Maria Literata: Book Review: Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

(Goodreads)

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

It's hard not to rave about this book when I've known my best friend for a bit over 10 years; in a couple of years I'll even be able to say that I've known her longer than I haven't! Needless to say, Firefly Lane reminded me of myself and my best friend in about a hundred different ways.

I don't usually get to read about someone's life in such a way that I feel like I'm growing up with them. Usually I get a glimpse, a one to five year span of someone's life put together in 500 pages or less. Firefly Lane gave me so much more than that put together in such a beautiful way. It didn't feel like there were any time skips yet everything happened so fast that I was at the end of 500 pages before I knew it!

Firefly Lane is divided into four different sections:

Part One: The Seventies Dancing Queen (young and sweet only seventeen)

Part Two: The Eighties Love Is a Battlefield (heartache to heartache, we stand)

Part Three: The Nineties I'm Every Woman (it's all in me)

Part Four: The New Millennium A Moment Like This (some people wait a lifetime)

I found Kate and Tully to be realistic characters in that their personalities, while very distinct from each other's, included fatal flaws. Not everyone is perfect, and sometimes even your best friend will disappoint you and hurt you (many times over). I think that Kristin Hannah accurately portrayed the aches and pains of a long-term friendship along with the liberation of having someone to depend on and know you for who you truly are.

Did I cry? Yea-sort of! If I hadn't been at work I'm sure I would have ugly cried. I see myself and my best friend(s) reflected on these pages, and like any other relationship it can be painful and beautiful at the same time. I highly recommend this novel, especially those who have a close friend, mother/mother-figure, or are looking for good women's fiction.

Memorable Quote(s)

"That was the thing about best friends. Like sisters and mothers, they could piss you off and make you cry and break your heart, but in the end, when the chips were down, they were there, making you laugh even in your darkest hour." (273)