"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." — Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Friday, May 7, 2010

Frenemies by Megan Crane

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**I have a frenemy. I’m struggling with having her in my life, so I read books about how other people might handle this. Watch for a few books titled Frenemies, because I'm reading them all.**


Summary: A woman reviews her friendships after her friend cheats on her with her boyfriend. 

I’ve never been cheated on (that I know of), but I hope I never scream out Janis Joplin songs in public to my cheating boyfriend and the former friend who kissed him. But that’s what 29-year-old Augusta “Gus” Curtis does in the opening chapter in this book. I don’t know why I continued reading this, since I wanted to scream at Gus to “ Grow Up!” constantly while reading. Twenty-nine and you’re still acting like you’re in high school, except that you can drink. It's a pet peeve of mine when women still use a cutesy nickname past high school, and it's even worse when it's a boy's name. 



Gus has an easy job – in her chosen career field, lots of casual friends, and two close friends and yet she acts like an immature prat. And luckily for me, halfway through the book, her friend does scream at her, “You both need to grow the hell up, but I don’t care if you do or not, because I’m not dealing with this sh*t anymore.” Having a main character express exactly what I was feeling helped me finish this book. 
So Gus decides to grow up. She might decide to not have a cute gender-neutral nickname, and instead use her given name (sorry, pet peeve), but instead she cleans up her apartment (power to the feng shui!) and thinks before she speaks. Amazing.

Gus’ big epiphany comes just in time for me to finish reading. 

“Here Helen and I were, standing on a staircase, fighting over a guy I might have just realized wasn’t worth it.” 
Thank you. That sentence alone redeemed the book. And then Gus realized that she hadn’t been a good friend to Helen, so she shouldn’t have felt so betrayed. And getting mad at the female who cheats while trying to win back the male who cheated shows just how messed up Gus’ thinking is/was.

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