FRIENDS

The Claremont Institute: Amicus Brief:

"Joseph Epstein remarks that there aren't many books written on the subject of friendship. Two hundred and seventy pages later, we might be tempted to think, Score one more for the marketplace! But of course you wouldn't be tempted to say any such thing after completing this book. Joe Epstein appears to have promised himself, 17 books back, that he would never be tedious, and this latest book is certainly a validation of that oath. In particular because a book on a subject so amorphous (How about a book on love? Or duty?) runs singular risks, in this case the epiphany is that there is no epiphany in the offing. Although Epstein never ceases to amuse and to illuminate, he has no thesis about friendship to communicate, no bizarre discoveries to share. He can only instruct and entertain. Instruct in what? How to make friends? No, not really. How to keep them? No, not exactly. How to weather the loss of one? Not quite, though he has a bromide or two handy. How much to care for the evanescence of one or more friendships? "