Book Review: Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen

It’s taken years, however Mary has lastly realized that her marriage to good-looking, rich George Haywood is just not solely dangerous for her, however for his or her toddler son Alex as effectively. At first, George’s riches have been so seductive that his controlling tendencies simply appeared like a real curiosity in serving to her higher herself. As soon as she realizes that she solely ever had the looks of alternative—and, worse, that her son is beginning to mimic his father—she decides she must get out of her marriage:

What I’d thought I’d had with George had been little greater than an phantasm. I, a Stepford robotic that George may management. One he may punish if she crossed him. And Alex, taking this dynamic in. I’ll always remember the way in which my toddler checked out me one morning and mentioned, “Sufficient, Mary.” […] They have been the identical phrases George mentioned to me anytime I pushed again. Sufficient! Sufficient! Sufficient! Like I used to be a toddler, a canine, a ward to be taught the right way to act correctly.

 

God rattling it if I used to be going to let my son develop as much as assume that each one of this was okay.

George, after all, has little interest in letting her go and not using a struggle. Although they signed an iron-clad prenup, he needs to punish her additional by taking custody of Alex away from her, citing spurious causes that his costly attorneys plan to make use of to empty her way more meager financial savings with in a chronic custody battle. If she comes dwelling, nevertheless, they will return to a cushty life all collectively, or so George claims in his frequent makes an attempt to win her again.

Along with her greatest pal now not chatting with her, Mary is thus uniquely vulnerable to the charms of gregarious, subtle Willa, whom she meets whereas on a Brooklyn playground one morning. The 2 swiftly bond over their youngsters and their very own comparatively laidback attitudes to parenting, hanging up a quick friendship and subsequently assembly even with out their youngsters. Lonely Mary is shortly besotted:

The factor about Willa was that she didn’t typically volunteer particulars about her previous. You needed to lure them out of her[.] There was one thing good, nearly enchanting, within the thriller of Willa. It made me really feel like there would all the time be extra to be taught, just like the drinks nights and playdates would by no means, ever finish, like I didn’t have to fret about dropping her–at the very least, not but.

 

All of it felt like promise, like risk, and when it was like this along with her, the solar on our naked legs and our youngsters taking part in collectively so fortunately…

 

It nearly felt like falling in love.

Alas then that after one booze-filled night time collectively, Willa abruptly ghosts her. A devastated Mary worries that she might need revealed an excessive amount of about her failing marriage and her personal emotions about each it and George. She tries texting and calling, however Willa appears to have fallen proper off of the face of the planet.

Quick-forward a number of months, and Mary is seeking to begin a brand new life in Woodstock, a city midway between town and Outdated Forge, the place she grew up and nonetheless has household upstate. She’s shocked to see a well-known determine stroll by as she’s having lunch in a restaurant sooner or later. The lady has completely different hair and garments, however is unmistakably Willa. Mary runs out the door to confront her, however the girl claims to do not know who or what Mary is speaking about. Extra surprisingly, Willa’s little boy is nowhere within the image, although a little bit lady named Poppy is throughout this girl who apparently goes by the identify of Annie.

Mary is decided to make Willa admit the reality, however her plans are difficult by George’s choice to observe her to Woodstock. When George turns up useless shortly after, Mary fears that Willa might need had one thing to do with it. With George’s household suspecting that Mary herself murdered George, she’ll should resolve Willa’s lies if she has any hope of not being separated ceaselessly from her beloved youngster.

Whereas Mary has some wonderful insights into what it means to lift good youngsters, my sympathies primarily lay with Willa, who has a way more lifelike view of life usually. Each time Mary clutched her pearls at one thing Willa did and subsequently assumed the worst of her pal—ignoring the various methods during which she herself was being each a horrible pal and a fair worse feminist—I felt myself rooting tougher for Willa to get herself out of the predicament that her involvement with the Haywoods had landed her in. Willa’s need to be pretty compensated for her work felt completely justified to me. And although I wasn’t a fan of Mary’s wishy-washiness, I very a lot understood Mary’s eager for companionship, platonic or in any other case. It’s vital to make and keep grownup friendships, however fashionable dwelling makes that arduous, particularly for mothers.

Advised from Mary and Willa’s alternate viewpoints, Preserve Your Buddies Shut finally involves a satisfying, although maybe surprising, conclusion. It’s a swift, entertaining learn that isn’t afraid to look at white feminine complacency, and the “acceptable” methods during which ladies are allowed to insurgent.

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