I love any book by Maeve..wasn't disappointed with this one either! ( )

This is the first Maeve Binchy novel I've read. I vacillated between wanting to read more and wishing the book would end - I believe the latter sentiment held more strong. Basically the novel was a series of short stories strung together by the idea that a road was to be built through the local town. Some townies wanted the road, others did not. Once one story would be told, the next tended to build on the last with characters and events, but periodically new characters were introduced. ( )

A series of short stories in pairs from two points of view, centering on people visiting St. Anne's Well, where it is believed wishes will come true. Many good, kind people in the stories. Feel Good. ( )

This isn't so much a novel as a series of very loosely connected short stories. The stories come in pairs, with the second one, told from another point of view, illuminating or expanding upon the first one. Though I haven't been too enthralled with Binchy's more recent works, in Whitethorn Woods, she's back at what she does so well - telling the stories of very ordinary people, their loves and tragedies and heartbreaks, in her poignant yet grounded, down-to-earth style. Her characters frequently have quietly unhappy lives, but they also frequently have lives filled with great, and often unexpected, friendships, families, and loves. Her skilled handling of this juxtaposition is what makes Binchy such a comforting read.The large number of characters can be confusing at times, and those who want an actual novel might be better served by going back to her earlier works. ( )

4 5 ( )

sweet. many, many stories-with happy endings brought about by St. Anne's well in Whitethorn Woods. ( )

I enjoyed this book, as I have all of Maeve Binchy's books. I didn't think, though, that it was one of her best. ( )

A series of short stories, that are linked. Interesting to see how this is done. A ggod read ( )

Characters lives of a small town in Ireland interweave through a proposed by-pass that will modernize the town, opposed by characters who find it disturbing to lose the trademark of the town...a holy shrine of Mary that will be destroyed by the bypass who's blessings have helped their lives.

I was a bit disappointed in this book It's almost like a book a short stories, with all these people connected somehow to Whitehorn, and St Ann's well. So at times with all the stories it was hard to keep track of all these characters. And there were alot of them! So it got really complicated. The last chapter she sort of tied up alot the stories though. But did leave some open. could be for more stories????
5/7/07 ( )

Whitethorn Woods is a fascinating story. It may sound boring on paper--a story about residents of an Irish town that is home to a special well. However, this book is anything but boring!

The people of Rossmore, Ireland pray to St. Ann's Well for healings, blessings, and relationship advice. As they pray, their lives are opened to the readers. These are the stories of everyday men and women who are looking for acceptance, love, and joy. Intrique and humor permeates this whole novel which cleverly links many of the characters together. You will definitely laugh out loud many times reading this book.

The ending is perfect and settles the story well. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Irish living or really just anyone who wants to laugh and laugh! :) ( )

This is more of a collection of short stories with a common theme rather than a novel. It's easy to pick up and put down. ( )

As the section headings indicate, Maeve Binchy's most recent book is all about "The Road, The Woods and the Well." The Road in question is a new bypass around the town of Rossmore, Ireland. The Woods are the Whitethorn Woods of the title which the proposed road will go right through. And the Well , located within Whitethorn Woods, is a shrine to St. Anne that will be completely destroyed if the road is built.

St. Anne's Well has touched many people over the years. There is great disagreement as to the holy and/or magical properties of the cave and it's ancient statue. The whitethorn bushes at its entrance are adorned with the petitions of it's visitors. Prayers and pictures, bits of paper pinned to the branches by the hundreds. The bypass is progress - the new, the convenient. The well is history, the mystical, the ancient. One will surely destroy the other if it is allowed to come to pass.

The story is told by many voices, each chapter a different character. All have some link to the town of Rossmore. Some live there, some were born there, some have visited and some have done desperate things there. Each character's bit of the story leads in some way to the next snippet. The chapters are also organized in pairs where the consecutive chapters are a husband and wife or a brother and sister or friends and you are privileged with two viewpoints of roughly the same story. The whole thing sounds like a very complicated way to tell a story. The delightful thing is that it is not at all a complicated or difficult way to read a story. I found that as each person's bit of the story unfolded, I had no problem remembering their relationship to previous characters and tales. The story almost blooms in the mind, each piece adding to the whole picture at a comfortable, easy pace, jolted here and there with the staccato of shocking enlightenments. It is Maeve Binchy at her best. ( )

Instead of her usual saga, Maeve Binchy presents Whitethorn Woods as a collection of paired short stories sandwiched between sections of unifying narrative. The stories all involve people somehow connected with the Irish town of Rossmore and St. Anne’s Well located in the nearby Whitethorn Woods. Pilgrims visit the well and its shrine to ask St. Anne (the mother of the Virgin Mary) for help in all sorts of matters, but particularly regarding marriage and children.

Each story is told in two parts, from the perspective of two different narrators. The characters in all the stories are intertwined – sometimes substantially, sometimes only tangentially. Lengthy sections at the beginning, middle, and end involve the local priest and his family and tie the book together, as does the debate over building a by-pass through the Woods and tearing down the shrine.

Like all of Binchy’s books, this is not a thrill-a-minute page turner. But the characters are well-formed and their stories are deftly told. A good read. ( )

Individual stories tied into a road and a Saint's well ( )

This book is about the small town of Rossmore, Ireland and the decision of its people to allow or disallow a new road to be built bypassing their town and going straight through St. Ann's Well. The well is a place that people from all over the world come to pray at. The book touches on the Church and how there are two fields of thought one being that you should not pray to a "false god" and the other being if the people think it works, leave well enough alone. The book is very fragmented and not in a style of writing I prefer. You start by reading 1 chapter of story and then 5 chapters of individual character profiles, then another chapter of story and several more character profile chapters. It does not have enough total, all-encompassing storyline for my likes and I found myself constantly putting it down. I finally after 1 month gave up halfway into the book. I am now passing it on to my sister, maybe she can get through it. ( )

Good to read ( )

Unfortunately, this is one of the worst Maeve Binchy books I have read (and I read most of them). The writing is easy and pleasant, but I really did not like the build-up of the book: first there are short stories, always in pairs, about two people looking at the same issue from their own point of view (so, that's interesting). However, this goes on and on with different people every time. All of them has some connection with a small Irish town, Rossmore, but only sometimes people from one story are mentioned again in a different one, in passing. Then in the end, "it all comes together", where most (?) people are briefly mentioned again, with a good ending to their story. However, by then, I had more or less forgotten what most of these people's stories were, so that meant the end wasn't as good as it could have been. I should also mention that I am not a great short story fan, and I could only just bring up enough patience to finish the whole book. That said, the other books of Maeve Binchy I have always found a pleasure to read, so my not-so-like of this book is a one-off. ( )

Excellent! ( )

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This novel was a quick read, but a good one. It was written by Maeve Binchy last year. As with all her novels, it is set in Ireland. It tells fragments of stories of people with some connection to the small town of Rossmore and its well dedicated to St. Ann, which is very popular amongst women praying for husbands, babies and the like. The well and the Whitethorn woods in which it lays are being threatened by a new bypass and the local population is divided about the plans. Add to that a number descendants of Irish emigrants returning to their ‘homeland’ and the disappearance of a child and you know it is an interesting mix of personal problems.The fragments of people’s viewpoints are intriguing because you don’t know how it relates to the others and so this is a book you can’t easily put down. ( )

Because of the short story set up, this didn't have a lot of depth, but it was an enjoyable read. ( )

Talk about mediocre--that pretty much describes this book. I hadn't read one of Maeve's books in awhile and thought I would give her another chance. Sheesh! It was disjointed, predictable, and full of the miserable people going about their hopeless lives. Hell, if I wanted that sort of thing I would just watch the news every nite. ( )

I kept waiting for one story to have some depth. No sooner do I get a profile of one character, she moves on to the next. Too many story lines. If I wanted a book of short stories I would have picked one. Very light read. ( )

Whitethorn Woods is presented as a novel but is in fact a delightful collection of short stories linked by a shrine to St Ann which weaves in the fore or back ground. Each story presents various characters, teenagers, single moms, kindly fathers, retired folks and much more to create a rich and endearing tapestry of humanity. ( )

I was a bit disappointed in this book. Usually I LOVE her books. It's almost like a book of short stories, about all these people connected some how to Whitehorn and St Ann's well, which is suppose to answer prayers, make miricles. So at times it was hard to keep track of allll these many stories and all these characters. The last chapter she tried to tie all of the charcters stories up, but not all. ( )