Do Some Damage discussion

OK. Being Geo's friend doesn't work out.
Being Asa's 'friend' is bad, too.
And just try being Orlando's friend. Sheesh. He calls a friend to sell him a stolen van and the friend turns on him. AND he brings along a killer Orlando hung out and listened to cool tunes with -- and that friend tried to kill him.
And go back to DOPE THIEF. Hell, one friend steal everything from another friend. (Oh, spoiler alert, btw)
So, what the hell is it with friendship in this book? In Tafoya's novels?
Is the problem with Pennsylvania as a whole?

What does WOLVES tell us about friendship?

Thinking back to the novel now feels like looking at different snapshots. Tafoya takes us around the city and for a chapter or so we enter certain characters lives.

I feel that there is so much more to learn about so many of the characters but in Wolves we are racing along with the plot - why was Geo killed? - that there isn't time to fill in everything.

Geo did have great friendships before he was killed.
Asa must be more than the puppet master.
Orlando weeps for good friendships.

Friendship as a concept is an interesting one. How do you become a friend and what is the purpose of friendship? Is it about trust, communication, sharing, respect, common interests?
Is friendship about people who are thrown together, who bond through circumstances?
What does connect people?

Can 'bad' people have friends?

Interested to read what others think.

I don't think Orlando really ever had friends. He was just part of a group and nothing more. If they had all been friends, they wouldn't have been so beholden to Asa- the idiot leader that noone should have been serving in the first place. But drugs are involved, and money... those were the only friends most of the characters ever had.

I know who my friends are. Most of them I've never even met.

The spoiler alert was a little too late, btw... but I will still read DOPE THIEF. =)

And Geo did have friends, and he was a great friend, too. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time... nothing more.

I have relatives from this area... my father says they're all strange. I'm sure Pennsylvania must be the problem.

I don't think WOLVES is commenting on friendship so much as the corrosive nature on drugs on friendship. One of my closest friends is a former drug addict, and she speaks (and writes) about how she used to rely on substances instead of people. When you put your faith in a substance, that makes it the priority in your life, and other bonds suffer as a result.

I agree with what Fibe and Sabrina have said about Geo's friendships. The more you learn about him, the more you wish you could have known him.

I agree, Hilary. Drugs ARE an addict's best friend. Ask one.

The talk about Geo had me wondering about the choice Tafoya made to have him essentially be a cipher in the story. Like others, I wanted more from this kid. Of everyone in the book, he might be the most redeeming character. And yet, had we gotten the chance to see him firsthand, he surely wouldn't have lived up to expectations. Restricting our view only to that reflected through the adoring eyes of others (or, conversely, the critical eyes of his obviously unredeeming father), Tafoya allows him to remain the moral center of the story.