《一路两个人》

    Decades past high school, Gail Caldwell had the luck to find a true best friend — a woman whose strengths and weaknesses perfectly complemented* her own. Then she lost her, an ending that she shares at the beginning of her memoir, “Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship.”

    Caldwell, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for her work as chief book critic for the Boston Globe, calls us into her story with lines that remind of* Hemingway: “I had a friend,” she writes, “and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.”

    Caldwell’s friend, Caroline Knapp, was a columnist* for the Boston Phoenix and the best-selling author of several books. A graceful athlete* who rowed* Boston’s Charles River. A fellow dog lover. And, like Caldwell, who candidly* writes about her own addiction* struggles in this memoir, a recovering alcoholic*. Knapp had also battled anorexia*, while Caldwell was a polio* survivor.

    Both women had been in romantic relationships. They had even dated the same man. When they met, they were both single, although Knapp had a longtime boyfriend who remained loyal* and would finally return.

    So close were they, Caldwell says, that they were often mistaken for sisters, lovers or even each other.

    What holds the reader is the elegance and precision of Caldwell’s prose. And, of course, the emotions she taps — the joy of communion* with a soulmate, the devastation* of unexpected loss — are universal. “Grief is what tells you who you are alone,” Caldwell says, beautifully, and that solitude* is something all the bereaved* — in other words, all of us — will have to reckon with some day.(SD-Agencies)