Frontlist/Backlist: On Friendship
WD Editor-in-Chief Amy Jones recommends two books with friendship at the heart: the new essay collection First Love by Lilly Dancyger and 2023 novel On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel.
Frontlist
First Love: Essays on Friendship by Lilly Dancyger
(The Dial Press, Essays, May 2024)
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Synopsis: In this collection of 15 essays, Lilly Dancyger reflects on and interrogates all manner of female friendships, from those first friendships of early childhood to those of adulthood; from hyper-intense friendships that only last for a certain period of life to ones that span decades and feel more like chosen family. While Dancyger’s friendships are at the center of these personal essays, she also connects them to broader topics like how female friendships are portrayed more widely in books (Sylvia Plath, Anaïs Nin), media, social media (“sad girls” on Tumblr), and recent history.
Throughout the collection, Dancyger’s cousin and first friend, Sabina, serves as the touchpoint, opening with an essay that details the start of their friendship to Sabina’s murder at the age of 20. As the subsequent essays jump to key moments in Dancyger’s teenage years and early adulthood, each one rooted in a friendship representative of that moment and essay topic, Dancyger never leaves Sabina or the impacts of her death far behind. The final essay, “On Murder Memoirs,” brings things full circle, with Dancyger considering murder memoirs and why she chose to focus on friendship instead.
What I loved about it: The first thing I noticed about this collection of essays is the level of detail Dancyger brings to them—details specific to each friend and details specific to the time period discussed. The cultural touchstones of the 1990s and 2000s Dancyger references immediately sparked memories of my closest friendships at the time. Because of this, even when Dancyger got specific about details of her friendships, I, as the reader, still felt connected to the points she was demonstrating.
It was also impressive that Dancyger was able to remember so many of these details from so long ago. You can read more about how she did this in her article, “Turning Real People Into Characters Is an Act of Translation,” from the March/April 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest.
Backlist
On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel
(Knopf, Literary/crime fiction, February 2023)
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Synopsis: Set in Chillicothe, Ohio, and inspired by the unsolved murders of six Chillicothe women, On the Savage Side is the story of Arcade and Daffodil, twins who were born just one minute apart. From those first moments, the girls aren’t just sisters, but best friends and protectors of each other—no small feat during a childhood in which their mother relapses back into drug addiction and brings home unsafe men for drug money.
Years later, as Arcade wrestles with similar demons and tries to come to terms with her memories of that childhood, women in the town—including some of Arcade’s closest friends— start disappearing. Sometimes their bodies are found; other times, it’s as if they’ve vanished. Either way, when Arc realizes few people care about figuring out what’s happened to these women who’ve been cast aside by society at large, her role as protector extends from her sister to the other women around her, putting her in increasingly dangerous situations.
What I loved about it: When I was reading Lilly Dancyger’s essays about friendship, it was this novel that instantly came to mind as a companion read because friendship and sisterhood are at the heart of the story. Arcade and Daffodil are sisters, sure, but they’re also each other’s first and best friend. Most often, they’re the only people they can rely on. As the years progress, readers also see Arc develop friendships with other women, ones that fill the holes left by family and a society that have all but given up on them. These fictional girls and women are as lovingly and intricately drawn as the real girls and women of Dancyger’s essays.
Separately from that, this book has graphics and design elements that aren’t often found in novels but are truly compelling. For example, when a character the girls call “the spider” returns to the narrative, a drawing of a spider appears on the page. There are other illustrated elements, but I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just add: As you read, don’t flip ahead or you’ll risk spoilers.
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