Among Friends is M.F.K. Fisher's memoir of her childhood in Whittier, California, from about 1912 to 1922. The "Friends" of the title are the Quakers of that community, and Mary Frances Kennedy, daughter of an Irish newspaper publisher, found them most unusual friends indeed. Never were the Kennedy children invited to a Quaker house, and they were taunted for being different, for having an Irish mother (in Whittier only cooks were Irish). Yet Mary Frances remained remarkably unfazed by these social slights, which were outbalanced by the orderly shelter of the Kennedy family, and Mrs. Fisher's portraits of her father, her mother, and "Aunt" Gwen are memorable and moving. Beyond the family there was the town: band concerts, Sunday parades, Saturday matinees, Liberty Bond drives, Elks Club Christmas specials, and the itinerant circus-all sinful delights the Quaker children were denied. Among Friends provides a fascinating glimpse into the background of one of our most popular and delightful writers, whom Cyra McFadden called "a national living treasure."
Among Friends
