"The Friend," by Sigrid Nunez

Sigrid Nunez’s novel “The Friend” (Riverhead, 2018) will be a (complicated) joy for most readers to savor, but will be of extra interest to those who love dogs. The main character’s longtime dear friend and mentor dies and leaves his huge and unruly Great Dane to her. She lives in a small apartment in New York where tenants are not allowed to have pets, and although initially she thinks it will be impossible to keep the dog, she reluctantly gives it a try (not being able to find anyone else to take him). One by one she overcomes the many obstacles to having a dog, especially such a large one, in her situation. The main character is a writer and a writing teacher, and somewhat depressed. Gradually she becomes very fond of the dog, and he of her, apparently, and she feels very protective toward him. He also eases her depression. She is reminded of the poet Rilke’s definition of love: “two solitudes that protect and border and greet each other.” Soon she is building her life and schedule around him. Nunez writes with engaging detail about her main character’s relationship with the dog. One such detail that caught my attention was that the main character realizes that the dog was used to being read to, and so she starts to read to him, a happy experience for both of them. In the process of telling the story, the author takes some literary side trips, bringing in tales of the dog’s deceased owner and the literary conversation he and the book’s main character used to have. About now, readers of this post may be envisioning a sort of inspiring, heartwarming, perhaps overly sentimental paean to dogs and to human-dog friendships, with a literary twist. Certainly those aspects are there, but this book is much more complex than that. This short novel is a bit quirky, and doesn’t immediately reach out to invite the reader in, but it soon offers a thoughtful, original story that will, I think, engage many readers.