Keep Your Friends Close

Keep Your Friends Close is set within the rarefied world of the “West Hollywood Moms’ Club” (6), an exclusive group that reflects the immense pressures of modern, high-status motherhood. The novel uses this setting to explore how social status, wealth, and performative friendship shape the maternal experience in affluent communities.

The novel’s fictional club mirrors real-world social dynamics governed by what sociologist Sharon Hays, in her book The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood, termed “intensive mothering”: an ideology that demands that mothers invest enormous time, money, and emotion in raising children (Hays, Sharon. The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. Yale University Press, 1996). In wealthy circles, this often manifests as a fierce competition to secure status. A real-world parallel can be seen in the 2019 college admissions scandal, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues,” in which affluent parents faked standardized test scores and bribed coaches to secure their children’s admission to elite universities—extreme measures taken to maintain the parents’ own social standing as much as to secure their children’s prospects (Derkin, Erin. “US College Admissions Scandal: How Did the Scheme Work And Who Was Charged?” Guardian, March 13, 2019).

Berry’s club enforces its exclusivity with “membership criteria” and nondisclosure agreements, designed to protect its “very influential and successful people” (7). The moms’ night out, complete with a “$12,000 Armani” gown and awards for mothering, is not a simple get-together but a performance of elite maternal perfection. By grounding the narrative in this high-stakes social environment, Berry critiques a culture in which motherhood becomes a public performance and friendships are transactional, suggesting that the novel’s tragic events are the product of a corrosive pressure to maintain a flawless facade.