A Celebration of the Bonds Between Buddies

Through good times and bad, sickness and health, boyfriends, lovers and husbands, girlfriends endure.

That complex, rewarding, unique relationship between women and girls is the subject of “Girlfriends” (Running Press) by Jayne Wexler and Lauren Cowen, the same team responsible for the similarly themed “Daughters & Mothers.”

Through words (Cowen) and pictures (Wexler), they explore relationships among women across the country whose friendships have endured death, poverty, illness, broken marriages, failed jobs and just about everything else that might wreck weaker bonds. Some names are familiar, some are not, but all the stories are compelling because in their vast array of experiences, the tales are all quite familiar.

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, Los Angeles chefs, restaurateurs and TV stars, have been fast friends since their days at La Perroquet in Chicago. Nothing has torn them asunder--not crummy jobs for no pay, not Feniger’s coming out, not even Milliken’s marriage to Feniger’s ex-husband. “We’re not threatened by each other at all,” says Milliken. “It never really felt like anything divisive, nothing but supportive.”

Firefighters Deanna A. Morris and Janet L. Slagle have shared everything from the joy of saving lives to the despair of losing them. Says Slagle, “I know that if I go down, she’ll be there--she’ll pull me out.”

There is singer Darlene Love, whose friend, teacher Barbara Johnson-Armstrong, was her strength when Love sued her former producer, Phil Spector. Love recalls, “Here they are calling me a liar, and when I turn around and see Barbara’s face, it’s like, ‘Yes, she has my back.’ ”

Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley relied on her friend editor Ilene Rosenzweig when Rowley’s husband was dying; the two would meet on a basketball court in Manhattan and just talk. “It was total release,” says Rowley. “It was like going back to being a kid, when everything was fine. All you needed was your friend and you were happy.”