This book is a book about the friendship of four Black women whose long-time connections endured their times of living on opposite coasts and their very different economic situations. I don’t have much hope that I can write about it in a way that does it justice, but I will write to remember moments that moved me.
Desiree and her sister Danielle were raised by their grandfather, Desiree from age nine. When Desiree was in her early 20s, long after the older Danielle had left, her grandfather’s health made him decide to travel to Switzerland to end his life. But first the two of them had a memorable day in Paris, including a wonderful meal. This was a comforting, endearing episode, having known of the three years of loving care that Desiree had given him, including his daily insulin shots. As they were making their way from the airport to the city, Desiree notes, “Nolan’s gravelly, outdated Louisiana French was bad. Cartoon skunk bad. Desiree couldn’t even speak French and she could discern that much.”
We are introduced to January who, having learned she was pregnant, decided to leave the baby’s father, a man she had lived with for twelve years. She is in a coffee shop writing the letter to him she plans to drop off and has a video call with Desiree. She seems in a terrible situation, but her self-confidence gets her through. She focused on moment-to-moment happiness. “Might that get a person through the day? The bald-headed baby on the subway whom you look up to notice is giving you an affection stare, the minutes on a park bench when the sky shudders from gold to pink.”
Monique is an academic librarian who gets trapped in a no-win struggle over a low-stakes performative academic decision. She was both lumped in with the “rabble-rousers” and shunned by them. Ultimately she loses her job, but gains a certain level of fame and a livelihood in the online world.
Nakia’s parents landed in L.A. and were happy away from their East Coast world of social clubs and debutant balls, but had questions for their daughter. “The Washingtons had graduated from kitchens before Nakia’s great-great was born, so why had she gravitated to this sweaty, often unglamorous work?” Nakia could do all the tasks she learned in culinary school with proficiency, but it was the job of “expedite” she was suited for. “That particular job—reading orders, making sure the plates created aligned with them, directing cooks to fire dishes at the appropriate time, thereby keeping the pace of service for everyone—was the one she thought she could do forever. One had to be despot and supplicant both while on expo, barking out orders, pleading with testy cooks for substitutions, finagling for special cases.”
The interlude that Desiree had with a former boyfriend of her estranged sister Danielle gobsmacked me. She had met him by chance and learned of his former connection with Danielle and for months she turned up at his apartment before the crack of dawn for intense sex. “She wants something of Danielle’s for her own, even if only briefly….She wanted revenge of a kind, even if only in her head.” He was interested in daytime dates, but she visits less often; at some point, “He realizes he is not interested in dates, normal or otherwise, with anyone but her.” Eventually he becomes aware of her connection to Danielle.
I will stop here, but I must mention the sections set in 2027 in a world only slightly more politically apocalyptic than our own. There is so much in this book that I found brilliant and moving that I could go on endlessly. At the same time I confess there were many references that were not in my world. I do love a book that brings me to another world, even when I don’t have a full picture.
Describing this as a book about the friendship of these women leaves out the range and richness of it.
Angela Flournoy, The Wilderness, Mariner Books, 2025, 292 pages (I read the Kindle version). Available in the public library.