Into the Tangle of Friendship: A Memoir of the Things That Matter »

Beth Kephart was nominated for a National Book Award for her memoir A Slant of Sun. Her first novel for teens, Undercover, received four starred reviews and was named a Best Book by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and Amazon.com. In 2005 Beth was awarded the Speakeasy Poetry Prize.

With her first book, A SLANT OF SUN, Beth Kephart wrote about parenting and drew us, in the words of the National Book Award jurors, “into a world of timeless and universal themes: the art of mothering, the cost of difference, and the difference one individual can make.” In her second work of nonfiction, she again explores something we often take for granted — friendship — and invites us to see it as if for the first time.
Beginning with the rediscovery of a long-lost best friend, INTO THE TANGLE OF FRIENDSHIP follows the intertwining stories of a cast of characters for whom friendship is a saving grace. We meet a next-door neighbor facing the death of a spouse, watch two young boys learn what it means to be friends, and feel the heartache of a professional caregiver whose compassion and dedication ultimately come up short. Kephart is concerned with the haphazard ways we find one another, the tragedy, boredom, and sheer carelessness that break us apart, the myriad reasons people stay together and grow. What is friendship, and what is its secret calculus? Telling stories to illuminate this question, she also engages us in an essential dialogue about what it means to be fully alive.
Profound, original, and exquisitely written, INTO THE TANGLE OF FRIENDSHIP is a hymn to the intimate realities of our lives and what makes those lives not only worth living but magical. It will resonate with anyone who has ever had a friend, or lost one.

Book Magazine

It's difficult to read this collection of reflections on friendship without immediately evaluating the status of relationships in one's own life. Perhaps this is exactly what Kephart meant to achieve with her second book. Here the author ruminates on her personal alliances, ultimately proving that it's not possible to overexamine friendship. Rather than a self-involved retrospective, Kephart's follow-up to A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage, which was nominated for the National Book Award, is probing, personal and inclusive. A twenty-year estrangement from a close friend followed by a tentative, and later joyous, reunion was the catalyst for this book. The author delivers each tale, revelation and anecdote with dignity and humor, and the result is personal and true. Like a thoughtful hand-written note slipped into your pocket, this book provides a meditative, intimate examination of life's most important human connections.
—Stacy Schnellenbach Bogle