FINISHED READING - Boy Friends by Micheal Pedersen

This is a beautifully composed and gently expressive book. The poet Micheal Pederson utilises all his linguistic skill to create a paeon, not just to this one very special friend, but also to the broad thrust and range of male friendships, past and present. Friendships that have a history both fleeting and long-lived.

For there are so many reasons a male friendship emerges. A lot of it through the sharing of a place and upbringing, the experiences of youth, enthusiasms and interests, or through simply the day to day events of each others lives. And in truth, most good friendships incorporate aspects of all of these.

Pedersen tells you of his close friendship with Scott Hutchinson, the lead singer and songwriter for the band Frightened Rabbit. Though in the book he is never referred to by any name, but only by his fame and the lifestyle he lives. He is also a troubled soul, but the nature of the beast that torments him is never given a name either. The quality of men's mental health, is not what this book is about.

The strength of the book is in the careful taking apart and examination of their friendship at its very best, through a number of significant moments. Times through which they form a deeper connection than previously. Sometimes friendship need to be all about the light hearted joking, the banter, the sharing of experiences, of getting drunk together. But there is also the love they share for each other supportive of their mutual creativity, often simply expressed by being there.

There are times where it resembles a bro-mance, with all its subliminal homo erotic overtones. And it is to Pederson's great credit that he is quite fearless in neither shying away nor salaciously indulging in this. Its acknowledged, but this is only one emotional quality that such an intimate friendship will have, out of a wide and all encompassing range. But Pederson, through making it a significant footnote. is aware not to misrepresent the memory, the lived experience of a friendship.

This book is soaked through with such a deep appreciation for Pederson's friend, and what vigour knowing him brought to his life.  The legacy of it that lingers on. The grief, the sense of loss, the bewilderment that someone he'd been out with that very night, could just disappear, take his life and then be found some considerable time later. That puzzlement moves through the book like a ghost. The why, the how, has no answer, no explanation is found. 

And yet Pedersen transcends the substance of his friends death, by holding him up higher as someone better and much more than his mode of death. Eminantly worthy of being loved, and a superb human being and friend. And the value that this can bring to any man's life. Men are all the better for having a best buddy,, someone they can rely on to be there for them no matter what. Boy Friends is at times a heart-rending read, whilst also being a uniquely pleasurable and exemplary one.

CARROT REVIEW 5/8