Ich wollte schon lange mal wieder etwas von Lionel Shriver lesen - und diese Novelle schien mir der geeignete Wiedereinstieg. Das Thema hat früher mehrfach in meinem Bekanntenkreis für Aufregung gesorgt - kann ein Mann mit einer Frau platonisch befreundet sein?

Die drei Figuren in diesem Roman stehen vor genau dieser Frage. Weston und Jillian sind seit sehr langer Zeit befreundet. Vor sehr langer Zeit haben sie erfolglos versucht, ein Paar zu werden. Nun findet Weston eine Partnerin - Paige. Paige kann Jillian nicht leiden und sie stellt Weston ein Ultimatum - die Freundschaft zu Jillian oder ihre Beziehung.

Die Autorin schafft es, die Gefühlswelt von Jillian und Weston und deren Entwicklung im Verlauf der Geschichte treffend herauszuarbeiten. Paige als Eindringling in die Freundschaft bleibt außen vor und wird hauptsächlich aus der Sicht von Weston, aber auch aus der von Jillian geschildert.

Als Leser kann man jede Position zu einem gewissen Grad nachvollziehen, beobachtet gebannt, wie sich das Verhältnis zwischen den Personen ändert und wie kläglich sie dabei versagen, miteinander zu kommunizieren und konstruktiv an der Situation zu arbeiten. Am Ende muss jeder für sich selbst entscheiden, auf wessen Seite er steht. Die Autorin selbst enthält sich sogar am Ende, als Weston eine Entscheidung trifft, jeglicher Wertung. ( )

The Standing Chandelier is a short novella based around a classic conundrum - can a man and woman's platonic friendship survive one of them entering a serious relationship, and, moreover, can a friendship ever be truly platonic if it crossed the line, however long ago that might be?

I really enjoyed this brief novel. Having been on the receiving end of some awkward unfriending by a couple of close platonic male friends back in my early 20s when they met their soul mates (at their new loves' behest), I thought this was a really interesting topic, and a fantastic one for book club discussion. Shriver wields a merciless knife as ever with her usual sharp tip of acerbic wit, and she handles the perspectives of all the three characters with fair balance.

Who's in the wrong? The jealous fiancée who can't handle her partner's longstanding close relationship with another female, particularly one she can't stand? The male friend / betrothed who spends hours every week playing tennis and confiding in his tall, good-looking, eccentric friend, who was the one to dump him on the couple of occasions in the past when they crossed the line? Or the female friend, who can't or won't read the signs that the landscape of their friendship now has to change?

4 stars - a really fun and tight read by Shriver. ( )

From Natasha Tripney in The Guardian, November 2017:

Jillian Frisk and Weston Babansky have been friends since university. They were lovers once but their relationship has evolved into one of intimate friendship. They play tennis together regularly, discuss each other’s love lives or lack thereof, and even have cutesy pet names for each other. Their bond is seen as a threat by Weston’s new girlfriend, Paige. She finds Jillian’s vivid personality problematic and takes an instant dislike to her. When Weston proposes to Paige, she makes it clear that if they are to marry, Jillian has to go.

Why I wanted to read it: Lionel Shriver is a marvelous author. Her books pull you in immediately with a truth about human emotions and situations that is staggering.

This is short and not sweet. Conversations are brilliant and ruthless, the Standing Chandelier of the title a beautifully described object, a paean to Jillian’s life. The complete understanding between friends is brutally broken by the introduction of Paige although Jillian does not realize it until one complex and painfully disconnected discussion between Jillian and Baba after tennis one day. Three people are a dynamic that rarely, if ever, works, and Jillian’s tragic misunderstanding of how a friendship can survive in the face of Baba and Paige’s romantic relationship devolves to the point where I could hardly finish the book yet was unable to put it down. Nobody dies, nothing physical gets destroyed. Jillian gets the last word in, but by then Baba doesn’t care. ( )

I usually avoid short stories; associate them with dull page-fillers at the back of magazines. But these stories come from the scalpel-pen of Lionel Shriver, and reveal the slightly shameful psychology we all recognise but which is rarely dissected in print.

The two novellas & short stories in this collection contain so many neglected topics: the problems & divided loyalties old friendships cause when one friend becomes involved in a new romantic relationship; children who don’t leave home; the petty but anger-inducing feelings when flat-sharing; the emotions involved with possession...

Fascinating, sharp, thought-provoking, funny, intelligent writing - I am pleased I still have some more Shriver to read. ( )

Wow! Great book.Unequivocally 5 stars.
Although for me what that means is I found a strong emotional and intellectual resonance with the story - I am no judge of 'good' or 'bad' writing. This was such a powerful book for me that a story fragment even popped up in one of my dreams. I have never read a fiction book which addresses this issue so well: can men and women have really good relationships outside of marriage? at the same time as being in a marriage relationship? The five star rating not only comes from the issue addressed, however, but from the characters involved, the way they lived their lives, and the bizarre and yet entirely believable concept of the 'standing chandelier' itself. My library labelled this 'romance', but there's no way it fits into my definition of romance. This is reality. ( )