Going to Bend: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Everything there is to know about Hubbard, a small tourist town on the hard-weather coast of Oregon, is succinctly rendered in the first two paragraphs of Diane Hammond's Going to Bend. The real story begins in the third paragraph: "In this town ...lived two women..."
Since an accidental seating arrangement in third grade, Petie (Patricia) Coolbaugh and Rose Bundy have been best friends. Each is 31 years old now. The stark differences between the two and a clear summary of their long relationship are nailed-down-solid in a few well-crafted sentences.
From that point forward, a remarkably poignant story unfolds - but ever-so-gently; easing the reader slowly into a vice-grip awareness of hidden circumstances that made Petie and Rose the formidable survivors they are today - and poised them to soon make decisions that would change their lives forever.
In case it's helpful to anyone: thrillers are my usual choice (you know, the books that grab you by the throat on page one and nearly choke you to death on adrenaline before you find out who did it, on the last page.) While Going to Bend is absolutely nothing like that, it's intriguing and even thrilling at a whole different level. Hammond's incredibly skillful writing, interesting characters, and very good story pulled me in quickly and held me tightly until the last wonderful sentence. Along the way I smiled a lot and, every now and then, had to press a hand to my aching heart - and blink back tears - so I could go on reading. Today, a month after finishing the book, Petie and Rose are as easily and fondly remembered as any of my real-life friends.
Diane Hammond is a great story teller.


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In the small coastal town of Hubbard, Oregon, your man may let you down, your boss may let you down, life may let you down . . . but your best friend never will.Welcome to Hubbard, where Petie Coolbaugh and Rose Bundy have been best friends since childhood. Now in their early thirties, both are grappling to come to terms with their age and station in life. As they struggle to make ends meet and provide for their children and the good-hearted but unreliable men in their lives, they takejobs cooking for a brand-new upscale restaurant, Souperior's Cafe, starting from scratch every morning to produce gallons of fresh soup from local recipes. The proprietors of the cafe, Nadine and Gordon, are fraternal twins from Los Angeles with adjustments of their own to make, but Rose's warmth and the quality of the women's soups quickly make them indispensable despite Petie's abrupt manner and prickly ways.The strains of daily life are never far, however, and the past takes its toll on the women. Petie's childhood as the daughter of the town drunk—a subject she won't talk about—keeps her at a distance from even her best friend, until an unexpected romance threatens to crack her tough exterior. And despite Rose's loving personality, the only man in her life is a loner fisherman who spends only a few months of the year in town. In this fishing village, friends are for life and love comes in the most unexpected ways. As the novel draws together lovers, husbands, employers, friends, and family, each woman finds possibilities for love and even grace that she had never imagined.

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