Two Authors, One Subject: Zoë Eisenberg and Rhaina Cohen on Writing Intimate Friendships

Novelist Zoë Eisenberg and journalist-turned-author Rhaina Cohen have something in common: they both published books about extraordinarily intimate friendships. Their debut books published in February of this year with strikingly similar titles— Significant Others (Eisenberg) and The Other Significant Others (Cohen). They talk about their books as “literary fraternal twins.” Cohen’s book, a work of narrative nonfiction, profiles sets of friends who’ve made deep commitments to each other—owning homes together, raising kids together and caring for each other in old age. Through their stories, Cohen argues that friendship has untapped potential to be an anchoring part of our lives and challenges the idea that you need to be in a romantic relationship to be “complete” or fulfilled. Eisenberg’s novel jumps between the perspectives of two very different women, Jess and Ren, who have been close friends and roommates since they met in college. Now in their late thirties, the women co-own a home and co-mother a dog. When Ren becomes unexpectedly pregnant following a one night stand, she asks Jess to co-parent her child with her, and though Jess agrees, as the novel progresses the duo realize for the first time in two decades they may not want the same thing. In this conversation, Cohen and Eisenberg discuss the genesis for their work, what platonic intimacy can look like, and how cultivating deep friendship can offer a stabilizing alternative to the romance plot—both on and off the page. (The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.) * Rhaina Cohen: So much of our books are about people individually trying to work through a kind of relationship that they’re not aware other people have and that they don’t have any resources for. What was it like for you coming up with a narrative we haven’t seen much of? Zoë Eisenberg: For me, going through the process of letting people read drafts I did get some feedback like, I don’t really understand the relationship , in the same way that I would get this note in my own life with my deep friendships, and the same way that Jess and […]

Click here to view original page at Two Authors, One Subject: Zoë Eisenberg and Rhaina Cohen on Writing Intimate Friendships

© 2024, wcadmin. All rights reserved, Writers Critique, LLC Unless otherwise noted, all posts remain copyright of their respective authors.