Help Please! Buddy stories – recommendations needed!

[Rich.]

Hi all,

I'm working myself up to writing a buddy story – you know the type, a two-hander, dual protagonists from opposite sides of the tracks who are forced to work together towards a common goal, learning about themselves and facing their flaws as they go.

I was hoping some of you could recommend some of your favourite buddy stories. I write fantasy, but I'm interested in any examples from any genre. The more recently written the better.

Thanks!

 

[Marc Joan]

Hm, inspiration fails me, there must be loads but all I can think of is 'Birdy' by William Wharton -- well worth a read.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

In the Western genre, there are the Lonesome Dove series, by Larry McMurtry, which feature Texas Rangers Captain Woodrow F. Call and Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae; a television miniseries deserved its success.

One of the best-known examples of a buddy story in literature is, of course, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck made some pertinent observations about the themes of his story, which apply to creating a believable friendship:

In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.

—John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry

There's also Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. Published in 1605, it's reckoned to be the best-selling novel in history with 500,000,000 copies!

In the fantasy genre, I think of Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, which was adapted into a decent film.

 

[Carol Rose]

@Paul Whybrow beat me to it, but I was going to recommend Don Quixote as well.

 

[Andrew Okey]

Hi all,

I'm working myself up to writing a buddy story – you know the type, a two-hander, dual protagonists from opposite sides of the tracks who are forced to work together towards a common goal, learning about themselves and facing their flaws as they go.

I was hoping some of you could recommend some of your favourite buddy stories. I write fantasy, but I'm interested in any examples from any genre. The more recently written the better.

Thanks!

Rich - a couple of nice examples from Michael Chabon - 'The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay' charts (amongst other things) the lifetime friendship of two very different boys growing up together in a haze of comic books (albeit, as a piece, the novel is the very definition of 'patchy'!), whilst 'Gentlemen of the Road' is totally splendid, focusing on two itinerant adventurers trying to survive in a war-torn, millennial Levant (and it also features an additional, very touching, friendship between an outcast human and an elephant, too).

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Lonesome Dove is marvellous.

 

[Rich.]

Thanks all! Plenty of stuff to check out

 

[Boopadoo]

Fritz Leiber, the "Swords" series. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are the Fantasy buddy duo.

 

[Rich.]

Great recommendation. Thanks @Boopadoo!