Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend

MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend
Missy1019 avatar reviewed on + 104 more book reviews


Think Sex and the City, if Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big left New York with her three girlfriends behind, what would she do without them? This is a true story of Rachel Bertsche, a writer herself, who moves to Chicago with her husband, on the search for new friends. MWF Seeking BFF, or Married White Female Seeking Best Friend Forever, is Rachels personal memoir of her yearlong search for a best friend. She dissects the friendship element and shares a lot of research toward understanding the psychological makeup of friends. According to Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist, the size of the brain determines the number of relationships we can maintain. The human brain can maintain 150 relationships. After calculating her social network of friends, families, and acquaintances, Rachel comes up short 20 people. She decides to fill the 20 spots with this yearlong project to find a best friend that rivals her best friends back home.

I found the story quite enjoyable, as she describes the weekly dates and the friends she meets along the way.
Rachel writes in a captivating way, sharing some very humorous stories along the way. The same way that dating is set up, she goes on friend date after friend date, with most dates fizzling out. 365 friend dates is a lot of people to meet and toward the middle of the story, it was difficult to keep track of who she has gone out with to the point that all the people she met became a blur. I ponder if the feelings were mutual in who she connected with since it was written from one perspective. If it had not been for the research and professional people she consults with, the story would not have survived. I found the book to be thought provoking rooting for her and wondering if she achieves her goal by the end of the story. Dating is difficult enough but bonding to find friends gets harder in this day and age with social networking and the internet. Without a friendship manual available, meeting friends after college becomes a difficult task. I can relate to a lot of what she experiences and commend her for going outside of the norm to find friends. This book is recommended for every female who has a need to connect with others and yearns to find that best friend.