Part 25 (1/2)

3. Go to a social networking site such as Facebook and see if you can find old friends you've lost touch with. Are you surprised by how their lives turned out, or are they pretty much what you'd imagined?

A CONVERSATION WITH JENNIFER WEINER.

Q: Did writing Goodnight n.o.body prepare you for the facets of mystery in Best Friends Forever: the investigation, the crime, the Thelma and Louiselike road trip?

A: Writing Goodnight n.o.body definitely helped. So did talking to the detectives who were nice enough to walk me through investigatory procedure (and to okay the liberties I planned on taking). I think the best part of researching this book was going to see the Lower Merion Towns.h.i.+p jail, which not only has a video setup for long-distance arraignments (the suspect stands in front of one camera and the judge, at home, in front of another), but also features the federally mandated handicapped-accessible holding cell, which was absolutely too good not to use in the book.

Q: Some of the same negative forces in Addie's life-Val and Vijay specifically-were also positive forces. Is that what you wanted your readers to take away from her experiences?

A: I think you can learn from any experience and any person, even the ones that hurt you so badly that you don't think you'll be able to survive them at the time. So yes, insofar as I had a message (and really, I cringe at the idea of books that try too hard to ”teach” you something, and are not textbooks), the message was that you can survive anything life throws at you-a parent's death, a friend's betrayal, a boyfriend who breaks your heart-and come out stronger on the other side.

Q: Before she dies, Addie's mother tells her, ”There's all kinds of love in the world, and not all of it looks like the stuff in greeting cards.” It seems like this is a metaphor for the entire novel. What are you trying to get across about the nature of love, forgiveness, and faith?

A: When Addie's mother is talking to her about love, Addie (and the reader) might a.s.sume that she's talking about romance. I like to think that what she's really talking about is Valerie, who betrayed Addie, and was herself betrayed by Addie. I think if she'd had more time, Nancy might have told her daughter that there aren't too many people you meet who you'll know and love for as long as you're alive. You won't have your parents around for your whole life, or your children... but a good friend can be forever.

Q: There are some comedic references to religious faith, particularly with Val and Chip Mason, and Dan Swansea is literally bombarded by faith. Why did you include this religious component?

A: When I wrote this book, I was thinking about religion, and the way G.o.d (at least the G.o.d in the Old Testament) tests people. Addie is kind of my version of Job-the person who has everything taken away, who is tested, seemingly at random. I wanted to answer the question: what happens to a woman who's an outcast to start with, and who loses everything she loves-her brother, her best friend, her parents, her boyfriend? How does she find the strength to go on? I guess the answer-she finds her strength in friends.h.i.+p-suggests that maybe friends.h.i.+p is its own kind of faith, its own kind of religion.

Q: As the story progresses, Dan becomes more of a catalyst for reuniting Val and Addie than an actual problem. Is that the direction you'd intended for his character to take, or did he surprise you?

A: Oh, Dan! He gave me so much trouble! There was a version of the book where he did die in that parking lot. There was another version where he was kidnapped and tortured by a bunch of angry feminists masquerading as a book club (because n.o.body suspects the book club!). It took me a long time and about a half-dozen drafts before I figured out that he wasn't a main character as much of a catalyst-a means to an end instead of an end in himself. Which is comeuppance enough for a former BMOC, right?

Q: You've explored close female relations.h.i.+ps in all of your books. What made you want to delve into the land of female friends.h.i.+ps?

A: I was interested in the idea of friends.h.i.+p as a choice. I've written a lot about the relations.h.i.+ps you don't choose: mothers and daughters, mothers and daughter-in-laws, sisters, new mothers and babies. With this book, I wanted to write about a relations.h.i.+p that you can opt into and out of.

Plus, like many women, I've had the experience of the friend who got away-the person you thought would always be part of your life, and then isn't, because you had a falling-out over whatever (with ”whatever,” at least in my experience, usually being a boy). Or you got married and she didn't, or she had kids and you didn't, or whatever. I think that's an experience that many women have, and I was really interested in seeing how it would play out in a novel.

Q: In Best Friends Forever, similar to some of your previous t.i.tles, the darker plot twists-cancer, obesity, rape, neglect-are peppered with humor. Do you consciously balance those elements as you write?

A: Actually, not really-it's not as if I'm thinking, ”Ooh, this part was really dark, better throw in a joke,” or ”Time for a serious scene to balance out the funny”! I think it's just the way I'm wired, that my stories unfold with both humor and pathos... and I think I'm wired that way because of my own life, where, with every awful thing that happened, my mother would always tell me, ”You'll laugh about this someday!” or ”It's all material!”

Q: At one point, Addie is stripped of all her personal relations.h.i.+ps. Do you think that's what she needed to engage in the world around her?

A: Again, I saw Addie as my Job-the woman who was going to lose everything in order to rebuild a better life. (Actually, maybe instead of Job, she's the Six Million Dollar Woman-”Gentlemen, we can rebuild her!”) Q: We get our first glimpse of Addie's newly designed home through the eyes of Jordan. He describes it specifically on page 223 as a ”place made for pleasure.” What kind of research did you do regarding home design? Do Addie's design choices reflect your own?

A: I did the usual-looked through a lot of home magazines, thought a lot about the kind of choices Addie would make-and because she's an artist, she'd probably make better choices than I do. But I wanted there to be a clear contrast between her home and Jordan's-specifically, I wanted him to live in a place that was totally alienating, where he couldn't open the cabinets or unlock the oven, and for Addie's place to feel very inviting and open.

Q: The end of the novel leaves a lot of room for a sequel. Are you thinking of continuing Addie and Valerie's story?

A: I'll have to see if they keep talking to me!.

What if the one you love is the one who got away?.

Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are just eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she's intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy's taken back to a doctor and Rachel's sent back to her bed, they think they'll never see each other again.

Rachel grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb, the popular and protected daughter of two doting parents. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation.

Over the next three decades, their paths cross in magical and ordinary ways. They make grand plans and dream big dreams as they grow together and apart in starts and stops. Through it all, Andy and Rachel never stop thinking about that night in the hospital waiting room all of those years ago, a chance encounter that changed the course of both of their lives.

In this captivating, often witty tale about the bonds between women and men, love and fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two of her most memorable characters and a love story you'll never forget.

Read on for a sneak peek at Jennifer Weiner's newest novel, Who Do You Love.

Available August 2015 from Atria Books.

Prologue.

Rachel.

2014.

”Rachel?”

I don't answer. If you build it, they will come. If you ignore them, they will go away.