MY RIDE OR DIE

Can two friends have all the benefits of marriage—lifelong companionship, reliability, someone to make sure you don’t choke on your snacks—without any of the cons?

It will come as no surprise that Sophie, a free-spirited aspiring artist who compares her bachelorette party to a “funeral,” ends up leaving her fiance at the altar. What is surprising is the arrangement that she proposes to her best friend, dissatisfied corporate lawyer Amanda: “What if we formed some sort of alliance?...What if we eliminated the task of vetting every guy we dated for marriage? What if we could just live life together?” This lifelong commitment involves a few ground rules: They will buy an apartment together, they are still allowed to date and even fall in love with men, but no moving in with anyone else, and definitely no marriage. Cohen seems to gloss over some of the finer points of this arrangement, and after Amanda eagerly and immediately agrees, the women's initial hurdles involve little more than apartment hunting and convincing skeptical friends. But when Amanda reconnects with a man from her past and Sophie starts actively pursuing a career in the arts, the friends begin negotiating their conflicting feelings of loyalty to each other and a desire to pursue their own paths. Cohen’s writing is strongest as she depicts this downward spiral, when the boundaries of Amanda and Sophie’s love for each other, as well as their differing needs in companionship, get exposed.

An exploration of the expansiveness and constraints of female friendship.