'The Friend' Is No Shaggy Dog Story
Sigrid Nunez's new novel follows a woman mourning the suicide of a close friend, mentor and fellow writer — and the upheaval after she reluctantly takes in his huge, bereft (and smelly) Great Dane.
One of the great joys of reading is discovering a new writer whose work speaks to you — whether an unknown debut novelist or a seasoned author whose many books you've somehow missed. Case in point: Sigrid Nunez. I was drawn to her sixth novel as a fresh addition to the literature of grief, but within pages realized has as much to say about literature as about grief, and was wondering how she'd slipped below my radar.
