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Good books, old friends

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By Kara G. Kvasnicka

Tuesday, November 29, -0001

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In her latest novel The Best of Friends (Viking, 1995, $23.95), British author Joanna Trollope gives us her answers to these burning questions.

A descendent of 19th century novelist of Anthony Trollope, Joanna Trollope has written several contemporary novels that probe the lives and problems of the middle class residents of small English country villages.

Two of her novels, The Rector's Wife and The Choir, have been serialized for television. They were aired on Masterpiece Theatre in the United States.

Although The Best of Friends lacks the witty dialogue and intriguing subplots that elevate Trollope's other novels to better than average fiction, its thought-provoking themes and believable characters are well worth our attention.

In this novel Trollope uses the small, fictitious town of Whittingbourne to show how confining and uninteresting life in small town Great Britain can be until two of its residents interact in ways that will change their lives and those of their families forever.

The two main characters are forty-somethings Gina Bedford and Laurence Wood who have been best friends since their teens.

Gina is a piano teacher married to antiques dealer Fergus Bedford and mother of a teenage daughter, Sophy. Laurence and his wife, Hilary, run a small hotel called The Bee House and have three teenage sons, George, Adam and Gus.

When Fergus decides to end his marriage to Gina, all their lives are thrown into turmoil. Gina drowns herself in sorrow and self-pity during a temporary stay at The Bee House. Sophy, who is not quite sure which parent she blames most for disrupting her sheltered upbringing, seeks the guidance of her feisty and practical 80-year-old maternal grandmother, Vi Sitchell.

Meanwhile, Hilary and Laurence's marriage is also vulnerable. Weary of the balancing act of raising three boys and running a small hotel, Hilary regrets that she does not have a real career and has never been entirely comfortable with having to share her husband with his female best friend.

Despite his easy, accommodating nature, Laurence on the other hand has begun to feel that there is nothing he can do to please the almost always irritable Hilary.

Disappointed in their marriages, Laurence and Gina suddenly turn to each other for romantic love as well as friendship and understanding.

The novel focuses on the consequences of Gina and Laurence's affair on their relationship to each other and their families.

Although this novel is not as complex and multi-layered as her others, Trollope still manages to reveal with great poignancy what might happen when two people must choose between each other and their obligations to the real world.

As she shows us the naturally devastating effects Gina and Laurence's love affair have on Sophy, Hilary and the three boys, Trollope reminds us that although we live in a permissive age we must still pursue our desires with caution and care for the people who depend on us.

Whether Gina and Laurence are actually in love with each other or just reacting to their dissatisfaction with their spouses is something of which we are never quite sure.

Gina, who her mother, Vi, believes to be too much in love with herself to love others, suffered a tremendous blow to her self-esteem when her husband left her because he claimed she was impossible to live with. One wonders whether Gina wants to cultivate a thriving domestic relationship with Laurence just to prove Fergus wrong.

Laurence is confused about the responsibilities that a lifelong friendship entails.

"What do you think are the ultimate obligations of friendship?" Hilary asks Laurence in a discussion they have before he betrays her. "I don't know," he said. "I've never tested them."

All the characters in this novel face serious dilemmas once Laurence and Gina decide to test their "ultimate obligations" to both friendship and family, but Trollope uses wry humor and irony to ensure that none of them take themselves too seriously. Whether by accident or design, she succeeds in making Hilary, Vi, Sophy and Gus more sympathetic characters than Laurence or Gina.

Hilary is my favorite character. Deeply hurt by her husband's actions she nevertheless deals with them sensibly and with a sense of humor. She acknowledges her own part in the breakdown of her marriage and bravely soldiers on in an effort to salvage what is left of it.

Outspoken, opinionated Vi provides the most colorful commentary in this Trollope novel. She is not afraid to confront others with their own selfishness as she watches 77-year-old Dan, the first man she has ever truly loved, lose his battle with heart disease.

Trollope gives each of the children an endearing personality, but Sophy's and Gus' struggles to understand why their world must be turned upside-down are the most moving.

Like almost all Trollope's other novels, the town in which the story is set is important in terms of how each of the characters react to it.

Trollope portrays Whittingbourne as an indifferent suburban landscape in which historic preservation and good taste must compete with modern convenience and absence of originality.

Sophy believes its stifling atmosphere is the real reason that her father leaves her and Gina: "There was no romance to Whittingbourne, no possibility of a life that might pass, and then soar, beyond the limits of the ordinary."

All the characters in this novel recognize the limitations of their environment and long to escape Whittingbourne at one time or another — especially after Laurence and Gina's affair makes it impossible for all the characters to continue coexisting peacefully in such close proximity.

The decisions that Laurence and Gina make, as they try to be both best friends and lovers, will determine who must stay and who can leave.

Kvasnicka, a former East Village Magazine news editor, has been the magazine's contributing editor and research consultant since 1989. She has a master's degree in information and library studies from the University of Michigan and works for the Genesee District Library.

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