Innocents and Others by Dana Spiotta

Meadow and Carrie are best friends, growing up in Los Angeles.  It's not a friendship most would have predicted.  Meadow is thin, mysterious, the ultimate cool girl while Carrie is chubby and still looking to find herself.  They meet at school in a film class and become fast friends, making movies and finding their life's work.  They both get into a prestigious Eastern film university and Carrie stays and graduates from there.  Her work is mainstream and soon she is a successful filmmaker with awards from the industry and a marriage and children.  Meadow goes a different route, making indie films that are praised but not commercial successes, films that ask questions or just highlight a topic that Meadow finds interesting.  She moves too fast and at her own whims, going where her latest interest takes her.  She is moving too fast to accumulate things like a family or a home.

Jelly is a mystery.  She was blind once for months as the result of an illness.  She met people at the school for the blind she attended that introduced her to phone phreaking.  From that, Jelly came up with what sustains her life.  She calls men, rich successful men and seduces them, not with sex but with listening.  Soon these men stop whatever they are doing to talk with Jelly for hours, telling her things they never share with anyone else.  Jelly's life collides with Meadow's, when Meadow hears about her and talks Jelly into being the topic of her latest documentary.  The film and its consequences changes everyone's lives.

Dana Spiotta is one of those authors whom other authors respect.  Her works have included Stone Arabia, Eat The Document and Lightning Field.  These works have been finalists for awards such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.  Her work highlights the absurdity of modern life and the yearning for connection with others that most people have.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.