{"id":157531,"date":"2026-04-08T15:55:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=157531"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:55:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:55:33","slug":"square-books-presents-andrew-mccarthy-for-who-needs-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/square-books-presents-andrew-mccarthy-for-who-needs-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Square Books presents Andrew McCarthy for &#8220;Who Needs Friends&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ticketed event, Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 5.30pm @ Off Square Books<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>This is a ticketed event. Each attendee must purchase a ticket to gain entry. Tickets cost $35 and include entry for one person, and one signed first edition copy of <\/strong><\/em><strong>Who Needs Friends<\/strong><em><strong>. All tickets must be bought online. They are not for sale in-store.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Join us as we welcome <strong>Andrew McCarthy<\/strong> for <strong><em>Who Needs Friends<\/em>,<\/strong> a moving and provocative exploration of male friendship and loneliness, from the bestselling author, filmmaker, and actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t really have any friends, do you, Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A seemingly innocuous, if direct, question from Andrew McCarthy\u2019s son left him reeling. McCarthy did have friends, but like so many other men, the necessities of modern adult life had forced his friendships to the background. At one point his friends had been instrumental in broadening his horizons, bolstering his courage, providing safe harbor. Now, McCarthy found himself questioning what had happened to those friendships, whether he needed them, what he valued, and what he had to offer. A simple question had become a moment that demanded a reckoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Who Needs Friends<\/em> charts McCarthy\u2019s journey over nearly ten thousand miles behind the wheel, following him on often-unexpected travels through <strong>Appalachia<\/strong>, the <strong>Mississippi Delta<\/strong>, the <strong>Chihuahuan Desert<\/strong>, the <strong>Rocky Mountains <\/strong>with one driving purpose: to reconnect. Along the way he talks to countless men about their male friendships, from cowboys and blues musicians to preachers and rootless teens. What began as a simple desire to catch up with a few friends turned into a deep exploration of the challenges and rewards that men experience in forming bonds with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In McCarthy\u2019s own words, \u201cIt turns out that guys have a difficult time with friendship.\u201d But that\u2019s not the<br>way it needs to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrew McCarthy is the author of four books, <em><strong>Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain<\/strong><\/em>, <em><strong>Brat: An &#8217;80s Story<\/strong><\/em>, <em><strong>Just Fly Away<\/strong><\/em>, and <em><strong>The Longest Way Home<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 all <em><strong>New York Times<\/strong><\/em> best sellers. He is an award-winning travel writer and served for a dozen years as an editor-at-large at <em><strong>National Geographic Traveler<\/strong><\/em>. Best known as an actor for the past four decades, Andrew has appeared in such iconic films as <em><strong>Pretty in Pink <\/strong><\/em>and <strong><em>Less Than Zero<\/em><\/strong>. He lives in <strong>New York<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"292\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Who_Needs_Friends_Hero-1024x467.png?resize=640%2C292&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-157534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Who_Needs_Friends_Hero.png?resize=1024%2C467&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Who_Needs_Friends_Hero.png?resize=300%2C137&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Who_Needs_Friends_Hero.png?resize=768%2C350&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Who_Needs_Friends_Hero.png?w=1500&amp;ssl=1 1500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Who_Needs_Friends_Hero.png?w=1280 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ticketed event, Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 5.30pm @ Off Square Books This is a ticketed event. Each<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":157533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4934,14439,8428],"tags":[34021,34022,28167,34023,34025,34027,34026,34024,34020,34019],"class_list":["post-157531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-local-books","category-local-event","tag-a-son","tag-and-five-hundred-miles-across-spain","tag-andrew-mccarthy","tag-brat-an-80s-story","tag-just-fly-away","tag-less-than-zero","tag-pretty-in-pink","tag-the-longest-way-home","tag-walking-with-sam-a-father","tag-who-needs-friends"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Andrew-McCarthy-Explores-Male-Friendship-and-Loneliness-In-New-Book-Who-Needs-Friends-092325-56065ed076c048c7aebabbf5f3318853.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157531"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157566,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157531\/revisions\/157566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}