Nov 16 2008
Female friendships: A literary perspective
The main character-to-character relationship development in so many books (and movies) is between a man and a woman; the second-most common is between a man and a man–a relationship between two women as the central focus, especially two unrelated women, is definitely the rarest of the three. (Reminds me of the Bechdel test.) This thought came to me the other day when I was rereading a favorite old “comfort book”–it’s a book I first read decades ago as a young teen–I believe it originally belonged to my grandmother. I really love this book for two reasons: one, it’s rich in historical detail about the untamed West of the American 1840s, especially the California Trail, and the other because of the really wonderful portrait of a deep female friendship it paints.
This got me thinking even more–how many other books have I read that I really loved for that second reason? I realized that a few of my books are treasured because of just that. So I thought I’d throw a few of them out there, and see if anybody else out there has either read ‘em or knows of any other books that are beautifully written with a female friendship as a central theme that they’d like to recommend.
The book I’m referring to above is called Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow. The main character is a rich New York debutante named Garnet, who has an adventurous spirit and for this reason marries a young man she meets who is running a mule-and-goods train between New York and California. Early into their journey, Garnet encounters a strikingly beautiful female entertainer named Florinda (well, sort of named Florinda–that’s the alias she’s currently using, anyway) and they exchange helping each other out of sticky situations. They meet again further along Garnet’s journey West and through various trials and tribulations, become the closest of friends. (I believe there may have been a movie made out of it, but if I were you I’d just stick to reading the book.)
The next book is A College Of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. It’s a fantasy novel that takes place in an alternate early twentieth century; the young (underage, in fact, which rankles her no end) duchess named Faris Nallaneen of the fictional country of Galazon has been sent to a finishing school someplace near France called Greenlaw which supposedly specializes in teaching magic to young women along with deportment. As it turns out, there is magic to be taught at Greenlaw, and Faris is destined for something much greater than a mere duchy (which again, rankles deeply as the duchy is all she really cares about). During her years at Greenlaw she makes a circle of intimate female friends–she does also develop a love interest during the course of the book, but friendship–and responsibility–are really what the book is all about.
A third book set at a girls’ finishing school (hmm–I begin to see a trend–is that the only location girls and women can be focused upon to the exclusion of men?) came to mind–it’s a young adult book that did well in the marketplace fairly recently called A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. The main character is a sixteen-year-old girl named Gemma who was raised in India and after the tragic death of her mother, is sent to a finishing school in England. Like the previous book, there’s magic involved, though the Europe presented here is not an alternate-history Europe but one exactly like the Europe of the times (late 19th century). The inner lives of girls of that age is deeply explored, with the magic being used much more as an illuminating plot device than a central theme of the book itself.
Anybody else read these or have any recommendations for me? I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for more to read!
