Friendship: An Expose (book review)

A book review from The Movie Snob

Friends: An Exposé, by Joseph Epstein (2006). I always enjoy Epstein’s writing—his short stories appear in Commentary magazine fairly regularly, and he occasionally publishes columns or essays in other magazines as well. This book is not so much an "exposé" as an "exploration"—a series of essays and meditations on the nature of friendship and the qualities that make for a good friendship. Epstein also muses on the peculiarities of friendship as it is experienced between men, between women, and between men and women (that last a relatively recent development in the history of friendship). His observations are enjoyable enough, but I really preferred the (numerous) parts of the book in which he simply describes some of his past and current friendships and the pleasure he has taken in them. A nice little book.