Claire is a doctor. Sally is a lawyer. Claire grew up in a middle
class, two-income family in Ohio. Sally was raised in California,
the privileged benefactress of her father's magazine empire. The
girls meet for the first time in the fall of 1973, when they become
roommates and best friends at the start of their freshman year at
Oberlin College. Their friendship lasts for the rest of their
lives.

The two women maintain close ties throughout college, then medical
school, interning and, finally, private practice for Claire; law
school then trial work for Sally. Claire visits Sally as often as
possible and becomes an honorary member of her family.

As they grow up, each of them begins to understand that she's been
sheltered and naïve, albeit in different ways. Separately,
they work through their individual myopia and face the loss of
personal "innocence," with support, understanding, and love from
each other.

The girls idolize their fathers, and when they are forced to cope
with the knowledge of each man's transgressions --- Claire's is an
embezzler; Sally's is a pornographer --- they help one another
adjust to the fact that "daddy" is not perfect. They go on to share
the realizations of the different but undeniable realities of their
dysfunctional families; together, they traverse the rough terrain
created by the pain of their messy marriages and sad divorces, and
share the joys and pain of motherhood.

Throughout the process of stretching toward individuation and the
movement toward becoming mature, whole and independent women, these
two remain completely loyal to each other. They are professionals
and they are wives and they are mothers, every phase evolving in
its own time, each woman maturing at her own pace.

BEST FRIENDS is Martha Moody's first novel. The story is told by
Claire, in a narrative that takes the form of short, diary-like
entries. Thus, the novel has no chapters. Rather, it is separated
by several long sections; these devices are clumsy and make for a
choppy disjointed read. The reader may find themselves having to
look back a page or two to keep the links straight, because unlike
an epistolary novel or one written as a journal, here the past and
present collide and bump up against each other without clear
definition.

Moody is best known for her short stories. Perhaps her gift for
writing short fiction is what prevents this novel from rising above
its very banal core. She seems to have simply inflated that short
form, and in doing so, unfortunately damages what could have been a
truly interesting and evocative story. Moody has missed the
opportunity to create a novel that is a testament to the special
friendship between two very different female characters. The
plethora of unnecessary details and formidable redundancies reduces
BEST FRIENDS to just another "chick" book. With more editing, this
novel might have gained the status and depth found in so many
enduring and important novels about the strengths and marvels of
women's friendships.