“Hey, I’m sorry, Eva, really. I was being an idiot there for a moment. And I promise not to bring it up again.”
I couldn’t stay mad at him. Someday, I thought, I’ll be furious with him for days on end. But not now. “I’m keeping you to that promise, John,” I said, taking his hand again. “I mean it. Now, what about Jake?”
“He’s engaged to a twenty-seven-year-old grad student in anthropology. Seems she just left for Africa on a field trip, but when she comes back they’re tying the knot.”
“But he can only have known her for a few months,” I protested.
“What can I say?” John shrugged. “Sophie’s not thrilled but Jake swears it’s true love. He’s an adult, so she can’t prevent the marriage.”
“What about Brad? What does he think about Jake getting married?”
“According to Sophie, Jake’s news barely registered with Brad. He’s engaged to some twenty-five-year-old actress/ model/waitress. She’ll be pregnant a few months after the wedding, I’d lay money on it.”
“Poor Sophie.”
“She’ll be fine.”
“She does have Ben,” I conceded. “And a career. If she sticks with it.” And then it struck me. “John, maybe you could talk some sense into Jake.”
John frowned. “Why do you care so much?”
“Because I can’t help wondering if I’m responsible for his rushing into this marriage. Sophie told me that I broke his heart. I thought she was just . . . being Sophie, but maybe I did hurt him badly when I broke things off.”
“Maybe, but don’t get any ideas about marching over to his apartment to apologize.”
I had to laugh. “Don’t worry. That would be a huge mistake.”
“Yes, it would. Jake’s life is his own to make or break. Besides, his parents’ divorce probably had a deeper influence on him than his fling with you. And I don’t mean that as an insult.”
“I know. And I hope you’re right. It’s terrible knowing you’ve messed someone up.”
“Welcome to the human race. Membership is all about saying you’re sorry.”
“It’s a lousy club with lousy rules.”
“You have an alternative in mind?”
“No.” I moved closer to John and lifted his arm around my shoulder. “I like how humans kiss. I could never let that go.”
“Ah, yes. The kissing. That is a good thing. And it leads to even better things.”
I shimmied away from John and got up from the couch. “Better things will have to wait,” I said.
“What? Why?”
Poor John. He looked so bewildered.
“Your sisters are coming over, remember? Girls’ night in, poker, wine, no men. Don’t tell me you forgot.”
John groaned and got to his feet. “I suppose I’m making food for this event?”
“Of course. Now, get to it. They’ll be here in half an hour.”
I watched him leave the room, knowing he wasn’t in the least angry about cooking for the women in his life. His groaning and my bossing were part of our dynamic, part of our unique routine, our version of the daily stuff that keeps people together. Who knew the mundane could be so valuable, so productive?
“Eva!” John called out from the kitchen. “Where’s my big spoon?”
I rolled my eyes. “Where it always is,” I called back.
“I don’t see it.”
“I’m coming!” And I headed for the kitchen to find my fiancé’s big spoon.
Please turn the page for a very special Q&A with Holly Chamberlin!
Q. The device of The Answer Lady is something you abandoned at the end of The Friends We Keep. Do you miss her?
A. Not really, though I had a lot of fun writing those Answer Lady bits. After a while she was running out of steam, so it was time for her to retire. Now when I read her words of wisdom I’m surprised at how snarky she can be! I’m not sure I could resurrect her at this point. I might have lost my edge. And there’s the fact that she’s living happily in the south of France with the owner of a very successful winery.
Q. In this novel The Answer Lady alternated with excerpts from books with interesting titles such as The Imprecise Nature of Truth, Hypocrisy for Beginners, and Give Them Nothing: Silence Speaks Volumes. Tell us about those excerpts.
A. All my own creations, of course! The excerpts were a fun way to riff or expound on the themes of the story—lies, deception, avoidance, etc. Writing them forced me to think more deeply about the characters and their choices. And it allowed me to poke fun at some of the incredibly silly self-help or lifestyle advice books on the market.
Q. The current edition of The Friends We Keep was first published in 2007. Did you re-read the book while preparing this edition?
A. Yes, I did and, as always when I revisit a book I wrote some years back, I feel as if I’m reading a story created by someone else. Seriously, every page is a surprise. It’s a very strange experience to be confronted (that’s how it feels) with words you have no recollection of having chosen, with characters you have no memory of having created. Luckily, most times (not all times) I’m pretty pleased with the work overall, though I can’t help but notice an awkward sentence or construction here and there. That’s when I cringe.
Q. How do you feel about your three main characters at this point in time? Differently from how you felt about them when you wrote the book?
A. I don’t really remember how I felt about John, Eva, and Sophie back then! After this last reading I felt very sorry for Eva; such a sad, brittle person. Also, in the end, a brave one. Sophie annoyed me at times, though I did admire her ability to cut the cord that bound her to her immature son. And there isn’t much, if anything, to dislike about John!
Q. Finally, how has your work changed over the years?
A. Good question. I’m not sure I have the full answer, though! The most obvious change is that the novels are now set in Maine, where I live. I focus more now on family stories, with main characters that span the ages from fourteen to sixty or so, and less on characters in their twenties or thirties who are in the dating world. That said, I really never know what sort of characters or story lines will pop up in the next book.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE FRIENDS WE KEEP
Holly Chamberlin
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance
your group’s reading of Holly Chamberlin’s
The Friends We Keep!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. “Acquaintanceships rely on frequent face-to-face interaction. Friendships, I believed, could survive great distances.” Talk about the difference between an acquaintance and a friend. Discuss the circumstances in which friendships might not survive a distance of time or a length of absence.
2. John admits to harboring savior fantasies, imagining himself as “the white knight coming to the rescue of the damsel in distress—even though the damsel wouldn’t admit she was in distress.” Do you think many men these days harbor such fantasies? Under what circumstances might such a savior complex arise? Can a relationship based on the dynamic of savior and saved work over time? What might happen if the saved—man or woman—realizes that he or she no longer needs, or never really did need, saving?
3. Eva says: “When you’re self-sufficient for a length of time, you fall out of the habit of trading personal information. So, when you find yourself in a rare position to talk, you either say too little or say too much, and one way or the other, the other person is left with an erroneous impression of you.” Have you experienced this in your own life? Have there been times when being out of close touch with people has resulted in a sort of social confusion?
4. Eva tells us: “If the past has to be let go in order to ensure the future, then so be it. Repression or willed forgetfulness can be powerful tools on the road to success.” Discuss how this personal philosophy served the character well, and how it contributed to her lack of emotional maturity.
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sp; 5. Can you find any justification for Eva’s choosing to have an affair with her friend’s son? Would telling Sophie the truth from the start have made the situation acceptable? Jake is legally an adult, so Eva is breaking no law in sleeping with him, but clearly she is committing what might be termed a moral transgression. If you found yourself in Sophie’s position, how do you think you would react to both your friend and your child? Would your reaction be very difference if your friend were a male and your child a female?
6. After learning the truth about her son’s affair and failing to receive an apology from him, Sophie tells us that while she still loves Jake, she doesn’t much like him at the moment. Can you understand this? In what other circumstances might one dislike an otherwise loved one?
7. Sophie, who tends to view the world as black and white, wonders how an adulterer can consider him or her self to be a good person, in spite of otherwise exemplary behavior. Eva declares that she doesn’t judge someone she knows to be cheating on his or her spouse because she doesn’t really know what’s going on inside the mind of the adulterer. In other words, let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Discuss these two different views.
8. Eva tells us she feels angry that her sister doesn’t seem to want more from her life than what she has chosen. She feels angry that her sister is not more like her. These feelings puzzle her. Discuss how difficult it can be to accept the choices of a loved one when they don’t correspond with your own choices. Why is this so? Is it simply a failure of imagination? Is it, as Eva surmises, our natural self-centeredness, which makes us want the world to conform to our opinions?
9. Jake points out most kids know a lot more about their parents’ relationship than the parents realize. Do you think this is especially true in the case of children whose parents are divorced? At another point in the book Jake reminds his mother he doesn’t want to hear negative comments from her about his father and v. v. Do you think a child of divorced parents ever truly escapes being dragged into the middle of the fray?
10. Eva says that friends are like moral guideposts, helping you to walk the straight and narrow; the fear of their disapproval—and the ensuing embarrassment that disapproval will cause you—helps you to behave properly. And then she tells us that she resents this. Talk about the role of a true friend. Moral guidepost or behavior police? Unconditional supporter or someone whose loyalty is based on your following a particular code of conduct? A combination of these?
11. John’s assistant, Ellen, says: “Marriage is a state of incessant vigilance. The slightest inattention can result in disaster.” Do you agree? Later, she talks about the value of routine in a marriage. Talk about when—if?—routine might become a liability.
12. In Chapter 45, Eva and Jake argue about romance and the changing nature of expectations. She believes that she is clear-eyed and clear headed. He thinks she is just bitter. Does each character have a valid point?
13. Sophie opines that an apology is an act of recommitment to a relationship. She says that apologies happen when there’s a sense of accountability. Talk about the act of offering—and of receiving—an apology. Is an apology necessary for the healing of an emotional bond that has been torn? Or can one simply “forget” and move on?
14. “If humans are the only ones to lie, cheat, and steal,” Eva wonders, “does that mean that success as a species depends, at least partly, on the capacity for unethical behavior?” Talk about times when an act of deception might provoke a positive result. Does this result always justify the original deception?
15. Eva feels guilty about keeping the secret of her affair a secret from Sophie. She also feels some pity and disdain for her friend. Why is it that we experience this mix of emotions toward those we are hurting?
Bestselling author Holly Chamberlin’s heartfelt novel, set in a beautiful Maine beach town, tells of three sisters—and one summer filled with revelations....
When Poppy Higgins left Yorktide, Maine, for Boston, she pictured future visits home as brief diversions from her real life in the big city. Fate had different ideas, and at twenty-five, Poppy has been called back to care for her two younger sisters following their father’s death.
Sixteen-year-old Daisy resents Poppy’s long absence and chafes under her sometimes fumbling efforts to be a parent. Violet, now thirteen, is a virtual stranger to her oldest sister. Once a happy, united family, the Higginses seem adrift, and Poppy longs to escape her responsibilities. But when Daisy befriends Evie, an enigmatic newcomer to Yorktide, the young woman will be an unlikely catalyst in the sisters’ journey back to each other. For as Poppy discovers the deep loss in Evie’s life, she awakens to the truth about her own, and about the town, and the people, she’s tried to leave behind.
Filled with the candid warmth of real sisterhood, Summer with My Sisters explores the many forms a family can take, and the unspoken ties that endure, season after season....
Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek of Holly Chamberlin’s
SUMMER WITH MY SISTERS
coming in July 2015!
1
Poppy Higgins hung the last of her tops and blouses in the large chestnut armoire that had once contained her mother’s clothes and firmly closed the door of the beautiful old piece of furniture. She wasn’t at all sure she belonged in this room, what had once been her parents’ master suite, but here she was, stowing away her clothes in the armoire and laying out her makeup and moisturizers in their bathroom.
This was the thing. Poppy had decided that there was probably no way she could pull off a role of authority in the house on Willow Way if she continued to sleep in her girlhood bedroom, the place where she had mooned over airbrushed boy bands and cried in frustration when her parents wouldn’t let her see a movie all of her friends were allowed to see and dreamed childish dreams of a secret benefactor suddenly leaving her billions of dollars to spend in any way she liked. No, if she was going to succeed (or, at least make a stab) at being her sisters’ guardian now that both of her parents were gone, she would need all the psychological props she could find, and installing herself in the master suite seemed like as good a prop as any.
Not everyone agreed with her. Sixteen-year-old Daisy wasn’t happy about it; then again, she hadn’t been happy about anything lately, and Poppy really couldn’t blame her. Violet had said nothing about the move, but anyone who knew Violet at all knew that she probably had a strong opinion about the matter. Violet was preternaturally mature, almost oddly so. Maybe mature wasn’t the right word; maybe simply odd would do. She was as far from the average thirteen-year-old girl (if such a thing existed) as you could imagine, more interested in esoteric subjects like astrology than in pop culture; often shockingly blunt and straightforward in her speech; and possessing a highly developed and always on target intuition about people and their motives.
Now, looking at the king-sized bed in which Annabelle and Oliver Higgins had spent so many nights of their married lives, Poppy wondered: Could you invade a person’s private space even when they were dead? Was she indeed trespassing or being disrespectful? Maybe, but she was determined to stick it out in the suite, at least for a week or two. After all, she was supposed to be the adult in the house now, the one who acted with firmness and a sense of being in the right. A person who made a considered decision and stuck to it. The thought was terrifying.
Twenty-five-year-old Poppy had been back home—or, what had once been home—in Yorktide since the sudden death of her father in February and the completely shocking discovery, when his old friend and solicitor Frederica Ross, aka Freddie, had read his will to the family, that he had named Poppy legal guardian of her two younger sisters. He had requested she not move them to Boston, where she had been living for the past several years, but that she return to the house on Willow Way so that Daisy and Violet could finish high school and middle school without being wrenched from the community in which they had been a part for all of their lives.
It made sense, of course. Her fat
her had known that Poppy had no deep roots in Boston. She had moved to the city after graduation from college more in the hopes of stumbling across something “interesting” than because she had a definite plan for her future. Still, not long before Annabelle Higgins died of lung cancer three years earlier, she had strongly encouraged her oldest daughter to return to Boston when she, Annabelle, was gone; she had urged her not to give up her quest for a meaningful life, not to feel that she need move back to Maine to be with her father and younger sisters. So Poppy had gone back to Boston shortly after her mother’s funeral, but three years later she still had not found anything “interesting” to do with her life. Her job as a freelance writer for a few online “cultural” magazines was unfulfilling in the extreme; how often could you write creatively about a new beer and bacon joint or a pop-up dance club or discuss whether socks worn with sandals was actually “a thing”? The only reason she kept at it was to pay the bills. Unlike her highly motivated and focused parents, Poppy feared she was sadly directionless and quite possibly lazy.
Well, you could be directionless and lazy anywhere, so why not in Yorktide? Leaving her on again, currently off again boyfriend Ian had caused Poppy no regret. Ian could be a lot of fun, but not much more than that. The only thing—the only person—she would miss—that she did miss—was Allie Swift, the woman who owned the beautiful old mansion in which Poppy rented a spacious and sunny top-floor apartment. Though Allie was forty and had seen an awful lot more of life than Poppy had, they had formed a true friendship and Allie had promised Poppy a place to stay when—if—she returned to Boston when her sisters were finally on their own.
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