Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Fiction > We’ve met, but I wouldn’t say we’re friends

We’ve met, but I wouldn’t say we’re friends

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

February 4, 2021 by Essie Dubs Leave a Comment

J. Courtney Sullivan’s Friends and Strangers follows Elisabeth, a new mom and recent transplant from Brooklyn, NY, to Unspecified College Town, Northeast US, and her nanny Sam, an artist and student at the local women’s college. The novel chronicles a year in the lives of the main characters and a few supporting players as they create drama, cause trauma, and settle into their respective fates.

A preponderance of that settling revolves around romantic relationships. Sam aspires to hurry up and settle down, while Elisabeth is constantly analyzing her own marriage and the romantic relationships around her and occasionally espousing borderline Schlafly-esque life lessons to a rapt Sam:

“Your twenties are about getting the things you want – the career, the man. Your thirties are about figuring out what to do with that stuff once you’ve got it.”

I found this focus on Man Getting quite anachronistic given the setting (2015 Collegetown, NE US) and the characters (a young, talented liberal arts schooled artist and a hip, successful Brooklyn writer). While this rather retro affectation could have been offered as a motivation for Sam and Elisabeth’s bond or as a commentary on gendered discourse, it wasn’t remarked upon much at all, leaving me to wonder if this 1980’s feminist ideology is a peculiarity of the characters or of the writer herself.

The other major miss for me was the epilogue (no spoilers, no worries!). Rather than drawing the characters to a satisfying conclusion, it mostly just underscored the status quo with who seemingly wins, who loses, and who barely warrants a mention. Plus, I thought where Sam and Elisabeth ended up a mere ten years after the last chapter was a bit of a stretch given their previous thoughts and actions, their motives, and the tools at their respective disposals.

On the plus side, the writing is engaging, the main characters are appropriately imperfect, and while the elitism of the setting and the characters may deter some readers, others might enjoy glimpsing such extravagance, and many will see their own privilege reflected in a page or two.

But I had already peeked into that world when I read Commencement, Ms. Sullivan’s first novel, and it was impossible to ignore the parallels. The unnamed women’s college of Friends and Strangers is a virtual facsimile of Commencement’s Smith College (and Sullivan’s IRL alma mater). The young women of Friends and Strangers could be the Commencement crowd’s dormmates, though a few might bristle at their likeness. And while I recall finding Commencement a fine enough book, I wasn’t looking to revisit it, so the surprise seriality didn’t especially endear Friends and Strangers to me.

Ultimately, this book just wasn’t my jam.

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: CBR13, Eli5, J. Courtney Sullivan

Essie Dubs's CBR13 Review No:3 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: CBR13, Eli5, J. Courtney Sullivan ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

About Essie Dubs

CBR13 participantCBR  9

Erstwhile Eli5. Relentless reader, lackadaisical reviewer. View Essie Dubs's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Emmalita on A beautiful portrait of a white outsider in 1930s Great Depression KentuckyMy landlady read and loved this book a few months ago. She loved it and talked about it for a good two weeks.
  • Emmalita on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodI’m almost there with you on Are You There God. It had been out for a few years when I read it, but I recall...
  • esme on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodWhat a treat! /s It is a fabulous book and movie, but good god, is it good for kids to experience that depth of grief...
  • jomidi on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodI know I was a voracious reader, but I don't remember books from when I was very little. I do remember reading stuff like The...
  • andtheIToldYouSos on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy Childhoodthey had to end our school day early after showing us that movie. you know, "as a treat" after we all barely survived the novel....
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in