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Best Friends
by Martha Moody
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Riverhead Trade (2002-06-04)
ISBN: 1573229350
EAN: 9781573229357
Dewey Decimal #: 813.6
Binding/Media: Paperback - 496 pages
Edition: Spine Lean
Release Date: 2002-06-04
SKU: 70916310
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Sold with pride. No writing, no highlighting. Copy in very good condition with normal reading wear.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"You'll definitely see elements of yourself and your girlfriends in this terrific novel," is how Redbook described Best Friends-which may explain why this first novel from an unknown author has been quietly building to a surprising hardcover success. It's the kind of book that is shared among friends, an instantly familiar and emotionally immediate story of two women who become college roommates, confidantes, and friends for life.
Clare, from a working-class Protestant family, has never met anyone like Sally: wealthy, pretty, and Jewish, barely emancipated from her close-knit Los Angeles family. Over the decades, Clare is drawn deeper into the circle of Sally's family-until she uncovers the kind of secret that no one wants to tell a best friend.
"A valentine to the staying power of women's friendships." (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
"She captures the feel of things, the complexity of human lives, and the ability of time to expose and to heal." (Josephine Humphreys, author of Nowhere Else on Earth)
"So freshly observed and gifted with such a powerful sense of the ravages of time that it feels utterly new...The book never loses its edge, at once compassionate and humorous." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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Customer Reviews
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A Valentine card perhaps, but nothing sweet inside.
Rating  (3)
Date: 2010-06-28
I tried so hard to love this book, especially as it was given to me by my best friend as a summer read. She and I agree that although it is somewhat painful to get there, the realization at the end is worth the journey. I am referring to (stop reading now if you don't want to know what happens) the fact that Sally is always looking to be part of a unit through her various relationships with men. At the end she finally realizes that the unit she is part of is the connection between her and her best friend. This is a valid point for many women, as it is for my best friend and I.
That being said, I did not like the odd possessiveness Clare feels for Sally, it did not ring true for me at all. I also did not understand the complete lack of moral structure the women seem to share while judging the other continuously. The whole story of Ben just gave me the creeps. I certainly felt the twist--if there was supposed to be one--was obvious. As soon as one hears the term "magazine distributor" one knows it's going to be porn, at least I did.
I guess I'm saying I liked the message, but didn't get much out of the medium. I'll pass on her other books. The excerpt from Office of Desire didn't leave me wanting more. Thanks for the card, but next time I want candy, too.
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Entertaining and human!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-09-15
I found this novel very entertaining and human. The main theme is about the friendship between Clare, a native of Ohio, and Sally, a native from LA. Both are first roommates at Oberlin College in the early 1970s and form a friendship that lasts many years. I was completely drawn in reading about these two women's characters, the family turmoils, marriages, divorces, children and also about the many topical issues of the 1970s through the 1990s, e.g. the drug use, gay rights movement, HIV/AIDS, suicide, pornography, etc.
Joyce Akesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions and The Invitation
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An engrossing novel of enduring friendship
Rating  (4)
Date: 2009-08-24
I'm surprised to see the many negative reviews of this novel; I found it quite engrossing and thoroughly enjoyed it. The book centers around two women, Clare, a native of Ohio, and Sally, who is from LA but who looks more like a mid-westerner herself. The story is told from Clare's perspective, starting with when she is first introduced to Sally as one of her three roommates at Oberlin College in the early 1970s. Initially, Clare finds Sally a bit odd, but the two somehow find their way past their differences to form a connection--one that lasts beyond college and through various factors which threaten to draw them apart, including actual distance, family turmoil, marriages, divorces, and children.
First-time author Moody does a nice job in carving out the characters of Clare and Sally. At times, both women make decisions that are frustrating, and both can come across as unlikeable, yet both maintain a basic relatedness that is likely to drawn forth empathy from most female readers. Moody also has a habit of foreshadowing plot elements in advance--there are times when she actually tells the reader what is going to happen before it does, a writing device that some members of her audience may not appreciate. Yet there were times when I found myself to be completely surprised by twists of the storyline as well. One final objection that some might have with this book is that virtually every topical issue of the 1970s through the 1990s--for example, drug use, the gay rights movement, HIV/AIDS, Karen Carpenter's death, suicide, the pornography industry--finds its way into this book somehow. Personally, I thought Moody handled these cultural references well, but others might think she tried to do too much.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and even though it was a bit long for a novel of this type (almost 500 pages!), I found myself engaged until the very end. My final rating is 4 1/2 stars.
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Incredibly Depressing
Rating  (2)
Date: 2009-07-26
I like reading about friendship between women but this one was too long, too heavy and too much going on with not enough substance regarding the friendship. You have one girl, Clare, from the Midwest, who just is an enabler for her best friend, Sally, a rich girl from California. Sally's family falls apart and Clare is always there for her but she never tells her friend to stop dealing with drugs, enabling her brother then her father and more.
What started out to be a promising premise of a novel became this snare trap of so many subjects: unfaithful men, children, drugs, heroin usage, pornography, AIDS, gay/bisexual sex/relationships, and absolutely nothing positive or redeeming of these two women especially by the end of the book. Like an idiot, I kept plodding through the book hoping for something positive ... and nope. It was just not a good book to read. This book is definitely going into the good will bin.
Don't get me wrong. I love lengthy novels and love reading them but this one failed to interest me at all. It was just too long and too far from the point that I am still struggling to remember what it is about those two women who had everything at their feet in college only to wind up single, divorced, harried mothers so far removed from their dreams of their youth. It is one of the most depressing novels I have ever read. Definitely not recommended.
7/25/09
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Flat Characters
Rating (2)
Date: 2009-06-25
A book about enduring friendship through the years sounded like my kind of summer read! I really wanted to like this book, and really tried to.
My biggest issue was that the characters were flat. I don't know that I even liked the main character, but honestly, I felt like I hardly knew her. I don't know if I've ever read a book where I've walked away feeling like I couldn't relate to the protagonist in some small way. Even though I read the entire book, Claire is still a stranger to me. I never warmed up to her.
Secondly, the book tries to pack in a lot of "issues" to keep the plot moving and interesting. Sex, drugs, AIDS, murder, homosexuality, single parenthood, divorce, suicide, STDs, dementia, infidelity...it's all there. And it's too much. The driving force of the plot was not the characters and their relationship to each other, but various crises strung together.
Lastly, I'm not even sure why Claire and Sally are friends. There are no touching scenes between them that give the reader a glimpse at their bond. It seems to be a friendship of convienence...neither seems to have any other real friends besides each other.
I was hoping this book would be like Judy Blume's Summer Sisters. If you're looking for a book about the bonds of female friendship, try that book instead.
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