Review: She sees ghosts. What can they teach her about grief?
"Waiting on a Friend" is Natalie Adler's first novel but, already, I'd argue she can do what greats like Ann Patchett, Patrick Ryan and Celeste Ng do.
Their novels don't fit in any genre but they are both substantive and a breeze to read, have something to say but also lots of humor and feature compelling characters but are driven by those characters actually doing things (i.e., a plot). They're novels that you - well, I - whip through faster than you might like but that leave plenty to think about afterward. Adler is more profane than those other writers and has a more anarchic sense of humor, but I tore through "Waiting" and then regretted that she doesn't have more books I can read. So far.
Adler conveys such a strong sense of time and place in "Waiting on a Friend" that it's tempting to think the novel is autobiographical. But it's set in New York's East Village in the mid-1980s, when I suspect Adler was not yet born. Still, there's something uncannily dead-on about her gritty descriptions, plentiful needle drops (the title is borrowed from the Rolling Stones hit; Adler posted a playlist, full of period songs by Sylvester and New Order) and keen sense of the love/hate relationship her characters have with the pain-filled world they live in.
Maybe the most impressive thing about Adler's book is how accurately she captures the atmosphere of unknowing created by the early days of HIV: "[W]e read that anyone could get it through a blood transfusion. Rewind a few months and they had said it was something only gay men got through sex. You can see how it's hard to keep the timeline straight, what we knew when."
Renata, a 29-year-old lesbian, is the main character, and the book matter-of-factly accepts something about her: She can see dead people. The era in which Renata lives charges that ability with extra pathos because AIDS is killing many of her loved ones. In fact, her best friend and former roommate Mark has just died and, although Renata is ambivalent about the ghosts she encounters, she desperately wants Mark to appear and help her resolve some things.
Passionate and crabby, Renata is a strong cup of coffee and an entertaining narrator, as in this description of why she's weirdly perfect for her job at a vintage shop: "Not knowing what was in fashion made me perfect for the job, because no matter what the customers chose, I had enough disinterest on my face to make them want to impress me."
She's also a relatable character because, although most of us don't see ghosts, she's trying to figure out things all of us wonder about: What do we owe the dead? How does grief work? Are there healthy ways to prepare ourselves and our loved ones for the inevitable?
It's not always clear if the ghosts are helping Renata with these questions but Adler makes it clear that she has figured out a few things, as in this bit of hard-won intelligence: "I didn't really learn how to grieve after my mother died - you just hurt and hurt and eventually someone asks you what you want for dinner and the rent is due."
"Waiting on a Friend" is not perfect. It leans too hard on musical references, and a lovely scene in which Renata sees ghosts on a dance floor loses some of its power if you note its similarity to the finale of the movie "Longtime Companion." But it's a terrific read and an exciting promise of more to come.
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Waiting on a Friend
By: Natalie Adler.
Publisher: Hogarth, 278 pages.
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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 12:59 AM.