Part 24 (2/2)

I shook my head, feeling my little-girl shyness rus.h.i.+ng back. The woman was staring at the DiMeos' house-her house now. Then she turned, said something to the movers, and turned again and looked at us.

”Go on,” Val said. I took a deep breath and crossed the street to the DiMeos' front yard, where our new neighbor was waiting. ”Hi,” I said. ”I'm Addie Downs. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

The woman's face lit up. ”Hey, you too!” she said.

I patted my belly. ”Me too.”

”Do you know what you're having?”

”A girl,” I said, and her smile widened.

”Me too!” Her name was Pam Rollins, wife of Sean, twenty-two weeks along. ”It's so pretty here. I didn't think I'd like it. Sean and I lived in a high-rise, so this...” She looked around and made a wry, funny face. ”Big change. We're not used to all this green. But, you know, the city...” Her voice trailed off. ”We wanted to start our family somewhere safe.”

I nodded. I could have told her that places that look safe sometimes aren't. I could have said that pretty houses and neatly kept lawns didn't mean that bad things didn't happen in the bas.e.m.e.nts or the backyards or the woods... but I kept my mouth shut. Maybe someday she'd learn for herself. Or maybe she'd be lucky and she would never find out.

Valerie, who'd pulled off her gloves and stuck them in her back pocket, crossed the street to join us. ”Valerie, this is Pam Rollins.”

”You're living in my old house,” said Val.

Pam nodded... then, shyly, she said, ”You're on Fox News, right?”

”I am,” said Val, and turned to me. ”See, not everyone gets the weather on their cell phone.”

”Right,” I said, and smiled at my friend before turning back to Pam. ”Do you need anything? Directions to the grocery store? Pediatricians' names?”

”We're all set,” she said. ”This is just so perfect!”

”Perfect,” Val agreed. ”Maybe your girls will be friends.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

As always, I am grateful for the hard work and stewards.h.i.+p of my agent, Joanna Pulcini, who is dedicated, enthusiastic, and given to writing ”make this more poetic!” in my margins (which, it turns out, does not mean that the pa.s.sage in question should rhyme). Joanna believed in me six books ago and believes in me still, and I'm so happy that we've built our careers together. And that I can stop trying to gratuitously insert the word ”Nantucket” into my novels.

My amazing editor, Greer Hendricks, has been with me for every book I've written. Greer is a s.h.i.+ning star for her good judgment, humor, generosity, kindness, and endless reservoirs of calm.

My thanks to Joanna's a.s.sistant, Molly Ahrens; Greer's a.s.sistant, Sarah Walsh; and my a.s.sistant, the funny, friendly, and altogether fabulous Meghan Burnett.

I am grateful to work with everyone at Atria Books, the most enthusiastic, attentive, and hardworking publishers in the business. My thanks to my publishers, Judith Curr at Atria and Carolyn Reidy at Simon & Schuster; to Nancy Inglis, who has the unfortunate job of copyediting my ma.n.u.scripts; and to Deb Darrock, Natalie White, Kathleen Schmidt, Lisa Keim, Christine Duplessis, Craig Dean, and Jeanne Lee. Across the pond, I am very lucky to work with Suzanne Baboneau, Julie Wright, Ian Chapman, Jessica Leeke, and Nigel Stoneman at Simon & Schuster UK.

Lucky is the writer who has publicist Marcy Engelman and her girls, Dana Gidney Fetaya and Emily Gambir, on her team, and who gets the fabulous Jessica Fee to arrange her speaking gigs.

For technical expertise, my thanks to Detective Sergeant Gary Pierce of the Haddonfield, New Jersey, Police Department and Detective Sergeant John Stillwagon of the Lower Merion Police Department; to Sara Jacobson for explaining the legalities of fict.i.tious. .h.i.t-and-runs at high school reunions; and to Sue Serio of Fox 29 Philadelphia for details on the secret lives of on-air personalities.

Curtis Sittenfeld and Elizabeth LaBan were generous and perceptive first readers.

I am lucky to have wonderful friends and family, near, far, and on Facebook, who supply me with laughs, companions.h.i.+p, and raw material (a special shout-out to Jeff Greenstein for being hilarious and helpful and loving Harry Crews's Body as much as I did). Jake and Joe Weiner are not only my little brothers, they also take care of me out on the coast, and my sister Molly is an endless font of inspiration and amus.e.m.e.nt. I'm grateful to my Nanna, Faye Frumin; to my mom, Fran; and to my mother's partner, Clair Kaplan, for laughing with me and at me. Thanks also to Terri Gottlieb, who takes care of my girls while I'm working.

Last but never least, all my love to my husband, Adam, and our girls, Phoebe and Lucy, who make everything else worthwhile... and to all of my readers, who've come with me this far.

INTRODUCTION.

If time was a dimension, and not a straight line, if you could look down through it like you were looking through water and it could ripple and s.h.i.+ft, I was already opening the door,” says Addie Downs in her first chapter of Best Friends Forever. It's been years since Addie has seen her long-lost best friend Valerie Adler. Addie and Val became instant best friends when Val moved into Addie's neighborhood in the small town of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois. Ripped apart by betrayal their senior year of high school, they are reunited fifteen years later when Val shows up at Addie's door asking for help.

In her sixth novel, Jennifer Weiner crafts a story full of mystery, humor, love, and forgiveness through the prism of female friends.h.i.+p.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION.

1. ”In all my years of fuming and resentful imagining, all the years I'd carried my grudge like a pocketbook I was afraid to set down even for an instant, I'd never considered that there might be a different way of looking at the situation, another truth,” says Addie of seeing Valerie after many years have pa.s.sed (on page 96). What does this say about friends.h.i.+ps? About personal relations.h.i.+ps? About forgiveness?

2. Addie, who suffered from years of insecurity prompted by emotional eating and teasing, often perceives Val as her ant.i.thesis. Does this make her a reliable narrator for the story of their friends.h.i.+p? How were Addie's feelings about herself as a teenager based on what she thought of Val?

3. One of the major themes in this novel is the idea of transformation. Cite examples of how people transform both internally and externally. Who changes by way of fate? Who chooses to change?

4. Compare and contrast how the girls are shaped by their relations.h.i.+ps with their respective mothers. How are Val and Addie similar to or different from their mothers?

5. Val's father is absent, while Addie's father is physically present, but can be emotionally distant, retreating from his family to his work s.p.a.ce. How are Val and Addie shaped by the relations.h.i.+ps they have with their fathers? Are there examples of either of them emulating those relations.h.i.+ps with men?

6. From Jordan's baby-proof home to Kevin Oliphant's ”s.h.i.+tbox,” describe how a character's s.p.a.ce, seen through the eyes of Jordan, may have impacted how you felt about him or her.

7. The novel is filled with different versions of the same stories. While investigating Dan Swansea's disappearance, Jordan comes upon different perceptions of the same people. How does this ill.u.s.trate the difference between the stories we tell ourselves and what is actually happening? Does this make it easier for Addie's cla.s.smates to point the finger at Jon?

8. From Addie's stay-at-home father to Patti's Guatemalan baby, what do you think the author is saying about alternative families?

9. Why do you think Addie chooses to keep her baby?

10. In Best Friends Forever, characters' lives are often marked by moves. Valerie moves into Addie's neighborhood, Jordan and Patti move to Pleasant Ridge to start a family. How does the author use this notion to further the plot?

11. The balance of power often s.h.i.+fts between Addie and Valerie. Cite examples when the balance is in Valerie's favor. When is the balance in Addie's favor?

12. On page 216, Mrs. Ba.s.s tells Jordan that he has ”a great deal to learn about human nature.” How is this ill.u.s.trated with other characters in the novel? Is it at all? What does this tell us about the overall theme of the novel? About the people in the small town of Pleasant Ridge?

13. ”I wondered sometimes whether it had to do with Jon. Maybe they hated me because they couldn't hate him,” Addie says on page 227, attempting to make sense of why she's a target of bullying. Do you agree with Addie? Do you think she's making excuses for her cla.s.smate's cruelty?

14. On page 121, Addie describes Jon as someone who would ”never grow up, never have to worry about the things grown-ups worried about.” Why do you think the idea of never growing up is such a comfort to Addie?

TIPS TO ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB EXPERIENCE.

1. Imagine a road trip with a long-lost friend. What would it be like? Where would the two of you go?

2. Is there a long-lost friend you dream of getting back in touch with? Tell the group about this friend, why you grew apart, and what you think it would be like to get back in touch.

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