The book I sadly avoided because I thought it was a dog book. I'm fine with dogs, but I'm mad at myself for assuming something about a book before reading a word. This is a book about grief, writing as a woman, and how we read or process novels. Plus, there's a dog.

What we do here is talk about books and reading. And I enjoy hearing everyone's opinions on the subjects, and I love differing opinions. I go deep on these discussions in real life, too. A little while ago I sat with someone who has worked with books for decades; whose job is literally to read books all day every day (#thedream) and we talked about how the reading culture is changing. In some ways for better, in others worse. But change can be good, ultimately, in my opinion. THE FRIEND discusses this culture change, too.

Nunez's protagonist writes about a friend (not the dog) that does not deal well with change; having been a privileged participant yesterday, and a kind of relic in the new era. There is an idea of him that is dying or dead; and there is also him, physically, that is dead (or is he?). I loved Nunez's pointed perspective, observing details that others are missing, and debating with her friend, but also internally (like many people are these days). The fact that this book won the National Book Award makes me feel like the industry may be listening.

Soon after I finished THE FRIEND, Elena Ferrante wrote in the NYT: "The female story, told with increasing skill, increasingly widespread and unapologetic, is what must now assume power." And I think that speaks a lot to what Nunez, and a lot of books I've read recently, are doing.

For such a slim volume, it goes in on a lot more than I could parse here.