‘A manifesto for reconnecting in the modern world’
The Friendship Cure is an exploration and a study of modern friendship by journalist Kate Leaver. Frustrated with the direction society has taken, with loneliness, stress, mental health issues and other illnesses on the increase, Kate Leaver decided to carry out some research with some rather shocking results.
Kate Leaver has suffered from depression on and off from a young age and always maintains her strong friendships have helped her and carried her through these difficult patches in her life. In The Friendship Cure, Kate delves deeper into our society speaking with experts in their respective fields, but also with people like you and me..
Fascinating reading, The Friendship Cure is published by Duckworth Overlook.
Please do read on for my thoughts….
Book Info:
Our best friends, gal-pals, bromances, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, long distance buddies and WhatsApp threads define us in ways we rarely openly acknowledge. There is so much about friendship we either don’t know or don’t articulate: why do some friendships last a lifetime, while others are only temporary? How do you ‘break up’ with a toxic friend? Can men and women really be platonic?
And maybe the most important question: how can we live in the most interconnected age and still find ourselves stuck in the greatest loneliness epidemic of our time? It’s killing us, making us miserable and causing a public health crisis.
What if meaningful friendships are the solution, not a distraction?
Book Review:
Recently I have started reading manifestos/memoirs. Each book that I have read has surprised me with the amount of research, the facts presented and the enthusiasm of the author for the topic they are presenting to us.
The Friendship Cure is a book I found particularly intriguing, which was obvious to anyone, as I carried it around with little sticky post-its marking every second page. Kate Leaver is a journalist writing for some very established and well known magazines and newspapers. Her experiences of friendship in the work environment and outside encouraged her to take a closer look at what it means to have a ‘real’ friend v the ‘toxic’ friend, how not having a close friend can damage your health, both now and in the future. She also studies male friendships, the bromance as we now refer to it.
Divided into twelve chapters Kate Leaver looks at:
What is friendship?
We are social animals
Squad goals and girlfriends
Bromance and guy love
Can men and women ever just be mates
Work wives and 9-5 husbands
Friend requests and liking people online
Friendship break-ups
The loneliness epidemic
Misery needs company
Friends with health benefits
Happily ever after
Each chapter goes into in-depth facts and figures, quoting studies and research undertaken across the globe, but Kate also brings her own personal research into her words. Using social media, Kate sent out tweets to anyone who could hear, with a shout-out for a specific topic. She was completely overwhelmed with the response and the willingness of people to share their story with her and ultimately with us.
I think for me the chapter that resonated most was the chapter on loneliness. ‘Loneliness is one of the most frightening certainties of the human experience. Very few people are immune, and those who claim never to have experienced it are most likely unwilling or unsure how to identify it’
There is something very, very sad about this statement. In a world where technology has made it possible to talk to friends at any time, no matter where in the world they may be, there are numerous individuals out there today who, for many reasons, are suffering from extreme loneliness. As we all know being alone and being lonely are two very different things. We might choose to be alone, but no-one really ever chooses to be lonely. Loneliness increases our chances of health issues in later years. Studies have shown an increase in dementia among folk who have no social circle, particularly the elderly in society. For many, this sense of complete loneliness is in the aftermath of a death of a spouse. ‘Becoming a widow is an experience of acute, excruciating loneliness. The person you’d chosen to accompany you through life is gone…..a deep sense of emotional isolation that sets in and never gives up on you’
Grief is just one example, but there are many other reasons for the onset of loneliness that impacts all generations, from the pre-schooler to the retired, from the stay-at-home mother/father to the person working in a very busy environment. We are all susceptible.
Kate Leaver touches on so many aspects of our lives today and how many of us are suffering in silence. She is passionate about how strengthening our friendships can help us find balance and peace. She is a true believer in the power of the internet, in it’s ability to bring people together. She is an advocate for clinging tightly to those friends who rise you up and removing those toxic friends who drag you down.
The Friendship Cure is packed full with very attainable goals for all of us, from our political leaders and policy makers, to the teenager who is just discovering who they really are and who they want to be. With Kate Leaver’s own personal stories mixed throughout and her own personal take on situations, The Friendship Cure has something for everyone.
The Friendship Cure is a book you dip in and out of, taking little bits away with you to consider and reflect upon. It is a manifesto, a declaration of ideas, an opportunity for us all to take back control of our relationships with our friends, our health and ultimately our happiness.
When I received my review copy I was struck by Kate’s three simple tips for lasting friendship so I’m going to leave them here for you to consider and I hope act on….
Make more time for the people who lift you up and less time for the ones who drag you down.
Stop performing and just be YOU with your friends – imperfections, silliness and all.
Pick up your phone and text someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, just so they know you’re thinking of them
Purchase Link ~ The Friendship Cure
Bio:
Kate Leaver is a journalist and author.
She currently writes freelance for Glamour,The Guardian, The Independent, Broadly, Vice, Red, The Pool, The Debrief, Stylist and Refinery29.
She lives in London with her boyfriend and their puppy, Bertie.
Kate’s from Sydney, Australia, where she worked as a radio producer for Ross Greenwood (the kindest man in Australian media), features editor at Cosmopolitan magazine and senior editor at Mamamia.
She has written and still writes for Australian media like News.com.au, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Saturday Paper. She has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 News, Talk Radio, ABC TV and radio, Triple J, Network Ten’s The Project and Studio Ten.
Her first book, The Friendship Cure, is OUT NOW
Website ~ https://kateleaver.com/
Twitter ~ @kateileaver
Instagram ~ https://www.instagram.com/kateileaver/
This sounds fascinating! I definitely want to find out more!
Gosh Noelle I actually came away from it with lots of ideas & less post-its notes!! V insightful read.
Great review, Mairead. This sounds like a really intetesting and timely book. Social media and technology has, I feel, had a huge impact on the way we interact with each other and not always positively. I will definitely check this book out.
Thanks Abbie. It’s a book I know I will dip in & out of in the future. V important topic.