Best of Friends: 1

I loved this book. I found it extremely true to human nature. Scenes I loved included Vi's unreasonable irritability when Dan becomesill and Hilary's response to her husband's infidelity--she asks him to think about whether their marriage is actually over. I disliked Gina, but understood her fear and her grasping of another man to take care of her when her husband abandons her. i just loved this whole book. Trollope lives up to her heritage.

having read all her books so far this is the best withiout a doubt. This book shows an unbeleivable insight into the lives of how the people and relationships in divorce situations are affected. It makes me wonder if she has been through it herself and what's more, seen it from all sides!MUST READ

Gina and Laurence have been best friends since they were teenagers. Gina marries Fergus, and Laurence marries Hilary, and the two couples and their families are the best of friends. But the emotional fallout that occurs when Fergus leaves Gina is the subject of this book. That event is like a stone dropping into a lake, with the ripples of effect on the other three adults and their children beautifully and sensitively told by this English author in a most understated way. This book is about love in all its guises and about the loss of love. Most touching of all is the description of the love relationship between Vi, Gina's eighty year old mother and a neighbor, Dan. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. Read it.

Having never read Joanna Trollope before, I had no idea on her writing style or sense of story-telling. However, after having just completed, "The Best of friends" Joanna Trollope illustrates a keen observation on the complexities of love and friendship. This novel focuses on the lives of two friends, each married to other people, whom after some eventful circustances begin an affair. The result of this relationship is quietly told by Ms. Trollope who carefully allows us to observe each character without making judgements on whether their behavior is justified or not. What we are left here is a novel that shows us the effects of what happens when friends take a leap into being lovers and what effects this relationship takes upon family members and children. Joanna Trollope, a #1 best-selling novelist in England, writes with the aura associated with the British - quiet, dignified, restrained, and in the end, ulitamtely satisfying.