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Danny Wallace, “Friends Like These” book review

August 19, 2008 – 10:05 am | by Peekay

Danny Wallace knows how to put together a story, and also how to live it.

He’s perfected this through such successful books as “Yes Man” (movie version starring Jim Carrey out this year) and “Join Me”. He has his adventures, works them through and writes accessible, intriguing books from them.

“Friends Like These” comes from the common crisis of people approaching thirty, asking what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what has happened to their youth.

Wallace’s own crisis began as he rummaged through a box full of childhood memento’s and wondered where all his friends from that time had gone. People who had been so important to him at the time were now disappeared as he or they moved from town to town, school to school.

After tracking down a couple of these friends Wallace made it his task to track down all of the friends he had listed in an old Address Book before he turned thirty. This task takes him around the world, as he gets as near as damnit to completing it.

This journey not only takes Wallace through a number of journeys, but also a number of revelations and realisations, that actually helps him on the road to “becoming a man”.

Highly recommended, this book is accessibly written, draws you in and hits you hard with a particular emotional punch. Get the book and then get in touch with your old friends.