might be one hard-boiled egg," Noreen said. "Check the cold cut drawer on the left-hand side."Celia did not want an egg. After hanging up she opened the drawer. There was the egg, the very last one.
Even had Celia not spend four years remanded to her mother's place of employement, Jensenville High would have been easy to find."
What?! What was all the egg-jibberish? Too bad these "egg-moments" happen throughout the text.
I kept waiting for some twist - a la Jodi Picoult- but nothing happened. You really didn't know any more when you finished the book than you did in chapter 3.
I am not sure if Goldberg was trying too hard or if she didn't try hard enough.
Adding to the artificial feel of the prose was the author's clunky way of switiching between past and present. I may have been forced to re-read sections to figure out when it was, had I cared enough.
In addition, much of the dialog and descriptions felt meaningless:
"I slept fine, Mom. See you soon, all right?"
"There might be one hard-boiled egg," Noreen said. "Check the cold cut drawer on the left-hand side."Celia did not want an egg. After hanging up she opened the drawer. There was the egg, the very last one.
Even had Celia not spend four years remanded to her mother's place of employement, Jensenville High would have been easy to find."
What?! What was all the egg-jibberish? Too bad these "egg-moments" happen throughout the text.
I kept waiting for some twist - a la Jodi Picoult- but nothing happened. You really didn't know any more when you finished the book than you did in chapter 3.
I am not sure if Goldberg was trying too hard or if she didn't try hard enough.
August 24, 2015
This novel is very strange and almost pointless. The main character, Celia, slowly realizes that she was a Mean Girl--a very mean girl--as a child, a fact she had apparently blocked out for 20 years. Somehow, we're evidently supposed to feel sorry for her for realizing this. The fact that she grew up in an economically depressed part of upstate New York (although she herself was middle-class) with somewhat repressed (but perfectly nice) parents is hammered home over and over and over again, as if it somehow explains Celia's childhood bad behavior and her brother's drug use. It's unconvincing, to say the least.
There are some truly weird encounters with childhood friends and a troubled but lackadaisical relationship with her boyfriend Huck, which is impossible to care about. In fact, Huck even narrates a few brief chapters for no apparent reason. Really, the whole book should have been longer and more fleshed out, but Celia was so unlikeable I was glad it wasn't. I'd have to term this novel a failure. An interesting failure, but a failure nonetheless.
This is an ARC I received through powells.com's Indiespensable program--the official pub date is October 2010.
There are some truly weird encounters with childhood friends and a troubled but lackadaisical relationship with her boyfriend Huck, which is impossible to care about. In fact, Huck even narrates a few brief chapters for no apparent reason. Really, the whole book should have been longer and more fleshed out, but Celia was so unlikeable I was glad it wasn't. I'd have to term this novel a failure. An interesting failure, but a failure nonetheless.
This is an ARC I received through powells.com's Indiespensable program--the official pub date is October 2010.
February 17, 2011
I normally do not review books that I do not like simply because everyone's tastes are different and I would not want to discourage people from reading something simply because I did not like it. However, I was angry by the time I finished this book. I trudged through the thick, and sometimes incomprehensible prose because I was intrigued by the story. Several times after reading aloud to my husband passages of not only inconsequential but downright ridiculous usage of the English language, no doubt intended to make the author feel intelligent, he asked me, "Why are still reading this book?" My answer always was that I wanted to find out what happened. Thank you Myla Goldberg for not even giving your readers that satisfaction.
The last two pages of the book explain to readers what happened 20 years ago, but the real satisfaction would have been in addressing how the protagonist reacted to the information, or if she ever even found out the truth.
A complete waste of money and my time.
The last two pages of the book explain to readers what happened 20 years ago, but the real satisfaction would have been in addressing how the protagonist reacted to the information, or if she ever even found out the truth.
A complete waste of money and my time.
July 5, 2011
I'm honestly not sure why I keep reading Myla Goldberg, because I always start out with high hopes, and I'm always disappointed. The False Friend has a great concept. A girl is abducted, and twenty years later it returns to haunt the friend who let it happen. I bet it would have made a striking short story. But as a novel, as this novel, it just doesn't work.
First of all, dumping out a ton of quirks and details do not well rounded characters make. Every time I started getting into the rhythm of the story, we had to stop for a diversion about Celia's addict brother, or pot smoking boyfriend, or to be reminded once again that her father wears *driving gloves*. (Um...what?) When Celia's parents started saying that they never liked a certain character because she was pretentious, I just started laughing, because...what the hell is this story? Pretension after pretension after pretension.
There was no real resolution, which in a stronger story would have felt haunting, but here just made me wonder why I'd spent my time getting all the way through it.
First of all, dumping out a ton of quirks and details do not well rounded characters make. Every time I started getting into the rhythm of the story, we had to stop for a diversion about Celia's addict brother, or pot smoking boyfriend, or to be reminded once again that her father wears *driving gloves*. (Um...what?) When Celia's parents started saying that they never liked a certain character because she was pretentious, I just started laughing, because...what the hell is this story? Pretension after pretension after pretension.
There was no real resolution, which in a stronger story would have felt haunting, but here just made me wonder why I'd spent my time getting all the way through it.
April 13, 2011
[spoiler alert] Richard Russo describes this third novel by Myla Goldberg as “a riveting read, both compelling and richly satisfying.” Russo wrote Empire Falls, which I couldn’t put down, so I was inclined to trust his assessment. Yet having finished Friend, I wonder if Russo wasn’t acting a little like the false friend of Goldberg’s title, editorializing for convenience. The False Friend is based on a compelling premise: “I think, therefore I am is too vague. We are, because we remember.” This homily, helpfully provided in chapter 1, is explicated in through the memory of Celia, a thirtysomething urban professional, who returns to her suburban hometown to correct the record about the disappearance of her childhood best friend, Djuna. Djuna had disappeared under murky circumstances one afternoon when the girls were 11 years old, walking home from school with a group of “satellite” girls, wannabe friends. Celia, who had at the time claimed that Djuna had gotten into a stranger’s car, now feels sure that Djuna actually fell into a hole in the woods and that Celia herself had fabricated the kidnapping rather than help her friend, with whom she had been squabbling at the time. But the recollections of Celia’s parents, as well as the grown-up women the former accolytes have become, contradict Celia’s revisionism. We are, because we remember, but we remember things differently depending on our shifting agendas. So far, so good. The flashbacks to Celia and Djuna’s tyranny over their eager, self-debasing friends dramatizes the particular cruelties of preteen girls, a depiction that belongs alongside Julie Orringer’s How to Breathe Underwater and Z.Z. Packer’s story “Brownies.”
The problem with The False Friend is that these brief flashbacks to Celia and Djuna’s social domination are so much more interesting than the relatively slow-paced “front story” of Celia’s interaction with her parents (who are detergent-commercial-sunshiney toward her) and her life with Huck, her bland good-guy boyfriend (who doesn’t deserve his allusive name). And the former accolytes—one visual artist whose work explores Djuna’s disappearance, one uber-smart Orthodox Jewish mother, and one formerly solicitous tomboy turned defiant transgender (or transsexual, it’s not clear)—are, for the five minutes of fame they each get, so much more interesting than Celia herself.
Goldberg’s language doesn’t help; many sentences are syntactically obscure, imbuing aesthetics with a sense of causation (“Spring had scrapped the need for a jacket”). Images are weighed down with portent. This could serve the story if I were convinced that the languge reflected Celia’s mentality as an unreliable, aesthetically rich narrative filter. Instead, the language feels like the proverbial “hand of the author,” steering Celia toward conclusions she never quite grasps herself. The closer Celia gets to uncovering (not even “understanding”) the injury she really caused on the day of Djuna’s disappearance, the murkier and blander Celia’s characterization becomes. What’s left at the end of the book is anticlimax, not revelation. Djuna’s mother, whom Celia visits in her one-by-one mea culpa tour, chides Celia, who had been a compelling kid, for not being a more interesting adult. This indictment, though meanspirited, is true, and true of the book as a whole. What’s meanspirited and primal in this book is what’s truest; what’s well-meaning and self-consciously educational or mature feels like editorializing, and we all know that what’s true is usually more compelling than what we wish were true.
The problem with The False Friend is that these brief flashbacks to Celia and Djuna’s social domination are so much more interesting than the relatively slow-paced “front story” of Celia’s interaction with her parents (who are detergent-commercial-sunshiney toward her) and her life with Huck, her bland good-guy boyfriend (who doesn’t deserve his allusive name). And the former accolytes—one visual artist whose work explores Djuna’s disappearance, one uber-smart Orthodox Jewish mother, and one formerly solicitous tomboy turned defiant transgender (or transsexual, it’s not clear)—are, for the five minutes of fame they each get, so much more interesting than Celia herself.
Goldberg’s language doesn’t help; many sentences are syntactically obscure, imbuing aesthetics with a sense of causation (“Spring had scrapped the need for a jacket”). Images are weighed down with portent. This could serve the story if I were convinced that the languge reflected Celia’s mentality as an unreliable, aesthetically rich narrative filter. Instead, the language feels like the proverbial “hand of the author,” steering Celia toward conclusions she never quite grasps herself. The closer Celia gets to uncovering (not even “understanding”) the injury she really caused on the day of Djuna’s disappearance, the murkier and blander Celia’s characterization becomes. What’s left at the end of the book is anticlimax, not revelation. Djuna’s mother, whom Celia visits in her one-by-one mea culpa tour, chides Celia, who had been a compelling kid, for not being a more interesting adult. This indictment, though meanspirited, is true, and true of the book as a whole. What’s meanspirited and primal in this book is what’s truest; what’s well-meaning and self-consciously educational or mature feels like editorializing, and we all know that what’s true is usually more compelling than what we wish were true.
April 28, 2011
I'm shocked by all the one- and two-star reviews of this book! A common complaint was the prose, which seemed jumbled and thick to some readers, crammed with "SAT words." While I enjoyed Goldberg's use of language, I wouldn't have found her style remarkable if I hadn't read the reviews here. More on prose later.
The story intrigued me. It's more about the unreliability of memory and the way our childhood shapes our adulthood than it is about finding answers to the mysteries established at the beginning. The tension builds as Celia's memories don't seem to match up to the other characters'. In this game of memory-reconstruction, a few twists and turns lead to an intense and satisfying ending. (But again, if you tuned in for the "mystery" at the beginning, you might find yourself disappointed.)
And now back to the prose. Excuse me as I play Stanley Fish for a minute. (I just finished How to Write a Sentence!) If anyone is interested, I think I've figured out why her writing style bothered some readers. Here are a few examples from the book:
(Celia is on the phone, pacing back and forth, "a reflex from a corded age.")
When awareness of her cordless state erased the desire to pace, Celia sank into a chair.
and
Celia's vague recollection of the school's main office was sharpened by the wait to be acknowledged from behind its counter.
These days we tend to favor sentences with solid subjects and "strong verbs." Hemingway taught us that. A straightforward, journalistic approach to fiction writing.
Goldberg, on the other hand, is a fan of the elaborate noun phrase. The subject in the first clause of the first sentence is "awareness of her cordless state," which requires a bit of parsing. "Awareness of her cordless state" is not a nice, solid noun like "dog" or "hatred" or something instantly recognizable--something we can easily pair with an action verb. And that is just one slice of the sentence--not even the main clause! I can see why some readers feel that sentences like this one may be overwrought, unnecessarily complicated.
In the second sentence, the subject is "Celia's vague recollection of the school's main office," which was made clearer by "the wait to be acknowledged from behind its counter." A more direct way to state that might be "She remembered the school office better as she waited there." But that sentence, while much simpler, has no life to it, and doesn't communicate nearly as much! And that's what's great about Goldberg's prose.
The story intrigued me. It's more about the unreliability of memory and the way our childhood shapes our adulthood than it is about finding answers to the mysteries established at the beginning. The tension builds as Celia's memories don't seem to match up to the other characters'. In this game of memory-reconstruction, a few twists and turns lead to an intense and satisfying ending. (But again, if you tuned in for the "mystery" at the beginning, you might find yourself disappointed.)
And now back to the prose. Excuse me as I play Stanley Fish for a minute. (I just finished How to Write a Sentence!) If anyone is interested, I think I've figured out why her writing style bothered some readers. Here are a few examples from the book:
(Celia is on the phone, pacing back and forth, "a reflex from a corded age.")
When awareness of her cordless state erased the desire to pace, Celia sank into a chair.
and
Celia's vague recollection of the school's main office was sharpened by the wait to be acknowledged from behind its counter.
These days we tend to favor sentences with solid subjects and "strong verbs." Hemingway taught us that. A straightforward, journalistic approach to fiction writing.
Goldberg, on the other hand, is a fan of the elaborate noun phrase. The subject in the first clause of the first sentence is "awareness of her cordless state," which requires a bit of parsing. "Awareness of her cordless state" is not a nice, solid noun like "dog" or "hatred" or something instantly recognizable--something we can easily pair with an action verb. And that is just one slice of the sentence--not even the main clause! I can see why some readers feel that sentences like this one may be overwrought, unnecessarily complicated.
In the second sentence, the subject is "Celia's vague recollection of the school's main office," which was made clearer by "the wait to be acknowledged from behind its counter." A more direct way to state that might be "She remembered the school office better as she waited there." But that sentence, while much simpler, has no life to it, and doesn't communicate nearly as much! And that's what's great about Goldberg's prose.
October 22, 2010
This was my first introduction to Goldberg. At first I was put off by her writing style. The book started off a bit too poetic and it seemed as if there were "big words" thrown into the story simply because they were "big words." It almost felt as if she was showing off her extensive vocabulary and it ended up throwing off the flow of the storytelling.
However, after looking past (or rather getting used to) the writing style I began to get enveloped in the story of 30-year-old Celia whose sudden revelation about her best friend Djuna, who was believed to be abducted when they were 11, sends her back home to a town that is degrading but will forever possess the memories of her childhood.
Celia is a character you can relate to. Without trying to give much away, she embarks on this mission to figure out the truth about the abduction, and this mission makes her reconnect with her childhood friends. You can't help but feel like she's kind of delusional and that she's obviously going through some sort of crisis cause she's 30. Sometimes you just kind of want to slap her silly.
I feel this book is less about the investigation into Djuna's disappearance and more about Celia's struggle with self-identity and trying to figure out where she went wrong. It's a story about friendship, growing apart and trying to reconnect. And it shows that even though the memories of childhood friends are so powerful and vivid, it doesn't mean there can be a relationship after years of separation. Some things are just better left alone.
Since this book wants to be a mystery novel but in the end really isn't I feel there is some disconnect and the "mystery" gets lost somewhere in Celia's mission. So you're reading and going "oh man I wonder what happened to her friend" but suddenly you're interested in Celia and are trying to psycho-analyze her. And then you realize "oh wait I was trying to figure out what happened to her friend," and the final page tries to wrap that up and reveal the truth. So it's kind of an odd ending and feels rushed and doesn't really have much closure.
This was a fun read once you realized what the story was actually about.
However, after looking past (or rather getting used to) the writing style I began to get enveloped in the story of 30-year-old Celia whose sudden revelation about her best friend Djuna, who was believed to be abducted when they were 11, sends her back home to a town that is degrading but will forever possess the memories of her childhood.
Celia is a character you can relate to. Without trying to give much away, she embarks on this mission to figure out the truth about the abduction, and this mission makes her reconnect with her childhood friends. You can't help but feel like she's kind of delusional and that she's obviously going through some sort of crisis cause she's 30. Sometimes you just kind of want to slap her silly.
I feel this book is less about the investigation into Djuna's disappearance and more about Celia's struggle with self-identity and trying to figure out where she went wrong. It's a story about friendship, growing apart and trying to reconnect. And it shows that even though the memories of childhood friends are so powerful and vivid, it doesn't mean there can be a relationship after years of separation. Some things are just better left alone.
Since this book wants to be a mystery novel but in the end really isn't I feel there is some disconnect and the "mystery" gets lost somewhere in Celia's mission. So you're reading and going "oh man I wonder what happened to her friend" but suddenly you're interested in Celia and are trying to psycho-analyze her. And then you realize "oh wait I was trying to figure out what happened to her friend," and the final page tries to wrap that up and reveal the truth. So it's kind of an odd ending and feels rushed and doesn't really have much closure.
This was a fun read once you realized what the story was actually about.
March 17, 2025
powerful
Truly, an enjoyable book. Easy book to read the author stays on topic and does not stray. Thus, strengthening
the overall plot line of the book.
Truly, an enjoyable book. Easy book to read the author stays on topic and does not stray. Thus, strengthening
the overall plot line of the book.
July 17, 2014
The premise of this book is amazing and I couldn't wait to delve into such a potentially rich story. I was expecting the psychological suspense of Gone Girl with the girl bullying of Atwood's Cat's Eye. While the bullying episodes were uncomfortably vivid, the book falls short in terms of Celia's exorcism of her past.
The endless, tedious descriptions drag the story along at a glacial pace. It reads more like a short story that has been stretched to book length. As a result, the main story gets buried and suffocates.
For example, Celia lands in her hometown on page 13 (hardcover), but doesn't talk to her mother about her memories until page 63. That leaves us with 50 pages of small talk, her job description, a summary of the town's history, descriptions of the house and neighborhood throughout the years, her parents' health, an entire chapter from Huck's perspective, descriptions of her old school and her mom's office, plus any number of memories associated with these things. By the time she confesses to her "mommy," I can't muster any interest.
This plodding pace continues throughout the book. She doesn't go to the scene of the crime until page 142, more than halfway through the book. Really? She feels so guilty that she takes the first flight back from Chicago, but she doesn't try to go to the woods to check her memory until the 3rd day home? Even then, she's more interested in the history of the road expansion than what was found when they tore down the woods.
She also doesn't look for other clues to support her memory and ignores the facts presented. Why does she completely overlook the fact that the thorough search of the woods, complete with search-and-rescue dogs, did not find Djuna? This lack of common sense takes the mystery out of the story and seems out of character for a Performance Auditor.
The lack of urgency and passion can be seen in each character (save Leanne). The characters think, talk, and act like they are half asleep. Even Celia is remarkably bland for someone supposedly having a psychological crisis. She doesn't ever reach a breaking point, gain insight, or come to any conclusions. The story just ends. What a letdown.
In addition to these shortcomings in plot and characters, the writing is overwrought. While many of Goldberg's poetic metaphors were beautiful, most made me grate my teeth: "The silence at the dining room table was a glass bead the house held in its mouth;" and the parking lot at the school reminds her of “a gap-toothed former baby sitter who had gotten bridgework.” Ugh.
The endless, tedious descriptions drag the story along at a glacial pace. It reads more like a short story that has been stretched to book length. As a result, the main story gets buried and suffocates.
For example, Celia lands in her hometown on page 13 (hardcover), but doesn't talk to her mother about her memories until page 63. That leaves us with 50 pages of small talk, her job description, a summary of the town's history, descriptions of the house and neighborhood throughout the years, her parents' health, an entire chapter from Huck's perspective, descriptions of her old school and her mom's office, plus any number of memories associated with these things. By the time she confesses to her "mommy," I can't muster any interest.
This plodding pace continues throughout the book. She doesn't go to the scene of the crime until page 142, more than halfway through the book. Really? She feels so guilty that she takes the first flight back from Chicago, but she doesn't try to go to the woods to check her memory until the 3rd day home? Even then, she's more interested in the history of the road expansion than what was found when they tore down the woods.
She also doesn't look for other clues to support her memory and ignores the facts presented. Why does she completely overlook the fact that the thorough search of the woods, complete with search-and-rescue dogs, did not find Djuna? This lack of common sense takes the mystery out of the story and seems out of character for a Performance Auditor.
The lack of urgency and passion can be seen in each character (save Leanne). The characters think, talk, and act like they are half asleep. Even Celia is remarkably bland for someone supposedly having a psychological crisis. She doesn't ever reach a breaking point, gain insight, or come to any conclusions. The story just ends. What a letdown.
In addition to these shortcomings in plot and characters, the writing is overwrought. While many of Goldberg's poetic metaphors were beautiful, most made me grate my teeth: "The silence at the dining room table was a glass bead the house held in its mouth;" and the parking lot at the school reminds her of “a gap-toothed former baby sitter who had gotten bridgework.” Ugh.
November 17, 2010
Second book by Myla Goldberg, just to give her another chance, and disappointed again. There just isn't enough good stuff to make it worth reading. I kept reading not because I was compelled by the characters or the story, but just to see what happens. And what is with her idiot characters? Celia's live-in boyfriend is a high school teacher who's an occasional drug user, and that's just something that's part of him, she doesn't even consider leaving him for it. Very stupid. I can understand you might want to write "real" characters, but come on, try someone with a learning disability or someone who has never tried drugs or alcohol (I know hundreds)--just don't glorify that. She portrays it as some other character flaw, like clipping his toenails in bed....clearly, there should be some distinction between those two types of things. I do think that she could have had one chapter in the beginning to set up Celia as someone we know something about before she starts delving into the past, which is supposed to contradict the person she is today. All in all, between her two books, there are too many nasty aspects that don't need to be included (masturbating teenager in Bee Season, hint of sex change person in False Friend, etc.). It dilutes her writing and makes her books unenjoyable.
February 14, 2012
I got to the end and felt that I had completely missed the boat. If there was a message, it was carefully hidden. Such endings leave me with two feelings:
1. Either the author had a very, very profound thought that I was not perceptive enough to grasp
2. There was no meaning or conclusion to draw.
But I feel a little bit cheated. I love Goldberg's work - especially her use of imagery. I love the focus she puts on the discrepancies between our own perceptions and reality. The premise of this book was intriguing ("Wow, I just realized that something I blocked out of my memory tweny years ago might have strongly impacted my life"). Celia spends the book searching for atonement from past friends. Meanwhile, her relationship is falling apart. I thought that these events would trigger some deeper development in her character, but didn't see it. I thought something would happen in her relationship - nothing did. I thought she might find out who remembered correctly - herself or everyone else...but by the end I felt confused because no answers were overturned. Basically, it seemed that the book cut off four or five chapters too early.
1. Either the author had a very, very profound thought that I was not perceptive enough to grasp
2. There was no meaning or conclusion to draw.
But I feel a little bit cheated. I love Goldberg's work - especially her use of imagery. I love the focus she puts on the discrepancies between our own perceptions and reality. The premise of this book was intriguing ("Wow, I just realized that something I blocked out of my memory tweny years ago might have strongly impacted my life"). Celia spends the book searching for atonement from past friends. Meanwhile, her relationship is falling apart. I thought that these events would trigger some deeper development in her character, but didn't see it. I thought something would happen in her relationship - nothing did. I thought she might find out who remembered correctly - herself or everyone else...but by the end I felt confused because no answers were overturned. Basically, it seemed that the book cut off four or five chapters too early.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 26, 2011
Bee Season, her debut novel, is on my list of Top 5 books of all time. I was drawn into each character and when it ended, I actually held my breath as I read the last page.
When I read Wickett's Remedy I was totally disappointed and not enthusiastic about reading anything more by Goldberg. However, I spied a copy off The False Friend at the library and decided to give her another chance. As with Wickett's Remedy, I never connected with any of the characters. I felt the main character lacked depth and, if that was the point, then her lack of depth was annoying. There is somewhat of a mystery here although the main theme is about the friendships young girls enter into. As a former pre-teen myself, and a bullied and bullying one at that, I whinced at a few of the scenes in the book. The book had a "mean girl" feel to it but not in an ironic or comedic way.
If the author had developed this into a short story it would be fantastic. Her writing style - the unfinished up-to-the-readers-discretion sort of style - lends itself much better to the short-story genre, than a novel.
When I read Wickett's Remedy I was totally disappointed and not enthusiastic about reading anything more by Goldberg. However, I spied a copy off The False Friend at the library and decided to give her another chance. As with Wickett's Remedy, I never connected with any of the characters. I felt the main character lacked depth and, if that was the point, then her lack of depth was annoying. There is somewhat of a mystery here although the main theme is about the friendships young girls enter into. As a former pre-teen myself, and a bullied and bullying one at that, I whinced at a few of the scenes in the book. The book had a "mean girl" feel to it but not in an ironic or comedic way.
If the author had developed this into a short story it would be fantastic. Her writing style - the unfinished up-to-the-readers-discretion sort of style - lends itself much better to the short-story genre, than a novel.
September 27, 2010
Several little girls walk along a forbidden road, two of them leading the way. One child never returns. Twenty years later, one of those girls, Celia, sights a VW bug and is flooded with memories, with the lie she told, and decides it is time to make amends. If only she can get someone to believe her.
Although I first thought I was going to be reading a mystery and while a mystery is part of the story, it is secondary. This book is really about friendship, family, relationships. It is also about how mean children can be, perhaps not even recognizing that meanness, especially when they want to belong, want to be part of the favored group. It is about how all of us create our own reality, whether or not that matches the reality others believe.
The writing was often lyrical, occasionally a bit too flowery, but I enjoyed it. Somewhat typical is
“Huck was convinced of the redemptive powers of sibling communication, a faith consecrated inside the silent cathedral of the only child.”
Huh? I liked that style, but recognize that not everyone will.
I also liked how the author does not feel compelled to force conclusions on the reader but lets each of us draw our own. This was especially apparent in one of the later chapters about former friend Lee.
While this book will not be everyone's cup of tea, I thought it was a sweet, contemplative look at friendship and family.
The quote was taken from an Advanced Reader's Copy, provided to me by the publisher for purposes of review, and may be different in the published edition.
Although I first thought I was going to be reading a mystery and while a mystery is part of the story, it is secondary. This book is really about friendship, family, relationships. It is also about how mean children can be, perhaps not even recognizing that meanness, especially when they want to belong, want to be part of the favored group. It is about how all of us create our own reality, whether or not that matches the reality others believe.
The writing was often lyrical, occasionally a bit too flowery, but I enjoyed it. Somewhat typical is
“Huck was convinced of the redemptive powers of sibling communication, a faith consecrated inside the silent cathedral of the only child.”
Huh? I liked that style, but recognize that not everyone will.
I also liked how the author does not feel compelled to force conclusions on the reader but lets each of us draw our own. This was especially apparent in one of the later chapters about former friend Lee.
While this book will not be everyone's cup of tea, I thought it was a sweet, contemplative look at friendship and family.
The quote was taken from an Advanced Reader's Copy, provided to me by the publisher for purposes of review, and may be different in the published edition.
Read
November 25, 2021I wondered what all that hate down there in the reviews was about, so I gave it a quick survey. People didn't like this book because it: a) had no resolution, b) was "pretentious," c) was about people doing naughty things. To which my responses are: a) fuck you, it isn't a Hollywood message movie, you don't get an ending wrapped in a bow, b) fuck you, it isn't the sort of young adult book that actual adults read for some fucking reason, and c) fuck you, I'm going to snort coke off some tits.
Boy, I can't believe how much I actually liked a book written by a woman with a Decemberists song named for her -- nothing cloying or saccharine here. It's a slow-burning, sparse novel about loss and the failures of memory and the severing of human connection set in grim, post-industrial upstate New York. Goldberg's Bee Season was merely alright, but showed promise. The False Friend chilled me to the bone.
Boy, I can't believe how much I actually liked a book written by a woman with a Decemberists song named for her -- nothing cloying or saccharine here. It's a slow-burning, sparse novel about loss and the failures of memory and the severing of human connection set in grim, post-industrial upstate New York. Goldberg's Bee Season was merely alright, but showed promise. The False Friend chilled me to the bone.
November 4, 2011
This was a solid 4.5 star read for me and I'm quite shocked to see the overall low score for this novel as well as the glut of bad reviews on the first page.
Celia Durst has returned to her childhood home after 20-odd years when "the sight of a vintage VW bug dredged Djuna Pearson from memory." She and Djuna were intense best frenemies whose relationship served as the centerpiece of a 5-girl clique. One day while walking in the woods, Djuna disappears. At the time, Celia claims she stepped into an unknown car. In the present, Celia, now working as a city employee miles away in Chicago, questions her memory and is convinced she saw Djuna fall into a hole and did nothing to help her. Upon her return to Jensenville, Celia attempts to confess her new "truth" to her family and tries to track down her old friends.
Other reviews cite dull or thin characters, meandering plot, and a confusing conclusion. In my reading, I found a great study of how perceptions influence our memories, coming to terms with our past selves, and the role parents play in upbringing wrapped in a mystery to perk up the package even more (a mystery to which the "actual happenings" are alluded to quite clearly twice in the final 2 pages). Many of the characters are well fleshed out, most wonderfully and heartbreakingly Leanne, the odd girl out who literally almost drove herself to death to please Djuna and Celia.
Celia may not be "likeable," but many parts of her are easy to relate. I know I thought back to my own childhood when reading and wondered if there were times I acted horribly without knowing better (or, conversely, worked to please those I wouldn't care about if I did know better). A worthwhile read.
Celia Durst has returned to her childhood home after 20-odd years when "the sight of a vintage VW bug dredged Djuna Pearson from memory." She and Djuna were intense best frenemies whose relationship served as the centerpiece of a 5-girl clique. One day while walking in the woods, Djuna disappears. At the time, Celia claims she stepped into an unknown car. In the present, Celia, now working as a city employee miles away in Chicago, questions her memory and is convinced she saw Djuna fall into a hole and did nothing to help her. Upon her return to Jensenville, Celia attempts to confess her new "truth" to her family and tries to track down her old friends.
Other reviews cite dull or thin characters, meandering plot, and a confusing conclusion. In my reading, I found a great study of how perceptions influence our memories, coming to terms with our past selves, and the role parents play in upbringing wrapped in a mystery to perk up the package even more (a mystery to which the "actual happenings" are alluded to quite clearly twice in the final 2 pages). Many of the characters are well fleshed out, most wonderfully and heartbreakingly Leanne, the odd girl out who literally almost drove herself to death to please Djuna and Celia.
Celia may not be "likeable," but many parts of her are easy to relate. I know I thought back to my own childhood when reading and wondered if there were times I acted horribly without knowing better (or, conversely, worked to please those I wouldn't care about if I did know better). A worthwhile read.
May 18, 2011
I had high hopes for this book; unfortunately, I was very disappointed by the time I finished it. The concept was indeed an intriguing one- a group of girls walk home on a forbidden highway, a fight ensues one girl runs into the woods, another girl follows her in, only one comes out, a lie that becomes the truth. While the author could have created this amazing story out of the previous description, I felt that the book was a literary mess, continually circling around a thread without gaining any ground. Almost pointless to read as the issue at hand is never truly addressed and rather than sustaining the plot, she fills the book with one-dimensional characters that offer nothing to the story.
Celia to me came off whiny and the fact that she continuously called her mother ‘mommy’ annoyed me to no end. Then we have the boyfriend, Huck, who not only is a teacher he’s a pothead as well, and apparently Celia has no problem with dating one and he has no problem with getting high at her parents house, even though her brother Jem is a recovering drug-addict. The “friends” offer nothing to novel except that Leeanne is now Lee. Even the missing girl and her mother are annoying.
The characters fell flat and the plot was lost to misguidance. Random things were placed into the novel such as Celia and Huck having phone sex, continuous talk about their dogs, Huck getting high, Jem’s pregnant wife complaining, that in my opinion were just fillers that offered nothing to the story.
For me this book was a poorly composed Lifetime movie where the ending was deleted.
Celia to me came off whiny and the fact that she continuously called her mother ‘mommy’ annoyed me to no end. Then we have the boyfriend, Huck, who not only is a teacher he’s a pothead as well, and apparently Celia has no problem with dating one and he has no problem with getting high at her parents house, even though her brother Jem is a recovering drug-addict. The “friends” offer nothing to novel except that Leeanne is now Lee. Even the missing girl and her mother are annoying.
The characters fell flat and the plot was lost to misguidance. Random things were placed into the novel such as Celia and Huck having phone sex, continuous talk about their dogs, Huck getting high, Jem’s pregnant wife complaining, that in my opinion were just fillers that offered nothing to the story.
For me this book was a poorly composed Lifetime movie where the ending was deleted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2010
What is a friend? What does a friend look like and act like? How do we judge whether we are a true friend or not? What do we look for in a friend? These are questions we ask ourself from the time we first enter school.
After reading the summary of this book I knew I wanted to read it. The False Friend is the story of a young woman,Celia, who believes she is responsible for the disappearance of her childhood friend Djuna. She is remembering her childhood friendships and she doesn't like what she sees. She is convinced that after having a terrible argument with her best friend Djuna that she watched her run into the woods and fall into a hole. She also believes she left her there. She returns to her home town to find out if she was this terrible person. The only way to do this is to confess to her parents and her friends. The problems is no one believes her. They all believe that Djuna got into a car with a stranger and was never seen again. Who is right? Is it possible that things were so horrible that she has blocked out the truth? What is the truth?
This story kept me reading from beginning to end. I could not put it down. As Celia confronts her friends she learns that she was not what many of us would call a good friend. Why do people hang around those who bully them or put them down? Celia describe several arguments she'd had with her friend Djuna. It made me recall a time in high school when another of my friends and I were after the friendship of another girl. She would take turns having us over. One day I was her best friend and the next the other girl was. We would argue to the point that teachers would step into the hallway. The difference was I was just shy enough and lacked enough self confidence that I would do just about anything for her friendship.
Miss Goldberg has done an awesome job with her characters. She shows us the human side that is often lacking in a book. We see their flaws. We can identify with them. There is something here for everyone. This is one book that I will definitely recommend to all of my friends. I look forward to more work by this author.
After reading the summary of this book I knew I wanted to read it. The False Friend is the story of a young woman,Celia, who believes she is responsible for the disappearance of her childhood friend Djuna. She is remembering her childhood friendships and she doesn't like what she sees. She is convinced that after having a terrible argument with her best friend Djuna that she watched her run into the woods and fall into a hole. She also believes she left her there. She returns to her home town to find out if she was this terrible person. The only way to do this is to confess to her parents and her friends. The problems is no one believes her. They all believe that Djuna got into a car with a stranger and was never seen again. Who is right? Is it possible that things were so horrible that she has blocked out the truth? What is the truth?
This story kept me reading from beginning to end. I could not put it down. As Celia confronts her friends she learns that she was not what many of us would call a good friend. Why do people hang around those who bully them or put them down? Celia describe several arguments she'd had with her friend Djuna. It made me recall a time in high school when another of my friends and I were after the friendship of another girl. She would take turns having us over. One day I was her best friend and the next the other girl was. We would argue to the point that teachers would step into the hallway. The difference was I was just shy enough and lacked enough self confidence that I would do just about anything for her friendship.
Miss Goldberg has done an awesome job with her characters. She shows us the human side that is often lacking in a book. We see their flaws. We can identify with them. There is something here for everyone. This is one book that I will definitely recommend to all of my friends. I look forward to more work by this author.
January 4, 2011
When my best friend Bonnie and I were in fourth or fifth grade, we got shuttled off campus for GATE once a week, a baffling but fun reward for having scored well on some mysterious test back in second grade. Our mutual friend (and my former BFF) Stephanie was not in GATE. So what did Bonnie and I do? We invented an awesome girl from another school whom we’d befriended at GATE. Chonnie (as in Cheryl + Bonnie) was an amalgam of all that was cool in our ten-year-old minds, meaning she probably crimped her hair and did a lot of babysitting. We talked about her all the time, just to let Stephanie know what she was missing out on. We also made lists of all the things we had in common with each other but not with Stephanie, so that we could casually drop such gems as: “Names with six letters are really the best. Nine letters is just too long.”
These are the kind of mind games that many tween girls play with each other. And this is why I devoured Myla Goldberg’s The False Friend like it was made of very tart pie.
The heroine and could-be anti-heroine is Celia Durst, a woman in her thirties who, on her daily commute, has a revelation that the defining moment of her childhood--her best friend Djuna's disappearance--didn’t go down the way she thought it did. Celia heads back East to confront the past and correct her remembered crime. What she discovers is a trail of smaller crimes, like breadcrumbs in the woods. Each mean-girl mission that she and Djuna led is random on its own, sadistic when stacked with their others. Celia discovers that Djuna’s disappearance has radically transformed all the girls who were there that day, one in a particularly unpredictable (but geniously woven) way.
One thing I’ve always loved about Goldberg is how kind she is to her characters, so it’s all the more interesting to see her write about a character coming to terms with the lack of kindness in her own earlier self. Reading the book, I felt guilty all over again for how Bonnie and I had behaved. And Stephanie didn’t disappear in the forest—-she went on to be much more popular than either of us, and judging by her Facebook page, she has a very nice life now.
These are the kind of mind games that many tween girls play with each other. And this is why I devoured Myla Goldberg’s The False Friend like it was made of very tart pie.
The heroine and could-be anti-heroine is Celia Durst, a woman in her thirties who, on her daily commute, has a revelation that the defining moment of her childhood--her best friend Djuna's disappearance--didn’t go down the way she thought it did. Celia heads back East to confront the past and correct her remembered crime. What she discovers is a trail of smaller crimes, like breadcrumbs in the woods. Each mean-girl mission that she and Djuna led is random on its own, sadistic when stacked with their others. Celia discovers that Djuna’s disappearance has radically transformed all the girls who were there that day, one in a particularly unpredictable (but geniously woven) way.
One thing I’ve always loved about Goldberg is how kind she is to her characters, so it’s all the more interesting to see her write about a character coming to terms with the lack of kindness in her own earlier self. Reading the book, I felt guilty all over again for how Bonnie and I had behaved. And Stephanie didn’t disappear in the forest—-she went on to be much more popular than either of us, and judging by her Facebook page, she has a very nice life now.
February 17, 2017
I so badly wanted to like this book, as I loved Goldberg's other audiobook, Wickett's Remedy, but this one was just a major disappointment in so many ways. The abrupt and incomplete ending was just the icing on an unpalatable cake. I recall feeling the same way when I finished "Bee Season" come to think of it.
What I love about Myla Goldberg is the enchanting combination of her exceptional ability to take an ordinary sentence and turn it into a virtual work of verbal art and her uniquely tranquilizing narration. Inexplicably, it is these same qualities that I think were the novel's undoing.
I found myself incredibly distracted by the poetic language used throughout the book, as I felt it did not in any way enhance the story, but rather detracted from it. When blended with the author's melodic narration, it was a recipe for diverting my attention and putting me into a trance like state. The exception I would make is when the author lent her voice to characters other that Celia, but, alas, that is was no improvement. All the male characters seem to be read as either doltish fuddy duddies or else their affectations would be better suited to a Sherlock Holmes novel. The women come off either as shrews, snobs or imbiciiles
On the positive side, I thought she did a good job of depicting just how catty girls can be, especially in their tweens.
What I love about Myla Goldberg is the enchanting combination of her exceptional ability to take an ordinary sentence and turn it into a virtual work of verbal art and her uniquely tranquilizing narration. Inexplicably, it is these same qualities that I think were the novel's undoing.
I found myself incredibly distracted by the poetic language used throughout the book, as I felt it did not in any way enhance the story, but rather detracted from it. When blended with the author's melodic narration, it was a recipe for diverting my attention and putting me into a trance like state. The exception I would make is when the author lent her voice to characters other that Celia, but, alas, that is was no improvement. All the male characters seem to be read as either doltish fuddy duddies or else their affectations would be better suited to a Sherlock Holmes novel. The women come off either as shrews, snobs or imbiciiles
On the positive side, I thought she did a good job of depicting just how catty girls can be, especially in their tweens.
November 27, 2011
Four stars for the amazing clarity Goldberg has to the behaviors of these adolescent girls at the center of this novel. The group dynamic is a familiar one- leader or leaders and the others at their mercy. Her descriptions of the viciousness and cruelty Djuna and Celia as an abetter hit hard. From daily "grades" on how a girl is dressed to pushing the boundaries of a walk in the woods these recounts make the reader take a look at their own experiences at that age of development when this treatment to and by others can follow you for life. The saying goes that the first cut is the deepest in life and this novel realizes that in fiction form yet could very well be anyone's story. As for Celia's "memory" as the plotline there are loose ends yet this serves to define Celia as an adult who we can decide if she has fundamentally changed since childhood or is she the same at a different point in life. Note her chosen profession and personal life.
October 17, 2010
This short novel tickles the mind from the first page to the last. A childhood event impacts the lives of five young girlfriends and is investigated through the eyes of one of them, Celia.
She comes from a family that lives by rules and familial distance, painting a picture of relationships that don't exist. Her mom has her drinks, only at specific times, schedules her talks with her children, her dad must carry her luggage for her although riddled with arthritic pain. They ignore the son’s dark behavior and descent into drug addiction, making excuses for him until it is too late and he overdoses on drugs and is in a coma. Outwardly, the family presents a kind of Beaver Cleaver picture to the world and pretends to live it, but the reality is totally different.
Trauma affects all of us differently. The way in which these fifth-grade girls react to and deal with a common tragedy, is explored two decades later as Celia tries to deal with her idea of the truth about the day that her best friend Djuna, (one of the five) disappears forever.
Each of the characters has a different memory of the event. Celia, as she revisits her past, has to come to terms with the child she was and it is not the child she remembers. “Was she mean”, she asks her brother, at one point. All of their memories seem to depend on how they handled the tragedy and, among other things, their interrelationships and the cruelties they inflicted upon each other.
Leeann, one of the childhood friends, is a perfect example of the trompe l’oeil the book illuminates for us as to how we look at and interpret what we see. Is anything really what we think it is? They all witnessed the same event but each saw and remembered something different.
Shame, guilt, abuse, lies, secrets and bullying have different consequences for each of the girls. Each views the event and their childhood differently, looking backward. One wonders at times, did the friends really know each other. Their relationships often felt shallow and undeveloped, cruel and too competitive. In so many instances, the inability of the characters to see what is really happening, then and now, shapes their lives.
Many topics for discussion come up, i.e.: friendship, bullying, family abuse, the inability to communicate feelings properly, dysfunctional relationships and an inability to deal with circumstances beyond our control, are just some. As these are brought to the light of day, it is left to the reader to draw his/her own conclusions about the day of the disappearance.
We never really learn whose interpretation of the event is accurate. Is Celia able to put her guilt to rest by confronting her idea of what happened? We are left wondering about what really did happen on that fateful day. We are wondering about the choices the girls made in adulthood. Each of us has to draw our own conclusion, in the end, for nothing is what it seems to be on the surface. Everyone is wearing some kind of a mask to hide behind and we have to discover who they really are and we are left to fill in the blanks, guessing.
This book will make you think.
She comes from a family that lives by rules and familial distance, painting a picture of relationships that don't exist. Her mom has her drinks, only at specific times, schedules her talks with her children, her dad must carry her luggage for her although riddled with arthritic pain. They ignore the son’s dark behavior and descent into drug addiction, making excuses for him until it is too late and he overdoses on drugs and is in a coma. Outwardly, the family presents a kind of Beaver Cleaver picture to the world and pretends to live it, but the reality is totally different.
Trauma affects all of us differently. The way in which these fifth-grade girls react to and deal with a common tragedy, is explored two decades later as Celia tries to deal with her idea of the truth about the day that her best friend Djuna, (one of the five) disappears forever.
Each of the characters has a different memory of the event. Celia, as she revisits her past, has to come to terms with the child she was and it is not the child she remembers. “Was she mean”, she asks her brother, at one point. All of their memories seem to depend on how they handled the tragedy and, among other things, their interrelationships and the cruelties they inflicted upon each other.
Leeann, one of the childhood friends, is a perfect example of the trompe l’oeil the book illuminates for us as to how we look at and interpret what we see. Is anything really what we think it is? They all witnessed the same event but each saw and remembered something different.
Shame, guilt, abuse, lies, secrets and bullying have different consequences for each of the girls. Each views the event and their childhood differently, looking backward. One wonders at times, did the friends really know each other. Their relationships often felt shallow and undeveloped, cruel and too competitive. In so many instances, the inability of the characters to see what is really happening, then and now, shapes their lives.
Many topics for discussion come up, i.e.: friendship, bullying, family abuse, the inability to communicate feelings properly, dysfunctional relationships and an inability to deal with circumstances beyond our control, are just some. As these are brought to the light of day, it is left to the reader to draw his/her own conclusions about the day of the disappearance.
We never really learn whose interpretation of the event is accurate. Is Celia able to put her guilt to rest by confronting her idea of what happened? We are left wondering about what really did happen on that fateful day. We are wondering about the choices the girls made in adulthood. Each of us has to draw our own conclusion, in the end, for nothing is what it seems to be on the surface. Everyone is wearing some kind of a mask to hide behind and we have to discover who they really are and we are left to fill in the blanks, guessing.
This book will make you think.
December 19, 2010
A superb exploration of memory, lies, and point of view.
When I read a really good book I usually write this and that to remember on a Post-It note or two and I put a half dozen flags on the pages I want to go back to and re-read. I wish I could post a picture here of Myla Goldberg's most recent novel, The False Friend. It's almost smothered with Post-It notes and flags. I think the message is that I should re-read it immediately.
I can't figure out why Myla Goldberg hasn't been winning prizes and flashing onto the NY Times Best Seller List on the day of publication. She is extraordinarily observant and she manages to find the right words to convey - at least to me - what she has seen and what it means, both to the characters in her books and to the reader.
False Friend is about a young woman named Celia who suddenly, standing on a street-corner in Chicago, realizes that she is a victim of repressed memory syndrome and that she lied as a teenager when she said a friend, Djuna, was abducted. In reality the girl had run into the woods and disappeared whle the narrator watched and did nothing about it. Her love/hate relationship with this other girl was intense. In school, "at any moment Djuna and Celia were a party the others were desperate to attend, or a traffic accident too spectacular to avoid."
She leaves Chicago and goes home to try to set things right. Her description of her now-decaying old neighborhood: "Family homes were acquired by management companies for student rental, the real estate equivalent of inviting tent caterpillars into trees."
A couple of other quotes while I'm admiring her style:
"When he stood, the couch gave a halfhearted creak, as if feigning distress at his departure."
"The school sat on a hill above the banks of the flood-prone Chenango like a giant box waiting to be filled with unwanted kittens and tossed in."
"Becky's smile was the same strange amalgam it had always been, half happy/half distracted as if her brain, while relaying the command to her mouth, had been called away on more pressing business."
"Family conflicts were less often aired than suffocated, civility heaped upon civility until the trouble was somothered under the accumulated weight of so much decorum."
Celia discovers that it's not easy to convince people that she lied so long ago. She goes from one old friend or neighbor or schoolmate to another and is not very successful in getting them to understand what she did that day so long ago. As she talks with the people from her past Celia learns things about herself that she never suspected. She is forced to look at her childhood from other points of view.
When I read a really good book I usually write this and that to remember on a Post-It note or two and I put a half dozen flags on the pages I want to go back to and re-read. I wish I could post a picture here of Myla Goldberg's most recent novel, The False Friend. It's almost smothered with Post-It notes and flags. I think the message is that I should re-read it immediately.
I can't figure out why Myla Goldberg hasn't been winning prizes and flashing onto the NY Times Best Seller List on the day of publication. She is extraordinarily observant and she manages to find the right words to convey - at least to me - what she has seen and what it means, both to the characters in her books and to the reader.
False Friend is about a young woman named Celia who suddenly, standing on a street-corner in Chicago, realizes that she is a victim of repressed memory syndrome and that she lied as a teenager when she said a friend, Djuna, was abducted. In reality the girl had run into the woods and disappeared whle the narrator watched and did nothing about it. Her love/hate relationship with this other girl was intense. In school, "at any moment Djuna and Celia were a party the others were desperate to attend, or a traffic accident too spectacular to avoid."
She leaves Chicago and goes home to try to set things right. Her description of her now-decaying old neighborhood: "Family homes were acquired by management companies for student rental, the real estate equivalent of inviting tent caterpillars into trees."
A couple of other quotes while I'm admiring her style:
"When he stood, the couch gave a halfhearted creak, as if feigning distress at his departure."
"The school sat on a hill above the banks of the flood-prone Chenango like a giant box waiting to be filled with unwanted kittens and tossed in."
"Becky's smile was the same strange amalgam it had always been, half happy/half distracted as if her brain, while relaying the command to her mouth, had been called away on more pressing business."
"Family conflicts were less often aired than suffocated, civility heaped upon civility until the trouble was somothered under the accumulated weight of so much decorum."
Celia discovers that it's not easy to convince people that she lied so long ago. She goes from one old friend or neighbor or schoolmate to another and is not very successful in getting them to understand what she did that day so long ago. As she talks with the people from her past Celia learns things about herself that she never suspected. She is forced to look at her childhood from other points of view.
May 10, 2011
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
I was a huge fan of Myla Goldberg's deceptively creepy The Bee Season when it first came out several years ago, so I've been looking forward to checking out her latest, which boasts an equally fascinating premise -- that twenty years after reporting her childhood friend abducted while playing in the woods one day, a genial thirtysomething nerd has a flash of what might be repressed memories where she seems to realize that she actually murdered the girl during a passionate impromptu fight, a hazy event that she has come back to her hometown to either confirm or deny through mental confrontation. But while the ending definitely delivers a low-impact but emotionally satisfying conclusion, there is almost nothing of note in the 250 pages between, making this a great short story but a lousy novel, and especially when adding Goldberg's decision to fill the second act with endless bland childhood anecdotes and what's perhaps the most conflict-free parental relationship in the history of contemporary literature. Well-written but mostly a waste of time, it comes only slightly recommended today, with me encouraging you to instead just read The Bee Season if you never have before.
Out of 10: 7.2
I was a huge fan of Myla Goldberg's deceptively creepy The Bee Season when it first came out several years ago, so I've been looking forward to checking out her latest, which boasts an equally fascinating premise -- that twenty years after reporting her childhood friend abducted while playing in the woods one day, a genial thirtysomething nerd has a flash of what might be repressed memories where she seems to realize that she actually murdered the girl during a passionate impromptu fight, a hazy event that she has come back to her hometown to either confirm or deny through mental confrontation. But while the ending definitely delivers a low-impact but emotionally satisfying conclusion, there is almost nothing of note in the 250 pages between, making this a great short story but a lousy novel, and especially when adding Goldberg's decision to fill the second act with endless bland childhood anecdotes and what's perhaps the most conflict-free parental relationship in the history of contemporary literature. Well-written but mostly a waste of time, it comes only slightly recommended today, with me encouraging you to instead just read The Bee Season if you never have before.
Out of 10: 7.2
December 6, 2010
Usually, if I have a complaint with a book that has to do with editing, it is that it is overlong, redundant, in need of pruning, etc. Not so with The False Friend - it needs to be longer. Well, not just longer, it needs to be fleshed out more. Relationships are sketched in and the ending feels like someone came to the door and Ms. Goldberg said "Well, okay, I guess I will stop here" and then tacked on a little something extra as an unwieldy afterthought.
This was a frustrating book - the beginning and the end were bad, but most of the middle was well-written and interesting. All in all, it just didn't hold together as a novel. When I got to the end, I felt cheated, and I do hate that.
This book definitely does a good job of showing how unrelentingly mean young girls can be (11 year olds in this story), but it doesn't do a great job of showing why or how the protagonist, Celia, grew out of her meanness (or if she even did). Things started going downhill fast when Celia's boyfriend, Huck (a character I could not have cared less about) inexplicably started narrating chapters near the end of the story. This muddied the waters substantially and helped everything kind of grind to a halt narrative wise.
If you haven't read anything by Ms. Goldberg, I would give Bee Season a try and pass on The False Friend.
This was a frustrating book - the beginning and the end were bad, but most of the middle was well-written and interesting. All in all, it just didn't hold together as a novel. When I got to the end, I felt cheated, and I do hate that.
This book definitely does a good job of showing how unrelentingly mean young girls can be (11 year olds in this story), but it doesn't do a great job of showing why or how the protagonist, Celia, grew out of her meanness (or if she even did). Things started going downhill fast when Celia's boyfriend, Huck (a character I could not have cared less about) inexplicably started narrating chapters near the end of the story. This muddied the waters substantially and helped everything kind of grind to a halt narrative wise.
If you haven't read anything by Ms. Goldberg, I would give Bee Season a try and pass on The False Friend.
December 19, 2011
I couldn't figure out if I loved this book or hated it. I disliked the main character but felt immensely sorry for her. I kind of wanted to punch her in the face several times in the course of the book.
Celia Durst is in her thirties and walking into work when she is assailed by an emerging childhood memory of the disappearance of her best friend Djuna Pearson. Djuna was abducted when the girls were eleven years old, taken while they were with three other girls walking in the woods. Celia saw Djuna get into a brown car and nobody ever saw her again.
But the memory Celia has is an entirely different vision of Djuna's disappearance. She is shaken to her core and travels back to her hometown to tell the truth. In the course of trying to get someone, anyone, to believe her, she learns that not only her memory of Djuna's disappearance is faulty, but her memory of what kind of person she was and how wrong people were about her.
In uncovering how cruel and malicious she and Djuna had been to their friends, Celia has to face a terrible truth about herself while trying to figure out which version of Djuna's disappearance is true and which is a lie. By the end, even Celia is unsure.
Celia Durst is in her thirties and walking into work when she is assailed by an emerging childhood memory of the disappearance of her best friend Djuna Pearson. Djuna was abducted when the girls were eleven years old, taken while they were with three other girls walking in the woods. Celia saw Djuna get into a brown car and nobody ever saw her again.
But the memory Celia has is an entirely different vision of Djuna's disappearance. She is shaken to her core and travels back to her hometown to tell the truth. In the course of trying to get someone, anyone, to believe her, she learns that not only her memory of Djuna's disappearance is faulty, but her memory of what kind of person she was and how wrong people were about her.
In uncovering how cruel and malicious she and Djuna had been to their friends, Celia has to face a terrible truth about herself while trying to figure out which version of Djuna's disappearance is true and which is a lie. By the end, even Celia is unsure.
November 7, 2010
This had an intriguing premise: after 20 years, Celia remembers that her childhood friend's disappearance didn't really happen as she had presented it at the time. Instead of getting into a stranger's car, Djuna fell into an abandoned well in the forest. Celia saw her fall but make up the story about the car because of their mercurial relationship and left Djuna to die in the woods. She goes home to explore "the truth" and make amends with friends from the past, but when she gets there, no one believes her new version of the story. Instead of looking for Djuna's remains, she ends up dealing with the fallout of her "mean-girl" past.
I would have liked to have seen some of the subplots in the story explored more -- Celia's relationship with her boyfriend Huck, with her parents, and with her ex-junkie brother. The ending felt abrupt and some of the revelations about Celia's former friends felt like they came out of left field.
I would have liked to have seen some of the subplots in the story explored more -- Celia's relationship with her boyfriend Huck, with her parents, and with her ex-junkie brother. The ending felt abrupt and some of the revelations about Celia's former friends felt like they came out of left field.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2011
I'm confused. More often lately it's my muddled take, but there are a few layers of confusion applied liberally in this novel. Reminds me of a writing workshop exercise: put scenarios over here, characters over here and draw a line between with your eyes shut, then write a novel. Can't recommend anyone who has self-doubt about their ability to track a story read this book.
August 11, 2016
Very readable but I'm not sure I got anything out of it. Was there any resolution? What was I supposed to read into it? Maybe I read it too fast and din't get the deep parts?
August 9, 2018
The main character had a childhood friend who was kidnapped and disappeared. She has a sudden flashback where she recalls some disturbing details about the incident, and returns to her hometown (in NY state) to reconnect with the other girls from the friend group.
This set-up has become kind of overused, but it was really just a pretext for examining the distance between childhood and adulthood, the dynamics of young female friendships, and the guilt of trauma.
Absorbing; it suited my mood well, since I read on vacation in NY state while visiting my mom and sister. I read it in one day! I'm not sure it how much it will stand out in the long run from all the other similar books I've read.
This set-up has become kind of overused, but it was really just a pretext for examining the distance between childhood and adulthood, the dynamics of young female friendships, and the guilt of trauma.
Absorbing; it suited my mood well, since I read on vacation in NY state while visiting my mom and sister. I read it in one day! I'm not sure it how much it will stand out in the long run from all the other similar books I've read.
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