What Did I Do Wrong?
When Women Don't Tell Each Other the Friendship is Over
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4.5 • 15 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
It happens without warning, and it hits you with devastating force. Your closest girlfriend, the Ethel to your Lucy, the Thelma to your Louise, cuts you off completely. No more late-night phone calls, no more afternoon e-mails, no more catch-up lunches and dinners. She has decided for whatever reason to move on with her life and has left you to figure it out on your own. The experience can be as painful and confusing as a sudden breakup with a significant other, and you replay scenes from the friendship and wonder what you did wrong.
Until now, women had to endure the heartache of losing a friend all alone, without the social support and understanding that accompanies, say, a romantic split-up -- and to make matters worse, they don't even have their best friend's shoulder to cry on. But What Did I Do Wrong? gives you that sympathetic shoulder and a resource -- and some answers -- that you can rely on. After author Liz Pryor had gone through a number of these breakups herself, she set out to discover why they were happening, how to help herself -- and others -- get through them...and how to prevent them from happening again.
Through personal interviews and her popular website, www.lizpryor.com, Pryor collected hundreds of stories of friendships with which you will identify. Now she draws on those stories to explore the dynamics of friendship breakups in a candid, intimate way, revealing the patterns, the warning signs, and some ways to put a friendship right or help it change to meet your or your friend's changing life. She also explains how to end a friendship -- if you find that you need to do so -- in ways that honor both parties' feelings and your history together.
Like the best kind of girlfriend -- one who really will stay friends forever -- Pryor blends plain, old-fashioned, feminine good sense and good humor with genuine empathy for the thousands of women who live with the confusion that lingers after an ended friendship -- for women of all ages, races, and backgrounds. What Did I Do Wrong? validates your feelings and inspires you to be more forthright and compassionate with new and old friends. It might even lead you to reconnect with a lost one. In the end, you will be moved and uplifted by the many stories of strong friendships, broken friendships, and renewed friendships that make this book a treasure of women's wisdom and experiences.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Women's friendships and connections are traditionally viewed as strong, faithful, ideally lifelong. But the reality is disturbing: initially intimate friendships can suddenly turn sour and end in dances of avoidance in which phone calls aren't returned and vague excuses are made. Magazine columnist Pryor candidly examines the strangely conflicted nature of women's friendships. "Women's love and commitment to one another is abounding," she writes, "yet when friendships end, we show little to no respect or honor for that which has enriched, supported, and even prolonged our lives." The book is written in a highly personal style and contains intimate anecdotes from her own experience. Even more touching, she genuinely cares for the women she has interviewed, who are heartbroken or confused over the loss of longstanding friendships. Pryor makes some pragmatic suggestions about how to draw back from problematic friends yet communicate caring and respect. She shows that the strongest friendships can come full circle and that while circumstances and lifestyle differences can separate women, it's not impossible for reconnections to occur. Pryor believes that emotional honesty is critical in allowing women to feel good about themselves and their friendship decisions. Good Morning America appearance.
Customer Reviews
Excellent insight
I chose this title because of a friendship that has meant everything in the world to me that is currently circling the drain. It provides excellent insight into how women choose to treat one another. Hopefully it will encourage others to consider how their actions could effect a person they once loved and cared about for the rest of their lives. For me, this is a wound that may never heal.
Saving grace if you ever loose someone you thought would always be there
Thank you Liz for writing this book and I am so sorry for what you had to go through to write it. I hope my ending turns out like yours but sadly I don’t think it will. Anyway to anyone who has lost a close friend especially those who were cut off out of nowhere this is a great book to get you through one of the worst possible time of your life. Sadly my story was I was recently cut off by a dear friend whoI not only considered family but my sister. We had been close for 28 years now that I am finally engaged and happy somewhere along the line she felt she was no longer important to me and feeling replaced. So one minute she was responsive and the next gone with out a trace. No explanation no nothing but gone. I love her very much more than she will ever know and no one will ever replace her to me. So if you find yourself either thinking of cutting someone from your life or are cut from someone you care about please read this book though it doesn’t take the pain away it sure helps. Lastly to all women out there it’s ok if you no longer want to be friends with someone no matter how long you have known them but please have respect for your relationship or at least the good part and tell the person you are deciding to move on. Because ghosting and or cutting someone off when they don’t realize your not wanting to be in the relationship is far more hurtful then being honest and provides closure. Anyway good luck to everyone out there and my heart goes out to anyone that has lost someone both in life and death.
Even grown women can be harsh to one another.
Surprising book telling many stories of how women fail at ending friendships. I feel this book is a great resource for women of all ages. It helps to bring some understanding and possibly closure to women who have ever been involved in a badly ended friendship and gives some great insight into how to better manage friends who have somehow become too much a part of the day to day. Somehow this is a topic that has been swept under the rug in society and, if the author and the stories she has gathered can be believed, women are not addressing relationship issues in their friendships in a thoughtful manner. We're harsh with one another.