People in books never have friends

[Lelophants]

Anyone else noticed that in books unless it’s a chic lit style book (in which case they have 1 or 2 other women that they have an intense relationship with toxic and ott normally) most book characters just don’t have friends? They’ll have a potential love interest or maybe one person but then they’ll move location or do something on their ‘adventure’ and they have nobody permanent in their lives that they check in with/catch up with occasionally? They’re always on their own.

But you can say in passing she went out with some old school friends on Friday, then came home and read the mystery letter (or whatever). They run baths, pick up shopping etc. but they are busy all day alone or with very specific people.

You need to read more genre fiction series.

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum is friends with Lula and Connie and Mary Lou and sundry others, Sarah Paretsy's V I Warshawski has Lotty and Mr Contreras and Sal and Bobby, Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow has more friends that you can shake a stick at.

They also all have love interests and families and pets, and the complications of their lives come entwined with all of them.

edited: families so well represented I listed them twice

Hmm, what an interesting observation.

I have read all of the Seven Sisters and they barely know anyone outside of their sisters and 'significant others', though they make a handful of friends along the way.

Whereas my life involves loads of meeting up / messaging a whole range of different people (women mainly) that I've picked up along the way.

In contrast, children's books are often full of friends.

Currently reading Exiles by Jane Harper. The main character has friends.! The friends may end up being integral to the plot .

Also read Orpham X - main character is quite a loner but is still friends with a woman and her son in the apartment block.

Olive Kitteridge- is basically a marmite character, ppl either find her very difficult or like her. Her and Henry do have friends they go to dinner with and meet up with.

I noticed this about the JM Hall Pat, Liz and Thelma books - they are retired TAs who met at school and are firm friends (although on a separate note, they seem quite young to be retired!) - they're late 50s/ early 60s and yet never mention parents/ siblings, who presumably would still be part of their lives as they've all lived in the area all their lives! They do mention and speak to other friends as part of the plot device, but it's the family bit that perplexes me... I'd have thought it would be useful to include (for example) an elderly Mum within the storylines?

(I very much enjoy the books by the way, maybe I'm just nitpicking!)

@WeneedSamVimesonthecase I think we read pretty much the same books, judging by your list have you read the Stranger Times books too?

Not yet but I’ll check them out now!

"my favourite mistake" had far too many characters in it, she's made a rod for her own back with all the whole Walshe family but the whole of Maumtully plus everyone in New York was just too much, it was an exhausting read

I see this with some books - often when there is some journey or point to them being isolated - secrets/ terrible past/inability to connect - and they pick up people on the way or work colleagues and their friends and family gradually come as friends but others books have group dynamics throughout.

Also read many where it is the sub characters from first book who gone on to star in subsequent books - regency romances do this a lot but seen it in other genre like sci-fi and fantasy or YA books.

Currently reading a series first book was about unwanted magic - and potential to lose existing friends and family and new friends whether they can be trusted is major plot point. Ones still alive are being alluded to in later books so think they will come back in later books and play a role.

Though I do agree with chit lit often having lots of very OTT toxic friendships.

But it's a trope in children's books that the first thing the author does is kill the parents. Or at least separate the children from them. Because children can't have adventures if their Mum is looking after them.

@JaninaDuszejko my DC would certainly agree that I wouldn't let them have exciting adventues DTS1 (9) is currently reading the Famous Five books and hoping to be able to go off camping etc on his own in a couple of years...!

@SmileyHappyPeopleInTheSun I've just read In a Dark, Dark Wood which I did enjoy, but the main character seems so (psychologically) scarred by an incident 10+ years ago that she still has no friends or partner. Which given that she's since been to uni, had jobs etc seems a bit strange...

Jilly Cooper does friendships. I think it's one of the reasons people like her books. Of course they mostly shag each other at some point.

Nancy Mitford does friendships too though we might not recognise the relationships she presents as friendships IMO. Joss the groom is a friend to the young Radletts and Fanny. Cedric is allowed to be friends with all the female characters because he's gay. Linda and Lord Merlin have one of the nicest friendships in fiction IMO, helped along by his enormous wealth. Davey seems to be friends with literally everyone. Mrs Chaddesley-Corbett and Lady Montdore are friends, though it's more than a bit transactional.

Now trying to think of male authors who do friendships. Dickens? I'm pretty sure there are some but I'm not enough of a Dickens reader to know details. Kingsley Amis?

Just as so many children in literature don’t have parents- they would hamper the plot.

Not all of them. The Secret Seven all have parents, for example.

In the novel I'm currently reading, In A Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor, the main character Kate is still grieving the death of her best friend Dorothea. Kate's daughter has friends both at boarding school and at home. Kate's aunt is always corresponding with her best friend whom she met whilst in prison (they were both Suffragettes). There's a lot of friendships in this novel.

I've just read In a Dark, Dark Wood which I did enjoy, but the main character seems so (psychologically) scarred by an incident 10+ years ago that she still has no friends or partner. Which given that she's since been to uni, had jobs etc seems a bit strange...

I do agree that sound odd.

I suppose it's often easier in fantasy and sci-fi to isolate characters or groups. DH points out a large number of Star trek TV episodes are tech failing and a group becoming isolated from main group/ upper management and having to deal with situations.

They do sometimes but then the main character just wangs on about their own problems and the friend never really gets their own personality.

Jane Fallon writes female friendships really well & often prioritises them over romantic relationships. But they are usually there because they further the plot, not incidental.

I find a lot of psychological suspense novels have friendships as an integral part of the plot - stories centred round parties or holidays where someone is murdered (or reuniting a group of people whose close friend was murdered in the past).

Murder novels do tend to have lots of friends - so detectives get invited to new locations and mysteries - like Jessica Fletcher.

Otherwise they have to be invited by police or be police or private investigators asked by someone close to situation and even then that person could be a mutual friend.

PP mentioned Julia Quinn and Regency novels - I like the ‘Bridgerton’ world where major characters become minor characters in other books (or vice versa depending on which order you read the books). Some are familial links but there are friendships between characters- mostly as it’s relevant to the plot or scene setting though.

Funny - that's what I say about movies.

This was my main criticism of My Favourite Mistake. It was a ballache to keep up with all the characters. Approx. half of them could have been left out and it would have made zero difference to the plot, and it would have vastly improved the reading experience.

i hate books with too many characters. I like to get to know the characters I’m reading properly rather than too many hangers-on.

pp who mentioned SATC - they DO have family, but they are only mentioned when it’s relevant to the plot. Miranda’s mother dies. Steve’s ‘ma’ gets dementia. Samantha sleeps with Charlotte’s brother. Big’s mother goes to church. I think the majority of the characters moved to NYC from somewhere else, so it makes sense that on a day-to-day level, family from elsewhere doesn’t feature.

Yes, but the SS is very low-stakes, no-danger, secret society, kids snooping on little local mysteries, aimed at younger readers. The worst that happens is the naughty sister Suzy getting hold of the password.

When the stakes are higher, and child characters need to be in actual danger, ‘good’ parents/ teachers/authority figures need to be dead, absent or rendered ineffectual. So the Famous Five are always off on holidays somewhere remote alone, or Jack, Dinah, Lucy-Ann and Philip get separated from an ineffectual guide, or Kevin McAllister’s family go on holiday without him, all neighbours are away bar the scary old man, and he’s afraid to go to the police because he accidentally shoplifted a toothbrush, or Dumbledore has to be killed off, otherwise there’s an actual adult (kind of) standing between him and danger.

In adult fiction, some genres allow for more concentration on friendships than others. A lot of women’s commercial fiction focuses on relationships between characters, so friends will feature heavily. YA often has a big focus on friendship. Coming of age novels often involve the protagonist finding friends/their place in the world.

Sally Romney’s three novels are all about friendships and how they interact with romantic relationships.

Becky Chambers’ ‘cosy’ sci-fi is all about friendships — pretty much all of her novels are about interspecies friendships on spaceships or planets. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is less interested in whether the Wayfarer successfully completes its mission than how a bunch of different species interrelate on a year-long voyage. The Monk and Robot books are about a friendship between a human and a robot set in a Workd where robots developed consciousness and left the factories to live in the wilderness. A Closed and Common Orbit is about the friendships that emerge when five individuals from different species are stranded for a few days at a refuelling stop.

What I’m saying is that if you want novels that focus on friendships, they exist, but some novels will have a reason for their absence.

Characters in books rarely seem to watch TV or read books themselves, either.