The following review was contributed by NORM GOLDMAN EDITOR OF BOOKPLEASURES

Reading Ethan Watters' Urban Tribes is like watching an investigative report analyzing the characters and groups depicted in sitcoms such as Friends or Seinfeld. When I watch these shows I often ask myself, do similar groups or relationships actually exist in the real world?

Apparently, they are alive and kicking, and Watters cleverly has named these groups “Urban Tribes,” of which he personally was a member. When you consider all of the facts that shape these groups, the author has convincingly shown that they are in fact an important trend, although they have their advantages and disadvantages.

The author tells us that the members of his group had a relationship with him; however, they also had distinct relationships with each other. “These relationships created an intricate web of lives that added up to more than the sum of the friendships. It was not a loose group of friends but a single entity of which he personally was a critical part.” The group activities that they enjoyed was not the only element that kept them together, there was more to it. In fact, Watters does confess that he initially erred in describing these groups and had probably fallen into the trap of simplistically trying to define them.

Looking at these groups from the outside, it is difficult to conceive of them as a national trend. After all, there is no membership rolls, official meetings, no organization sponsoring them, no money to be made in their promotion, or as the author succinctly states, “whatever forces created urban tribes seemed not to come out of a conscious, directed process.”

Groups also differ among themselves when it comes to cultural style and interests. They seem to come in all sizes and shapes, and their members take on different roles that are expressions of their personal characters within the group’s setting.

What seemed, however, to be common to many of these groups is the loyalty, the support, the caring for each other, the devotion, the encouragement and the safety net they provide for one another. Many members are at a stage of their life between post-college and marriage that sometimes can be daunting and they crave for the comfort and emotional shelter the tribe can offer them.

Watters does not purport to be a sociologist or anthropologist, however his microscopic examination of this complex subject matter mixed with his own personal story makes for a compelling read.

In addition, the topic raises some very interesting questions that I am sure many readers will want to explore further in order to arrive at a better understanding of their own relationships and urban tribes they may belong to.