If we’re lucky, we get that one life-changing friendship. For some, it happens in childhood; for others, it occurs in the college years, when self-discovery is paramount. There are even those who find that connection later in life when they need it the most. Friendships like these are deep, but that means they can be volatile and even destructive. These friendships in this week’s book club aren’t all sunshine and roses, and they don’t follow traditional paths, but they’re instrumental in shaping the women who share them.
<em>Remind Me Again What Happened</em>
Claire and her best friend Rachel are closer to sisters than friends, and Claire’s husband Charlie completes the triad. They have a bit of a strange history: Rachel and Charlie were involved in undergrad, and moved to be together in Boston for grad school. Claire was a new and fast friend. Things crumbled for Rachel; her parents died in a car accident, she gets pregnant and decides she doesn’t want the baby or to tell Charlie about it, and eventually, their relationship falls apart. Through it all, Claire takes care of both Rachel and Charlie, all three living together in Rachel’s childhood home. She serves as a sounding board for Rachel’s grief, and when Rachel decides to end things with Charlie, Claire dates and then marries him. You’d think this would be a recipe for a soap opera, but instead, things seem to work.
<em>The Secrets Between Us</em>
Bhina, a servant in the Dubash household, considers her employers to be like family; Serabai Dubash’s daughter Dinaz treats her like an aunt, which is great luck in a strict class-based system. Her granddaughter Maya is the only real family she has left, after a lifetime of bitterness from her own relatives: “the torturous deaths of her son-in-law and her daughter, Pooja, to AIDS; on the day when her Gopal left her that life-altering letter before absconding with their son, Amit; and the time before that when Gopal’s foreman had made her sign a piece of paper that cleaved their family in two.” However, “like” family is the operative word, and when Dinaz’s husband impregnates Maya and then suggests an abortion, he’d rather save face by accusing her of stealing money. Bhina’s pride forces her to refuse to return, though she’s at a loss over how she will provide for Maya’s college education.
<em>The Summer List</em>
“Casey Katherine Shepherd. I hadn’t seen her since we were eighteen. When I ran into people from Coeur-de-Lune they inevitably asked me about Casey, and I always said, ‘We drifted.’ They would nod, as if this was the most natural thing in the world. People drifted. In my case it’d be more accurate to say I’d swum away. As fast as I could, trying my hardest not to look back. I slid the card into its torn pink envelope and turned it over again, my thumb smoothing the top edge of the sticker, where it had curled up slightly. I promise it will be ok, she’d written. (35 – how did it happen?)”