Best Friends

Picked this book up at the Salvation army for 50 cents thinking it would be a simple read, beach genre. So far it has proven to be rich, textured, absorbing, complicated. Everything you'd hope for in beach fodder.

Another reviewer wrote that she enjoyed these books which relied on character development rather than plot driven. I realized the same goes for me.

Dragged on a little too long. Took me longer to finish that expected. I liked the characters then disliked them and was ambivalent (ambi) at the end.

Oberlin College, Ohio, 1973 - When Clare Mann arrives at Oberlin, she is absolutely ecstatic to be on her own finally. She lives in a small Ohio town somewhere between Akron and Youngstown, but the novelty of being even an hour away from home thrills her. Clare first meets Sally Rose - a transplant from Los Angeles - at freshman orientation and they are basically thrown together as college roommates.

Clare, the daughter of a Protestant, working-class family from Ohio, has never met anyone like her new roommate, Sally. Wealthy and beautiful; and Jewish, Sally is barely emancipated from her close-knit Los Angeles family, and has led an otherwise sheltered life. She is utterly foreign to the hard-working, jaded Clare - and utterly show more fascinating.

Clare's fascination with Sally only intensifies, when she brings Clare home to Los Angeles to meet the Rose family. Sid Rose, Sally's father, is charismatic, charming; the owner of a profitable business which is shrouded in secrecy. He is almost as compelling a figure to Clare as he is to his own daughter. California seems like a veritable paradise after spending winters in Ohio; and soon Clare begins to look forward to these visits with an almost desperate enthusiasm; to the numerous carefree rides in Sally's Kharmann Ghia and the seemingly endless lazy days spent poolside.

Despite their many differences, the free-spirited Clare and a frequently homesick Sally soon overcome their mutual bafflement with each other to form an extraordinary friendship; a complicated, but tenacious bond that endures through the years. As the years pass, Clare becomes a doctor and Sally a lawyer; but they always remain roommates at heart, just a plane ride or a phone call away. Marriages and divorces, births and deaths do not separate them; but secrets just might - for as Clare watches, the Rose family begins to slowly disintegrate before her eyes. And the things she knows are the kinds of things that no one ever wants to tell a best friend.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; the story was totally engrossing and I almost didn't want it to end. With the various plot twists, intrigue, secrets and intricate family dynamics, this story held my interest right until the end. As I've said before, I always enjoy reading stories about families, and most especially about the enduring friendships between women.

I give Best Friends by Martha Moody an A+! This is Ms. Moody's debut novel, and I'm delighted to say that I have her next book - The Office of Desire - somewhere on my bookshelf as well. In my opinion, she is quite an excellent writer. show less

At the end of each school year in high school, I would go to the Borders near my house, make a list of all the books I wanted to read, and check them all out from the library. I put Best Friends by Martha Moody on that list around six years ago, and I just got around to reading it.

Moody tells the story of two girls who attend college at Oberlin in 1973 and are paired as roommates their freshman year. Sally Rose from California and Clare Mann from Ohio could not be bigger opposites. Their personalities seem to be backwards, based on the states they each call home--Clare is a hippie reactionary and Sally is likened to an innocent farm girl. They form a deep friendship, though, and this book follows their relationship from college through show more the changing times to their early forties.

Clare is intrigued by the Roses' seeming perfection, confidence, and strong bond, and she visits Sally often. California, to Clare, has an enchanting quality that gives her a sense of belonging she never felt back in Ohio. After college, Clare becomes a lawyer, Sally an AIDS doctor. Both have failed marriages, complicated relationships. The one constant in each of their lives is the friendship. Told from Clare's perspective, the novel follows the lives of each woman through husbands, children, and family troubles. As the years pass and Clare becomes closer to the Rose family, she gets entangled in their secrets that could potentially damage her friendship with Sally, and watches as this family that once seemed to hold a mythical perfection crumbles to human proportions.

Moody writes with one of my favorite styles; she focuses on detailed character development and relationships rather than following a plot with a simple introduction, climax, and conclusion. She allows the reader to get to know these characters over a long period of time, and we can observe their personal growth. We understand the decisions they make and their relationship with each other. I thought Moody perfectly illustrated the thin lines that exist in friendship--knowing when to keep your mouth shut, remaining supportive despite difference of opinion about another's decisions. Clare constantly found herself in these situations with Sally, having to ask, "At what point is honesty worth risking the friendship?"

Though a fairly long novel (around 500 pages), I got through it pretty quickly, because I was always drawn into the lives of these characters. While reading, I was wondering if I was going to end up liking or disliking it, on a whole. I mean, I must have enjoyed it to some degree since I kept reading, but I came to the realization that I did not really care for either of the characters. Neither had qualities that made them especially likable, though I didn't dislike them either. Overall, it was the style that kept me interested--getting a glimpse into these people's lives and constantly wanting to know what happens next. Sadly, like with every novel written in this style, no ending ever feels adequate, because you don't want to stop reading while you know the characters are still living. show less

This tells the story of Clare and Sally who met as freshmen at Oberlin College in the early 70s. Clare is from Ohio and Sally is from California. They become best friends and Clare goes to visit Sally quite a bit during college and shortly after college. They weather marriages, divorces, deaths and births together. Clare becomes a doctor and works with AIDS patients while Sally becomes an attorney. They may not live near each other but they are always a phone call (and/or a flight) away.

The book was well-written and the story was intriguing.

I was really into the book in the beginning. I resopected the author so much for keeping the story very true to life but towards the middle I just lost interest. Too many things kept happening and it started to read like a summary of events.

I loved the way this story was formulated. I loved the difference between the two characters and how they played off of each other and often were baffled by one another. The views into the different lives of the characters, seeing how their life experiences shaped their natures as the book went on. It was a very dramatic story, perhaps overly so, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.

An "OK" read. Although I found it gloomy the story did have characters that will stay with me for a while. The story spans the decades of friendship after these college roommates meet through weddings, divorces, children and deaths loved ones.