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The False Friend

by Myla Goldberg (Goodreads Author)

2.76 of 5 stars 2.76 · rating details · 1,905 ratings · 529 reviews

Twenty years after Celia’s best friend, Djuna, went missing, memories of that terrible day come rushing back—including the lie Celia remembers having told to conceal her role in Djuna’s disappearance. But when Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, her family and childhood friends recall that day very differently. As Celia learns more about what may or may not...more

Paperback, 272 pages

Published August 23rd 2011 by Anchor (first published January 1st 2010)

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Oct 21, 2010 Marta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my first introduction to Goldberg. At first I was put off by her writing style. The book started off a bit too poetic and it seemed as if there were "big words" thrown into the story simply because they were "big words." It almost felt as if she was showing off her extensive vocabulary and it ended up throwing off the flow of the storytelling.

However, after looking past (or rather getting used to) the writing style I began to get enveloped in the story of 30-year-old Celia whose sudden...more This was my first introduction to Goldberg. At first I was put off by her writing style. The book started off a bit too poetic and it seemed as if there were "big words" thrown into the story simply because they were "big words." It almost felt as if she was showing off her extensive vocabulary and it ended up throwing off the flow of the storytelling.

However, after looking past (or rather getting used to) the writing style I began to get enveloped in the story of 30-year-old Celia whose sudden revelation about her best friend Djuna, who was believed to be abducted when they were 11, sends her back home to a town that is degrading but will forever possess the memories of her childhood.

Celia is a character you can relate to. Without trying to give much away, she embarks on this mission to figure out the truth about the abduction, and this mission makes her reconnect with her childhood friends. You can't help but feel like she's kind of delusional and that she's obviously going through some sort of crisis cause she's 30. Sometimes you just kind of want to slap her silly.

I feel this book is less about the investigation into Djuna's disappearance and more about Celia's struggle with self-identity and trying to figure out where she went wrong. It's a story about friendship, growing apart and trying to reconnect. And it shows that even though the memories of childhood friends are so powerful and vivid, it doesn't mean there can be a relationship after years of separation. Some things are just better left alone.

Since this book wants to be a mystery novel but in the end really isn't I feel there is some disconnect and the "mystery" gets lost somewhere in Celia's mission. So you're reading and going "oh man I wonder what happened to her friend" but suddenly you're interested in Celia and are trying to psycho-analyze her. And then you realize "oh wait I was trying to figure out what happened to her friend," and the final page tries to wrap that up and reveal the truth. So it's kind of an odd ending and feels rushed and doesn't really have much closure.

This was a fun read once you realized what the story was actually about.(less)

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Jan 25, 2011 Amanda J rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Amanda J by: BB Bookclub Members Choice Jan2011

Shelves: popular-fiction, online-bookclub-read, family-drama

This book failed on so many levels. The characters were one-dimentional and dull. I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to care about any of them. It seemed as if Goldberg tried to add something slightly unexpected to each of them (Celia - econonmist/poet, Huck -teacher/druggie, Becky - best friend/Hasidic Jew etc.), but unfortunately it only made them feel more contrived.

Adding to the artificial feel of the prose was the author's clunky way of switiching between past and present. I may have been for...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Christina Wilder rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: had-so-much-potential, realistic-fiction

Oh, this started so well.

A woman is suddenly and literally struck by the memory of what actually happened to her childhood friend and races home to spread the truth. No one believes her, and she starts to wonder if she can believe herself.

Fantastic, right?

The beginning and the epilogue are quite good, but what's in the middle...it's what brings the book down.

Something that will always annoy me as a reader is when an author describes unimportant things in tremendous detail. Celia returns to her...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Heather rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-books

The premise of this book is amazing and I couldn't wait to delve into such a potentially rich story. I was expecting the psychological suspense of Gone Girl with the girl bullying of Atwood's Cat's Eye. While the bullying episodes were uncomfortably vivid, the book falls short in terms of Celia's exorcism of her past.

The endless, tedious descriptions drag the story along at a glacial pace. It reads more like a short story that has been stretched to book length. As a result, the main story gets b...more The premise of this book is amazing and I couldn't wait to delve into such a potentially rich story. I was expecting the psychological suspense of Gone Girl with the girl bullying of Atwood's Cat's Eye. While the bullying episodes were uncomfortably vivid, the book falls short in terms of Celia's exorcism of her past.

The endless, tedious descriptions drag the story along at a glacial pace. It reads more like a short story that has been stretched to book length. As a result, the main story gets buried and suffocates.

For example, Celia lands in her hometown on page 13 (hardcover), but doesn't talk to her mother about her memories until page 63. That leaves us with 50 pages of small talk, her job description, a summary of the town's history, descriptions of the house and neighborhood throughout the years, her parents' health, an entire chapter from Huck's perspective, descriptions of her old school and her mom's office, plus any number of memories associated with these things. By the time she confesses to her "mommy," I can't muster any interest.

This plodding pace continues throughout the book. She doesn't go to the scene of the crime until page 142, more than halfway through the book. Really? She feels so guilty that she takes the first flight back from Chicago, but she doesn't try to go to the woods to check her memory until the 3rd day home? Even then, she's more interested in the history of the road expansion than what was found when they tore down the woods.

She also doesn't look for other clues to support her memory and ignores the facts presented. Why does she completely overlook the fact that the thorough search of the woods, complete with search-and-rescue dogs, did not find Djuna? This lack of common sense takes the mystery out of the story and seems out of character for a Performance Auditor.

The lack of urgency and passion can be seen in each character (save Leanne). The characters think, talk, and act like they are half asleep. Even Celia is remarkably bland for someone supposedly having a psychological crisis. She doesn't ever reach a breaking point, gain insight, or come to any conclusions. The story just ends. What a letdown.

In addition to these shortcomings in plot and characters, the writing is overwrought. While many of Goldberg's poetic metaphors were beautiful, most made me grate my teeth: "The silence at the dining room table was a glass bead the house held in its mouth;" and the parking lot at the school reminds her of “a gap-toothed former baby sitter who had gotten bridgework.” Ugh.

(less)

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Jan 24, 2013 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes life gets in the way of regularly blogging, especially when said blogging is about books. One needs time to carefully read and provide honest and fair reviews. The False Friend, as my first reviewed book in quite awhile, was quite disappointing.

The premise is intriguing enough. One random day, Celia Durst is walking to her Chicago job, and suddenly has a long-suppressed memory. When she was eleven years old, her best friend, Djuna, got into a stranger's car in the woods, and never was...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Chandra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just love Myla. I realize that she's a little wreird, and is certainly not for everyone, but I just think she's swell. I read Bee Season when I was still in high school, and it was one of those defining books that, I think, most aenglish majors and book nerds have. One of those first books that totally engaged and enveloped me, not for an exciting plot or a beloved character, but because of the words the authors used, like cords tossed gradually around me until I was totally caught up. (Geek L...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Shari rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This was a pretty good read. I found myself a little disappointed and somewhat confused at the end though. The entire book is about the character struggling to come to terms with what she did to her childhood friend. She returns home to confess the truth and seek forgiveness only to find that no one accepts her version as truth. I won't tell you if her version actually is truth or not. You can find that out for yourself if you choose to read this.
I'm not saying it's a bad story or that it's poo...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Marie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, library, ebook, contemporary, usa, midwest, reviewed

In February, I read Bee Season for my library discussion group. While it wasn't a bad read, it wasn't very memorable.

Which is demonstrated by the fact that in finding this in the catalogue, my thought process went something like, Goldberg, Goldberg, that sounds familiar...but where from?

Didn't pick up on the connection until I going through the front matter of The False Friend.

Grown up Celia is walking down the street in Chicago when she flashes back to a horrific time in her childhood: the abdu...more In February, I read Bee Season for my library discussion group. While it wasn't a bad read, it wasn't very memorable.

Which is demonstrated by the fact that in finding this in the catalogue, my thought process went something like, Goldberg, Goldberg, that sounds familiar...but where from?

Didn't pick up on the connection until I going through the front matter of The False Friend.

Grown up Celia is walking down the street in Chicago when she flashes back to a horrific time in her childhood: the abduction of her best friend/worst enemy Djuna. Suddenly, she pictures the two of them, on that day, walking into the woods—and Djuna disappearing into a hole, not a car. What if she lied?

So Celia goes back home, to confront not just her own memories, but all the girls she knew back then, to confirm what she didn't do. Tell everyone what had really happened.

After eight years and several books from Goldberg, The False Friend is a stronger novel than Bee Season. There were fewer point of view characters—which is to say, two, and I'm not sure why Huck had his own. Unfortunately, though the strangest premise is used to set up the book (which I like, because if that's accepted, I don't have accept it at the end when it doesn't make sense), Goldberg almost immediately drops into a rundown of Celia's recent history, rather than the realities of her current life—only to summarize those hours more than a chapter later.

Considering how much of this book is characters reflecting and then maybe discussing events that have been silenced for decades, this is a little problematic, and makes it difficult to really know why this is crucial to Celia now, or even who she is at the beginning and end of the novel.

On the other hand, much of this novel plays to Goldberg's strengths as an author: the complexity of family relationships, particularly of the stoic type; the mercurial nature of young girls; looking back on the past and trying to make sense of it; coming back to a should-be familiar place and the shock of finding the new. Celia and Djuna's interpersonal details make sense to me as one never bullied as harshly as Leanne and never popular myself. But Celia's attempts to reconcile who she thinks herself to be, what she remembers as history, and finding only the vaguest of resemblances to what everyone else is telling her—that rang true.

It's a similar premise, though much darker, that Marian Keyes' Rachel's Holiday, where Rachel confronts her traumas of early childhood to her parent's benign recollection. Both books use a similar conceit: no one talked about it, so the protagonist hadn't had anyone to deny the excuses constructed by childish minds looking for reason. (less)

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Feb 14, 2012 Rachel Crooks rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 18, 2011 marymurtz rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I couldn't figure out if I loved this book or hated it. I disliked the main character but felt immensely sorry for her. I kind of wanted to punch her in the face several times in the course of the book.

Celia Durst is in her thirties and walking into work when she is assailed by an emerging childhood memory of the disappearance of her best friend Djuna Pearson. Djuna was abducted when the girls were eleven years old, taken while they were with three other girls walking in the woods. Celia saw Dju...more

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May 18, 2011 Angela Simmons rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, mystery, contemporary-fiction, wasnt-as-good-as-i-would-have-hoped

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had high hopes for this book; unfortunately, I was very disappointed by the time I finished it. The concept was indeed an intriguing one- a group of girls walk home on a forbidden highway, a fight ensues one girl runs into the woods, another girl follows her in, only one comes out, a lie that becomes the truth. While the author could have created this amazing story out of the previous description, I felt that the book was a literary mess, continually circling around a thread without gaining an...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Swiftyjess rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bee Season, her debut novel, is on my list of Top 5 books of all time. I was drawn into each character and when it ended, I actually held my breath as I read the last page.
When I read Wickett's Remedy I was totally disappointed and not enthusiastic about reading anything more by Goldberg. However, I spied a copy off The False Friend at the library and decided to give her another chance. As with Wickett's Remedy, I never connected with any of the characters. I felt the main character lacked dept...more

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Apr 20, 2011 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd like to think that I could do better than this, but since so far I haven't........I thought this was a timid examination of girl bullying and what it does to the bullied and the bully.

A 32-year-old woman one day suddenly says, "My best friend is dead," which is how the author plunges her heroine into a (re) examination of this childhood friendship and what it wrought. She had told the cops that the other girl got into a stranger's car; now she decides something else happened. She goes home t...more

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Apr 13, 2011 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-by-kate

[spoiler alert] Richard Russo describes this third novel by Myla Goldberg as “a riveting read, both compelling and richly satisfying.” Russo wrote Empire Falls, which I couldn’t put down, so I was inclined to trust his assessment. Yet having finished Friend, I wonder if Russo wasn’t acting a little like the false friend of Goldberg’s title, editorializing for convenience. The False Friend is based on a compelling premise: “I think, therefore I am is too vague. We are, because we remember.” This...more [spoiler alert] Richard Russo describes this third novel by Myla Goldberg as “a riveting read, both compelling and richly satisfying.” Russo wrote Empire Falls, which I couldn’t put down, so I was inclined to trust his assessment. Yet having finished Friend, I wonder if Russo wasn’t acting a little like the false friend of Goldberg’s title, editorializing for convenience. The False Friend is based on a compelling premise: “I think, therefore I am is too vague. We are, because we remember.” This homily, helpfully provided in chapter 1, is explicated in through the memory of Celia, a thirtysomething urban professional, who returns to her suburban hometown to correct the record about the disappearance of her childhood best friend, Djuna. Djuna had disappeared under murky circumstances one afternoon when the girls were 11 years old, walking home from school with a group of “satellite” girls, wannabe friends. Celia, who had at the time claimed that Djuna had gotten into a stranger’s car, now feels sure that Djuna actually fell into a hole in the woods and that Celia herself had fabricated the kidnapping rather than help her friend, with whom she had been squabbling at the time. But the recollections of Celia’s parents, as well as the grown-up women the former accolytes have become, contradict Celia’s revisionism. We are, because we remember, but we remember things differently depending on our shifting agendas. So far, so good. The flashbacks to Celia and Djuna’s tyranny over their eager, self-debasing friends dramatizes the particular cruelties of preteen girls, a depiction that belongs alongside Julie Orringer’s How to Breathe Underwater and Z.Z. Packer’s story “Brownies.”

The problem with The False Friend is that these brief flashbacks to Celia and Djuna’s social domination are so much more interesting than the relatively slow-paced “front story” of Celia’s interaction with her parents (who are detergent-commercial-sunshiney toward her) and her life with Huck, her bland good-guy boyfriend (who doesn’t deserve his allusive name). And the former accolytes—one visual artist whose work explores Djuna’s disappearance, one uber-smart Orthodox Jewish mother, and one formerly solicitous tomboy turned defiant transgender (or transsexual, it’s not clear)—are, for the five minutes of fame they each get, so much more interesting than Celia herself.

Goldberg’s language doesn’t help; many sentences are syntactically obscure, imbuing aesthetics with a sense of causation (“Spring had scrapped the need for a jacket”). Images are weighed down with portent. This could serve the story if I were convinced that the languge reflected Celia’s mentality as an unreliable, aesthetically rich narrative filter. Instead, the language feels like the proverbial “hand of the author,” steering Celia toward conclusions she never quite grasps herself. The closer Celia gets to uncovering (not even “understanding”) the injury she really caused on the day of Djuna’s disappearance, the murkier and blander Celia’s characterization becomes. What’s left at the end of the book is anticlimax, not revelation. Djuna’s mother, whom Celia visits in her one-by-one mea culpa tour, chides Celia, who had been a compelling kid, for not being a more interesting adult. This indictment, though meanspirited, is true, and true of the book as a whole. What’s meanspirited and primal in this book is what’s truest; what’s well-meaning and self-consciously educational or mature feels like editorializing, and we all know that what’s true is usually more compelling than what we wish were true.(less)

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Jan 22, 2011 Marcia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would add a 1/2 star to my rating. I liked it a bit more than a three but not quite a four.
At age eleven, Celia was with four other girls when one of them goes missing. The girls had gone to the woods by the road and Celia and another girl named Dejuna had a fight. Djuna walks away and is seen getting into a brown car and is never seen again. Twenty years later, Celia is walking down the street and something triggers a memory of the day. She thinks that the brown car was not real and in rea...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Rosanne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The False Friend was a rather disturbing read. As a young girl, Celia had one good friend then a new girl enters the picture, Djuna and takes over as the new best friend. Djuna has many disturbing ideas that she likes to act upon. She convinces Celia to play a very cruel game with a girl named Leanne who would love to be included in their circle of friendship. Djuna decides that she will control the situation by bullying and degrading Leanne and never allowing her to measure up.

One day, the girl...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Catherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this because I liked The Bee Season, an earlier book by this author. This book is about a woman in her early thirties, Celia who upon seeing a classic VW Bug is jolted into remembering the disappearance of her childhood friend, which she has repressed for many years. Channeling Gob from Arrested Development, I found myself saying “C’MON!” I know they were terrible cars – I owned one – but surely more than one has been on the road at some point in the past two decades.

More to the point, th...more

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Nov 29, 2010 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, it's not Bee Season. Myla Goldberg is a phenomenal writer, but I'm afraid I'm always going to want everything else she's written to be Bee Season - that perfect mix of psychology and philosophy and religion and wonder. The False Friend is all psychology, but is nevertheless truly fascinating in its milieu.

The False Friend deals with an adult remembering a long-repressed memory that changes the way she views herself and her childhood. Celia Durst's best friend Djuna got into a stranger's c...more

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Nov 13, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010-mysteries

The False Friend, by Myla Goldberg, narrated by the author, B-plus, produced by Random Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

This novel is very different from Goldberg’s first novel, “Bee Season.” In this book we have two girls, Celia and Juna, best friends and rivals. They take three other girls, followers, with them on an unauthorized road and into the woods. Only Celia comes out and Juna is never found. Celia told people at the time that Juna had gotten into a car with a strange man. But as Celi...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Alex Templeton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A weak beginning led to an intriguing story. The beginning of this novel really threw me off; it felt contrived, and there purely to launch the reader into the plot. All of a sudden, the reader is standing on a street corner with the protagonist, Celia, as she suddenly flashes onto a memory of a friend she hasn't thought of in years--a memory that is so compelling to her that she almost immediately flies back to her hometown to confront it. Unfortunately, I had only known Celia for a few pages a...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Sandra Stiles rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, realistic-fiction

What is a friend? What does a friend look like and act like? How do we judge whether we are a true friend or not? What do we look for in a friend? These are questions we ask ourself from the time we first enter school.

After reading the summary of this book I knew I wanted to read it. The False Friend is the story of a young woman,Celia, who believes she is responsible for the disappearance of her childhood friend Djuna. She is remembering her childhood friendships and she doesn't like what she s...more What is a friend? What does a friend look like and act like? How do we judge whether we are a true friend or not? What do we look for in a friend? These are questions we ask ourself from the time we first enter school.

After reading the summary of this book I knew I wanted to read it. The False Friend is the story of a young woman,Celia, who believes she is responsible for the disappearance of her childhood friend Djuna. She is remembering her childhood friendships and she doesn't like what she sees. She is convinced that after having a terrible argument with her best friend Djuna that she watched her run into the woods and fall into a hole. She also believes she left her there. She returns to her home town to find out if she was this terrible person. The only way to do this is to confess to her parents and her friends. The problems is no one believes her. They all believe that Djuna got into a car with a stranger and was never seen again. Who is right? Is it possible that things were so horrible that she has blocked out the truth? What is the truth?

This story kept me reading from beginning to end. I could not put it down. As Celia confronts her friends she learns that she was not what many of us would call a good friend. Why do people hang around those who bully them or put them down? Celia describe several arguments she'd had with her friend Djuna. It made me recall a time in high school when another of my friends and I were after the friendship of another girl. She would take turns having us over. One day I was her best friend and the next the other girl was. We would argue to the point that teachers would step into the hallway. The difference was I was just shy enough and lacked enough self confidence that I would do just about anything for her friendship.
Miss Goldberg has done an awesome job with her characters. She shows us the human side that is often lacking in a book. We see their flaws. We can identify with them. There is something here for everyone. This is one book that I will definitely recommend to all of my friends. I look forward to more work by this author. (less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Heather Bokon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I don't really know what to think about this one. I can't really say that I liked it or didn't like it. The best I can come up with is that I don't really understand the point of it. All of the characters were in the exact same place (emotionally) that they were in the beginning. No one really learned anything, no one and nothing really changed.

From the blurb:
Twenty years after Celia’s best friend, Djuna, went missing, memories of that terrible day come rushing back—including the lie Celia remem...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Eveli Acosta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The beginning of this book made it a little hard for me to push forward. Too much description of where she grew up, what every room looked liked, so on and the vocabulary seemed too much. But I gave it a chance even though it seemed that it really wasn't for me. A thirty-two year old woman coming back to a childhood she had stopped thinking about, talking about and not exactly moved on from but survived and pushed on. Before I knew it, I was absorbed in it. The author's words & world seemed...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Cayleigh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

I found The False Friend to be a quick read about a woman who goes back to her hometown to right a wrong that happened when she was 11. I kind of liked the small glimpses back in to Celia's 11 year old life, things were so much more trivial but also so intense at that age. A lot of the book was very lyrical in it's descriptions of the people and places, I really enjoyed this. At the same time I think that sort of writing also disconnected me from the characters. I started to like the description...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm honestly not sure why I keep reading Myla Goldberg, because I always start out with high hopes, and I'm always disappointed. The False Friend has a great concept. A girl is abducted, and twenty years later it returns to haunt the friend who let it happen. I bet it would have made a striking short story. But as a novel, as this novel, it just doesn't work.

First of all, dumping out a ton of quirks and details do not well rounded characters make. Every time I started getting into the rhythm of...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I think Goldberg captured the character of young and sometimes mean girls very well. The bullying and grading system that Leeanne endured impacted her life big time. Goldberg showed us that bullying can effect a person long term. Even though it was not outright said, I am pretty sure readers were supposed to realize that Lee was Leeanne. This particular tidbit turned me off a little. I thought that this was a little outlandish. Sure, I truly believe the effects of bullying can last a life time,...more I think Goldberg captured the character of young and sometimes mean girls very well. The bullying and grading system that Leeanne endured impacted her life big time. Goldberg showed us that bullying can effect a person long term. Even though it was not outright said, I am pretty sure readers were supposed to realize that Lee was Leeanne. This particular tidbit turned me off a little. I thought that this was a little outlandish. Sure, I truly believe the effects of bullying can last a life time, and people can still be bitter towards their tormentor years after the events. I also understand transgender people. I just didn't think there was any inclination that Leeanne was transgender until Celia showed up at her door. It was the kind of shocker that didn't fit well into this plot. Not only did Goldberg show us the effects on Leeanne, but she also showed us the effect son Celia. Celia went along with whatever Djuna did, and ended up feeling terrible for her actions later on in life.
I thought at times the descriptions of settings were drawn out, and often lacked meaning. Yes, it was interesting to see the decline of Celia's former childhood neighborhood. It also helped us understand her parents personalities and her upbringing, but it seemed we were often bombarded with these details at different points in the story. I often found I wanted the description to stop, and the plot to get a move on.
The ending was poor. I think we were supposed to see that there was really a car. Djuna really was kidnapped. With this being said, there was never an explanation as to why Celia thought she had left Djuna to die in the woods. Are we supposed to think her psyche created this scenario because the truth of her being kidnapped was too much to handle? Personally I think it would be harder to handle knowing you left her there to die than knowing someone kidnapped her. At least a kidnapping would not have been her fault.
Interesting, it had its points, but it was not summed up well at the end. I felt left to hang without being able to make my own interpretations as to why Celia created the story that she left Djuna behind. I guess she created it so she could go back home and own up and remember all of the things that happened revolving around that period in her life.
(less)

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Nov 17, 2010 Myla rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Second book by Myla Goldberg, just to give her another chance, and disappointed again. There just isn't enough good stuff to make it worth reading. I kept reading not because I was compelled by the characters or the story, but just to see what happens. And what is with her idiot characters? Celia's live-in boyfriend is a high school teacher who's an occasional drug user, and that's just something that's part of him, she doesn't even consider leaving him for it. Very stupid. I can understand you...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-edition, goodreads-authors

Several little girls walk along a forbidden road, two of them leading the way. One child never returns. Twenty years later, one of those girls, Celia, sights a VW bug and is flooded with memories, with the lie she told, and decides it is time to make amends. If only she can get someone to believe her.

Although I first thought I was going to be reading a mystery and while a mystery is part of the story, it is secondary. This book is really about friendship, family, relationships. It is also about...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Justice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Review (free o' spoilers):
This was a quick listen for me - it's just over six hours as an audiobook. I really, really enjoyed it - I love Goldberg's writing and how she drops these beautiful philosophical moments in the novel. The prose was like a pond in a hidden glade - deep and reserved. Goldberg narrates the audiobook, and I found this refreshing: she knows the pacing and the need for emphasis on certain turns of phrases, so it really added a new layer to the novel. Consider two of these...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Kimber rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: No one

I normally do not review books that I do not like simply because everyone's tastes are different and I would not want to discourage people from reading something simply because I did not like it. However, I was angry by the time I finished this book. I trudged through the thick, and sometimes incomprehensible prose because I was intrigued by the story. Several times after reading aloud to my husband passages of not only inconsequential but downright ridiculous usage of the English language, no d...more

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About Myla Goldberg

Myla Goldberg is the bestselling author of Bee Season and Wickett's Remedy, as well as a children's book, Catching the Moon. The paperback edition of her newest novel, The False Friend, will be coming out this fall. She also plays accordion and banjo and sings as part of the Brooklyn art-punk band, The Walking Hellos.

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Trivia About The False Friend

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Quotes from The False Friend

“At this time on a weekday morning, the library was refuge to the retired, the unemployed, and the unemployable. ... 'I'm not always this gabby,' the librarian said. 'It's just so nice to talk to someone who isn't constructing a conspiracy theory or watching videos of home accidents on YouTube.” — 3 people liked it

“The day's dashed hopes had temporarily reduced her to the childish presumption that someone she loved should, in return for that love, be able to read her mind.” — 2 people liked it

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The False Friend

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