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The Friends - A Book Review


The Friends


by Rosa Guy


The saying, ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’, goes right about Edith, the only friend of Phyllisia, the lead character in the story The Friends by Rosa Guy. Phyllisia with her snobbish behaviour instead befriended Edith only if she needed her. Edith stood by her when students in the class booed and bullied her. Since then Phyllisia knew, though she hated to be seen with ragamuffin like Edith, she needed her the most. After all Edith is the only friend she has in Harlem. Her bond with Calvin her father is diminishing. She did things to spite him like bunking classes, staying out late with strangers. After her father chased out Edith of the house, Phyllisia did not bother about checking on her even when she heard Edith’s brother Randy had died. 

Amidst all chaos she lost her mother, her only solace. Instead of being with her Phyllisia indulged in the diversions of youth, desperately avoiding her guilt feelings for not being there for Edith. Phyllisia hesitated to approach Edith as guilt and fear shadowed her mind. But the voice of her mother and her revelations about Phyllisia made her look within and evaluate herself. After the deep conversation with her mother’s spirit, Phyllisia braved herself and visited Edith only to find that she was to join her sisters at the orphanage. Without knowing Calvin was planning to take her sister Ruby and Phyllisia back to their island, she promised Edith to visit her every week. To keep the promise and to make up the times Phyllisia  turned her back at Edith, she somehow succeeded to make Calvin, her rude and fearsome father to soften and drop the idea of sending them back to the island.



Phyllisia, the lead character in the story is confused about what she is and what she believes. Though she hates her father for his rough and abusive behaviour and his attitude towards the less privileged, it is evident to the reader that she is not less than him. The guilt inside her voiced out and pointed her mistakes. What she had assumed about herself and her father were simply what she wanted to believe in and not the truth. This story sheds light to the human behaviour of one side thinking. The assumptions and the truth differ. It only takes a matter of time if you look within and understand how you valuate things. Most of the time what we reflect of others character is the reflection of ourselves. Rosa Guy has neatly interwoven that into the story, which also portrays how a friendship is formed, suffered, and maintained in spite of the issues. If Phyllisia had no regrets or repented she would not have got Edith' friendship back. It teaches the basic lesson in a friendship of being there for each other in each others’ need and of forgiving to maintain friendship. 

 Age Group: 15 Years and Above.

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