I just finished reading another book I ordered online from the library because it was reviewed in the Australian Woman's Weekly magazine - this one was in the April issue (which reminds me that the May one will be out soon) along with the book I'd read previously "Sundowners" by Lesley Lokko
This one "Gang of Four" by Liz Byrski was about 4 women in their 50's who have been friends for 20 years "... supporting each other through personal and professional crisises - parents dying, children leaving home, house moves, job changes, political activism, diets and really bad haircuts.
Now the 'gang of four', Isabel, Sally, Robin and Grace, are all fifty-somethig, successful...and restless."
I was glued - a coming of age story for people older then my mother. One's a married Mayoress, one's a widowed nurse, the other is a lawyer who's been having an affair with a judge and the other is a never been married Art teacher with a secret.
It's fascinating they all decide to take time off from their lives and do something - Isabel goes to Europe for a whole year alone to retrace her mothers steps - she was a ballet dancer who was away for most of Isabel's childhood and she came back after a car accident left her almost paralysed, Grace goes to England to work on a patchwork quilt and meets someone she didn't know before - herself, Robin takes of for the countryside and Sally goes to San Francisco and enrolls in a photography course.
I haven't told you much but it's so good!!!
Sundowners was also about 4 best friends and spand about 15 years - it began when the girls met at boarding school when they were 15 and ended when one of them got married at 32 - but you have to read it to get what I mean - there's a LOT of adult content but it was fascinating - one of the girls in an heiress to a diamond mining family in South Africa and theres a guy who's father is in jail with Nelson Mandela, and gabby becomes a lawyer for the UN and nathalie opens her own underwear company and just when you think its all going well for charmaine things change - it's also a really good read
But I think what fascinated me most about those books was the friendship and comraderie between all the women.
and it got me thinking about my own friendships. Who will i still be GREAT friends with when I'm having my mid life crisis - oh you know what I mean.
Will we all still be friends when we're old and grey - i know we all say we will now "of course we will, you're my best friend for always"
but honestly everyone's changed so much just in the last 2 years - all the friendships have shifted so dramatically - whose will actually stand the real test of time and who are my and for that matter your "gang of four"??