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Friendships in books
Jul. 4th, 2013 12:13 amAaaaages ago, I made a post about female friendship in books, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyherenya asked for a list of books that I thought did female friendship particularly well. I meant to, but forgot about it until now, when watching 2 Broke Girls brought it to mind again. Max and Caroline have the loveliest friendship. I love it when Max says something totally outrageous and Caroline gets this “trying not to smile because it will only encourage you” smile.
It occurs to me that lists of TV shows and movies that do female friendship well would be fun too. But all three in one post would be unspeakably long, so for now I will stick to books.
(Seriously, though, I love making lists. Ask me to list things! Please!)
First of all: all of Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s books! Particularly The Changeling, which is my benchmark for a great children’s book about friendship. Martha and Ivy seem so different - Martha is shy and weepy and lives in a huge suburban house, while Ivy is lively and outspoken and comes from the wrong side of the freeway.
But in the things that matter, in imagination and spirit and friendship, Ivy and Martha are the same.
The Egypt Game captures a similar dynamic, two girls who seem quite different but bond over a shared love of imagination; and of course the Greensky Trilogy, or at least the first two books of it, has wonderful friendships of every possible kind, but for the purposes of this list, Pomma and Teera’s ability to reach across cultural differences is stunning. (I think the first two Greensky books are so good that they are worth reading, even though the third one doesn’t quite work.)
On a quite opposite note: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, which is perhaps an odd choice, because Catherine and Isabella’s friendship doesn’t end up working out. But it’s so well-observed and funny and yet a little heartbreaking to see Catherine’s realization that Isabella is actually not a good person, and has perhaps just been using her - because perhaps Isabellas interacts with everyone by using them.
And, after all, sometimes friendships don’t work out. Sometimes one befriends someone as self-centered and thoughtless as Isabella only to meet someone who is truly kind and thoughtful, like Eleanor Tilney, later, and it’s all right to let the older friendship go. Jaclyn Moriarty’s Feeling Sorry for Celia offers a similar trajectory.
Speaking of Jaclyn Moriarty! For a friendship that pays off famously, Lydia, Cassie, and Emily from The Year of Secret Assignments - I can’t think of any other all-female friendship trios in books off the top of my head. Anyone else got anything? There are four girls in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, but I only like the first book in the series - the girls’ friendship remains fine, actually, it’s everything else that goes wrong - so I am disinclined to list it.
And of course, of course, Maddie and Julie from Code Name Verity.
( Honorable Mentions, because otherwise this list will go on forever... )
It strikes me, looking over this list, that there is a definite pattern here. I am awfully fond of stories about girls who seem quite different but are ultimately drawn together by their common fund of imagination and kindness.
ladyherenya asked for a list of books that I thought did female friendship particularly well. I meant to, but forgot about it until now, when watching 2 Broke Girls brought it to mind again. Max and Caroline have the loveliest friendship. I love it when Max says something totally outrageous and Caroline gets this “trying not to smile because it will only encourage you” smile. It occurs to me that lists of TV shows and movies that do female friendship well would be fun too. But all three in one post would be unspeakably long, so for now I will stick to books.
(Seriously, though, I love making lists. Ask me to list things! Please!)
First of all: all of Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s books! Particularly The Changeling, which is my benchmark for a great children’s book about friendship. Martha and Ivy seem so different - Martha is shy and weepy and lives in a huge suburban house, while Ivy is lively and outspoken and comes from the wrong side of the freeway.
But in the things that matter, in imagination and spirit and friendship, Ivy and Martha are the same.
The Egypt Game captures a similar dynamic, two girls who seem quite different but bond over a shared love of imagination; and of course the Greensky Trilogy, or at least the first two books of it, has wonderful friendships of every possible kind, but for the purposes of this list, Pomma and Teera’s ability to reach across cultural differences is stunning. (I think the first two Greensky books are so good that they are worth reading, even though the third one doesn’t quite work.)
On a quite opposite note: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, which is perhaps an odd choice, because Catherine and Isabella’s friendship doesn’t end up working out. But it’s so well-observed and funny and yet a little heartbreaking to see Catherine’s realization that Isabella is actually not a good person, and has perhaps just been using her - because perhaps Isabellas interacts with everyone by using them.
And, after all, sometimes friendships don’t work out. Sometimes one befriends someone as self-centered and thoughtless as Isabella only to meet someone who is truly kind and thoughtful, like Eleanor Tilney, later, and it’s all right to let the older friendship go. Jaclyn Moriarty’s Feeling Sorry for Celia offers a similar trajectory.
Speaking of Jaclyn Moriarty! For a friendship that pays off famously, Lydia, Cassie, and Emily from The Year of Secret Assignments - I can’t think of any other all-female friendship trios in books off the top of my head. Anyone else got anything? There are four girls in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, but I only like the first book in the series - the girls’ friendship remains fine, actually, it’s everything else that goes wrong - so I am disinclined to list it.
And of course, of course, Maddie and Julie from Code Name Verity.
( Honorable Mentions, because otherwise this list will go on forever... )
It strikes me, looking over this list, that there is a definite pattern here. I am awfully fond of stories about girls who seem quite different but are ultimately drawn together by their common fund of imagination and kindness.
