SANTA MARIA, Calif., May 31, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- There are friends and there are "Friends" -- an obvious play on words or here expanded to a novel. In What R Friends 4?, author Dian Jaeger explores the multi-facetted character of friendship. Can friendship survive without trust? Can friendship encourage personal development? These questions are analyzed by way of a challenging adventure in the new What R Friends 4?
It's 1970 and Dian Jennings has just graduated high school when her mother dies unexpectedly and her father consequently commits suicide. Her father's suicide note instructs her to sell the family house for an unheard of $75,000 based on a scam her father had perpetrated without her knowledge.
She moves her new life to New York City and enjoys herself until a new friend has her abducted to Tehran. She discovers that she is the pawn of a secret society of "Friends". Portrayed as the epitome of Western degeneracy, she is paraded all over Iran and is finally charged with double homicide. Then things really deteriorate. She finds herself the notorious star of a terrorist summit where her brief tirade against the Ayatollah creates pandemonium, enough to allow her "Friends" to copy secret plans then whisk her away into the desert.
Her misadventures take her from Iran to Israel, to Hong Kong, Rio, and finally to California. During this time she is forced to deal with a mafia hitman, a drug czar, the Yakuza, and an escaped Nazi commandant, who incidentally attempts to rape her when she is rescued by a serial killer. She is then persuaded by a neo-Nazi group who blames her for the death of their leader. All the while our heroine is beset by frighteningly realistic dreams until she doubts her grasp on reality. Needing to escape, she sneaks away in the night to California, where impossibly, she is found by the one man she really fears. Egads!
At the culmination of her travails, Dian knows she's been exploited but at the same time she recognizes that her "Friends" would risk their own lives to save hers. That's friendship!
What R Friends 4? is a modern-day Perils of Pauline with some fun twists. From the beginning the story picks up speed and suddenly you know "it's going to be a bumpy ride" but hang on, because I guarantee you're going to enjoy the trip.
What R Friends 4? -- by Dian Jaeger
Publication Date: November 29, 2005
Trade Paperback; $21.99; 225 pages; 1-4134-9468-4
Cloth Hardback; $31.99; 225 pages; 1-4134-9469-2
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