Mess and friendship

Friends fear she's watching GIRLS again...

It’s two weeks out from publication of my second novel, and I’m in the thick of promotion - something I find quite weird for many reasons, but mostly because I’m a) still more used to being the interviewer rather than subject and b) self-promotion is always a bit uncomfy. And yet, I also love it because I’m getting to talk to lovely, kind, supportive people about my work as an author, something I thought could only ever happen in my wildest dreams.

Today is something of an anomaly, a rare quiet weekday in the middle of photoshoots, coffee chats and podcast recordings, and I’ve taken the opportunity to do one of my favourite things - watch telly in my pyjamas. Yes, it’s beautiful outside and yes, I could be doing something more productive, but this activity isn’t passive. No, I’m watching one of the most inspiring and motivating shows (to me) ever made.

I’m back on my GIRLS bullshit. This newsletter tells me that it was only a mere two years ago that I last barrelled through the tv programme that speaks to me like no other. But this time, I’m watching it with my LONG STORY hat on. I’m looking at it through the lens of female friendship, and thinking about how it was perhaps the first time I ever saw a modern reflection of imperfect platonic relationships.

GIRLS came out in 2012, when I was 26 years old. I am the same age as its creator and star Lena Dunham (who incidentally has a new show coming to Netflix in July called Too Much, and it looks amazing). As such, it all felt a bit weird and awkward to me at the time - I was too in my twenties to be able to appreciate or analyse being in my twenties. The characters just seemed like annoying Brooklyn hipsters, and we had enough of them hanging around South William St at the time. But with the benefit of hindsight and the wisdom of age, I eventually came to see GIRLS for what it was - a perfectly captured time capsule of a very particular period, when social media was nascent and everything was a lot more rough and ready. It’s actually crazy how specifically Dunham zoned in on the zeitgeist, and reflected it back unflinchingly.

It was a particularly mad time for me; old relationships were ending, new ones were beginning and I was, for want of a better phrase, finding myself. The next year would be the most changeable of my life, difficult and enthralling and dazzling and freeing and wild. But I couldn’t take GIRLS seriously or learn anything from it - I was too IN it at the time. I had been raised on a steady diet of Friends, Sex and the City, Gossip Girl and when I was desperate, How I Met Your Mother. Those shows all have New York City in common, and a glossy, sheeny depiction of friendship. GIRLS was similar, but different - this was Brooklyn, this was gritty, this felt real and far too close to home.

Now that I’m watching it for probably the fourth or fifth time, I can see just how much it allowed me to reexamine my own view of friendship. These gals are MESSY, their spats hyper-realistic, their bonds far more tenuous than they realise and their interactions almost too familiar. It was the first time I had ever witnessed other people going through fights and makeups, growing apart in front of my very eyes. Other friends on telly never argued, and if they did, they made up in fabulous fashion. They never parted ways for good, and their relationships were always the absolute most important thing in each of their lives. Nothing mattered more.

Well, GIRLS told the truth. It was only on reality tv that I had ever seen serious friend drama go down before that, most notably Lauren and Heidi’s breakup on The Hills. But as always, reality tv is ahead of the curve in showing the underbelly of real life and particularly feminine interactions (Housewives 4eva). Women can be as awful to one another as they can be wonderful, and that’s a lesson I think all girls should learn so they don’t feel horribly alone when their own platonic partnerships aren’t picture perfect.

When it came to writing LONG STORY, I wanted to show both sides of a potentially devastating event in a friendship. I wanted to write about two women who adore one another, who have been best friends forever, but who are still susceptible to resentment, jealousy and rivalry because they’re human. I wanted to explore the mess, the pettiness and the gut-wrenching realisations we come to when we fall out with someone we love.

It’s because of GIRLS I was able to do this. Of course, I’ve been influenced and inspired by every show mentioned here, as well as by my core text, Beaches. CC Bloom and Hillary Whitney are my OGs, and their spirit is felt throughout the book. But it’s Hannah and Marnie and Jessa and Shoshanna that were under my skin. I didn’t realise my writing was testament to them until I sat down to rewatch them today. And my God, I really love those messy bitches.

You can preorder LONG STORY here, or from any bookseller you like. It will also be available locally in the UK, Australia and New Zealand both in major bookshops and online, and in other select countries. Kennys ships internationally from Galway.

It is released on May 29th, and will also be available as an ebook and on audio.