Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America

Bestselling travel writer McCarthy (Walking with Sam) offers a heartwarming meditation on male friendship. A pointed question from his son—“You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?”—inspires the author to reconsider his “self-induced isolation” and set out on cross-country drive to reconnect with former close friends. Over the course of a sprawling journey from Appalachia to the Southwest, McCarthy not only rekindles his relationships but makes impromptu, thematically appropriate stops—like at a museum dedicated to lonesome musical legend Roy Orbison—and, most intriguingly, chats with men he meets in bars and other hangouts about their friendships or lack thereof. He encounters several sets of lifelong best friends (including Mississippi duo Chuck and Dan, whose grandfathers were also best friends) and a slew of alienated loners (“I stick to myself,” one construction worker explains). These surprisingly open conversations allow McCarthy to interrogate what blocks male connection, particularly men’s fear of vulnerability and their sense that it’s easier to be emotional with women. McCarthy’s journey exposes how infrequently friendship is discussed at all in American culture—as one journalist notes, “People are reluctant to discuss friendship because it has no immediacy, no monetary value”—even as there is a widespread hunger to talk about it. The result is a poignant, life-affirming look at American men yearning for closer bonds. (Mar.)