Wanting something that you can't have is the theme I see throughout this story. In 1999 the year Pam Houston wrote "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had" I was 19 and I was for the first time on my own trying to decide what I wanted; what I thought I needed. The story's main character Lucy knows what she wants, she wants her friend Leo. They hang out watching weddings performed outside Leo's window, they talk of poetry and love.
The only thing keeping these two apart is the fact that Leo loves Guinevere a woman that doesn't know he exists even though they have met several times. All of Houston's characters in this story want something; some want love; some want money. A great part about this story is the small details that lead to people getting what they want, namely a beggar holding a sign saying he wants no money only a smile, this heartfelt sign leads to Lucy given him all her money.
Lucy is strong in some ways and terribly weak in others. She stays with Gordon, an incredibly smart and incredibly jealous, through many altercations that a stronger person wouldn't have accepted.
Houston's mother was an actress and demanded her daughter be "thin and perfectly made up." I believe actor's are mostly insecure people pleasers who possess many problems the second the camera gets turned off. Maybe her mother's lifestyle of acting gave Houston the personality that led her to write many stories about self-reliance and love.
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