Secrets & Confidences: The Complicated Truth about Women's Friendships

This anthology has great moments. The introduction by Karen Eng promised a lot: yes, why don't women and girls' friendships get more critical attention? Movies and songs are about bad romantic breakups and longing. But what about friendships that break up? How many of us can say that we've kept all our friends all our lives? And who can swear that they've not been hurt by friends who abandoned us or drifted away? The introduction promised lots. I loved Karen Eng, Joshunda Sanders, and Ayun Halliday's essays. However I found the other essays while individually entertaining did not have collective thematic coherence. Perhaps that's the point, that there are all kinds of friendships and breakups, as diverse in variety as the human beings involved.