on friendship (the book)

Though I finished reading Friendship by Joseph Epstein over a month ago, it’s been taking me a while to get around to posting my comments... While overall the book made for an entertaining read that did indeed meet up to its largely positive reviews, at first, I thought Epstein’s casual style of writing in Friendship was a bit cheesy. But either I stopped noticing his annoying way of addressing the reader, or it wasn’t as explicit as the book progressed, since I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and not because it was particularly insightful (it was more about Epstein’s particular friendships than anything else), but because Epstein both has and has had some pretty interesting friendships, and I always find it interesting to read confirmations of things I already know. For instance:

According to the received opinion of the day, women are better at friendship than are men.

And of course,

In any competition between friendship and marriage, friendship loses every time.

And,

"Friendship and marriage- and-family are mutually exclusive alternatives," Leon Kass has written in an essay titled "The Beginning of Wisdom. ..."

But I was confused by this one (is this a common enough male fantasy?):

In his friendships with women, he (Hemingway) seemed to want the common enough male fantasy, a lover with a man's mind and a women's body.